ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

Childhood obesity is becoming a serious health problem. According to publications the number of overweight children has more than doubled over the past decade with over 25% of children being obese. Obese children are more likely to become obese adults which increases the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Being a physical education teacher, I have observed that obesity is a concern for a number of youth in our school. In this unit the students will study the Food Guide Pyramid. I would like for the students to learn about nutrition and how it affects their health. This unit will help strengthen my students’ ability to make healthy food choices. I will use the state standards as a guide for my activities to help my students learn about the Food Guide Pyramid. Habits are estabilished in childhood and prevention begins in childhood. Teaching children to select well-balanced diets, encouraging physical activity and supporting a positive self-image are gifts that last a lifetime

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: I want my students to understand that choosing to eat foods from the Food Guide Pyramid will enhance health for quality of life Goal(s): Students will understand that choosing foods from the Food Guide Pyramid will increase their overall health. Students will be able to make good food choices by knowing how to read food labels. Students will develop good habits that will last a lifetime

Questions Answered

Essential questions: What is the Food Guide Pyramid? Why can reading food labels guide us when choosing foods for a healthy diet? How can we determine what snacks are healthy? How can we change our diet to better meet the guidelines of the Food Guide Pyramid? How can we help spread the word about good nutrition? How can we choose foods to make a healthy menu for a 5-day period? Objectives: After discussion about the Food Guide Pyramid the students will be able to make good choices in their diets. After discussion on reading food labels students will be able to choose healthy snacks. After reading food labels students will be able to prepare healthy snacks for themselves. Students will be made aware of their food choices by keeping a log of their daily food intake for a five day period. After discussion on good nutrition students will be able to make better choices that follow the Food Guide Pyramid.. After discussion and research on the Food Guide Pyramid the students working in groups will develop and display posters promoting healthy food choices. After discussing and evaluating a menu the students will have an opportunity to write menus. 

Assessment

What quiz and test items e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? The students will take a quiz and a test including vocabulary words, matching, short answer and true or false questions. They will be given a percentage grade on their work. What academic prompts e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding? The students will be doing a lot of research on good eating habits. The students will be sharing what they have learned in their projects they have completed by displaying them around the classroom, school and lunch room. They will learn that good eating habits will carry into their adult lives. What performance tasks and projects e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding? The projects the students will be making will reflect what they believe to be true about good nutrition. They will be evaluating their own eating habits and comparing them to the Food Guide Pyramid. These findings will be used to develop a compare/contrast paragraph. The pamphlets they make will be presented to the elementary grades. What other evidence e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect? All the projects that the students do will be turned in and assessed. The students will help devise a rubric that will be used to determine a grade. There will be classroom observations and individual discussions with students on their completed assignments.

Instructional Strategies

Students will use a combination of inquiry-based and problem-based learning to answer the question, “What are some different ways I can improve my diet?” Through research and discussion the students will learn about proper food choices that will affect them throughout life. Project-based learning will help students see the importance of good nutrition. Their knowledge of the Food Guide Pyramid will help them develop positive habits that will last a lifetime.