Lesson Overview Objectives: Students will be able to Learn about key nutrients that both plants & people need to grow and be healthy

Transcription

1 Nutrients of Life Grade Level: K-3 Green and Healthy Kids - Outdoors Topic 7: Gardening All food comes from the one and only planet we live on. So it s important to keep our planet clean and able to sustain life. Growing you own food can be a great way to learn about where your food comes from, what plants need to grow, and what parts of plants become the edible produce we find in the grocery store. Knowledge Outcome: Know that plants need clean water, air, nutrients, and sunlight to grow Behavior Outcome: Choose to eat fresh fruit as a snack at least once a day Lesson Overview Objectives: Students will be able to Learn about key nutrients that both plants & people need to grow and be healthy Preparation/Materials: Activity 1: Discussion Questions (listed below) & Chalkboard Activity 2: People and Plants Need Nutrients Worksheet & Chart handouts Activity 3: Chart handout from Activity 2 Procedure: Activity 1 (10 minutes): Nutrient Discussion & Demonstration Activity 2 (15 minutes): People and Plants Need Nutrients Worksheet & Chart Activity 3 (5 minutes): What s On Your Plate? Source: California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom ant%20nutrient%20team

2 Activity 1: Nutrients Discussion & Demonstration 1. Ask students if they know why it is important to eat healthy foods. Explain that healthy foods supply our bodies with the nutrients they need for energy, growth, and repair. 2. Ask students to help make a list of some healthy foods they can include in a meal or snack. Give an example of foods that are good sources of certain nutrients. For example, milk is a good source of calcium, oranges are a good source of vitamin C, and bananas are a good source of potassium. 3. Ask students if plants need food. Explain that plants, just like people, need food for energy, growth, and repair, but they do not eat food like people do. Instead, plants make their own food by capturing energy from sunlight to carry out a process called photosynthesis. Chlorophyll is the pigment inside leaves that gives them their green color and makes grass stains on your clothes. It helps plants absorb energy from the sun to make their own food. 4. Ask students to help you make a list on the board of what plants need in order to make their own food. --Write the words and draw the symbols for sun, water, and soil on the board. --Next, draw a simple plant on the board and show its roots growing down into the soil. Explain that most of the nutrients a plant needs come from the soil. Plants get these soil nutrients when their roots absorb them along with water.

3 Activity 2: Plants and People Need Nutrients 1. Inform your students that they will be learning about the nutrients that plants need in order to grow and provide healthy food for our diet. 2. Distribute the People and Plants Need Nutrients chart to each student. As a class, review the chart to discuss what nutrients are important to plants and people. 3. Use the worksheet attached below and have students pair off to answer the questions, or do it together as a class 4. Use the answer key to go over the correct answers together as a class Activity 3 (Take Home) 1. Have the students take home the People and Plants Need Nutrients chart and tell them to share it with their parents 2. Together with the parents, have the students identify which nutrients they will be having for dinner that night by coloring in the corresponding graphic for each nutrient section 3. Have them make a list of what they had for dinner, and which nutrient can be found in each food item they consumed & bring it to class the next day for a prize of your choosing

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