This is a lesson plan for teaching kids to watch how much they eat.
How much food do we need to eat? One way to measure food is by serving size. You can meaure with tools or with your hands and eyes. Another way to measure food is with calories. Many foods have calorie amounts written on the label. Either way you measure your food, pay attention to how full your tummy is. That is the best measurement of how much you need. This lesson will take about 15-25 minutes to teach.
Objective: Learn about measuring food
Objective: Kids will become familiar with ways of measuring food and think about how much their bodies need.
Materials:
- internet access
- a few different kinds of snacks with nutrition facts (enough all together for each kid to eat one at the end)
- measuring cups
- large bowls for pouring into
- dry foods to measure, such as cereal, rice, or beans
Teaching Method
Ask the kids how much food they need to eat. Listen to their ideas.
Tell them that their bodies need food several times a day to keep everything working well. Each time they eat, they should think about how much their bodies need. Each person might need a different amount depending on how big they are, whether they’re growing, and how much work their body has been doing.
You can measure food by serving size
On the nutrition facts of prepackaged food there are serving suggestions. It’s best to start with one serving at snack time, or one serving each of a three kinds of food at meal time. After that, pay attention to when you feel like you aren’t hungry any more. That’s when it’s time to stop eating.
Show the kids several snacks and talk to them about their serving suggestions. For example, a box of cereal may say that one serving is 3/4 of a cup. The serving suggestion for goldfish crackers is 55 pieces. The serving size for peanut butter is 2 Tablespoons.
Some snacks come already measured for us. For example, one apple, banana, pear, or other similar fruit is one serving. One package with a granola bar or one small package of pretzels is one serving.
Ask the kids to tell some snacks that they eat. Look up serving suggestion for a few of them and write them on the board.
You can measure food with calories
Very close to the serving suggestions on the nutrition facts is the calorie count. Calories mean how much energy food will give us. The number of calories shown is the amount of energy we will get by eating the suggested serving size.
At snack time, a child’s body needs about 100 calories, again depending on their age, size, and activity. After that, pay attention to when you feel like you aren’t hungry any more. That’s when it’s time to stop eating.
Practice Activities
(You may want to do these activities in small groups. Use your best judgment for your class.)
Activity 1) Measuring – Let kids practice measuring the dry food with the measuring cups and pouring it into bowls. Give them an assigned amount to measure, or just let them play with it, depending on their age.
Activity 2) Reading Calories – Give the kids a few different kinds of prepackaged snacks with nutrition facts. Help them find the number of calories for each. Have them order the snacks from the least amount of calories to the greatest.
Finish up
Tell the kids that how good a food tastes to us can make us want more or less, but we need to think about how much our bodies need to keep ourselves healthy. Have the kids do the color page and let them eat one of the snacks.
Watch for Food Lesson #3 coming soon!
Thanks for reading my post! Enjoy your adventure!
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