Carbohydrates 4 th 5 th Grade Lesson Plan

1 Carbohydrates 4 th 5 th Grade Lesson Plan Goal: Introduce carbohydrates, identify their sources, and recognize what they do in our bodies. Objectives: 1. Students will be able to identify which food groups contain carbohydrates. 2. Students will be able to distinguish between refined and whole grain products. 3. Students will be able to identify where carbohydrates are found on the nutrition label. Materials Needed Captain Carbohydrate poster Pictures of food from the grains group Grains are seeds poster Wheat stalk Grain anatomy poster Wheat berries Making bread pictures Grinding wheat seeds equipment White/whole wheat flour models Cheerios food label poster Whole Grain or Refined Grain? PowerPoint Why is the grains group important? Poster Flashlight Sugar/water cup Senorita sugar puppet Cheerios Construction paper strips and tape Paper clips or black construction paper Canned beans and broccoli Parent handouts Student handouts Taste test Lesson Talking Points Materials/Activities/Notes Review Who remembers what we talked about last time I was here? Who remembers the challenge I gave you last time I was here? Mind Grabber Everyone up! Let s do 15 jumping jacks. Okay, let s stretch to the sky, now stretch to your toes. Alright, calmly take a seat. Today we are going to talk about the nutrient superhero that is your body s primary or first choice, for energy the energy we needed to do our jumping jacks and stretches. Who can tell me which nutrient superhero it is? That s right Captain Carbohydrate. Discussion Captain Carbohydrate s superpower (role) for your body Carbohydrates have two important functions in the body: 1. Supply energy to the body the energy you need to Show students Captain Carbohydrate.

stay alive, move your body, grow, think and learn. Our bodies do get energy from two other nutrients found in the foods we eat but Carbohydrate is your bodies preferred choice. We get 4 calories per gram from carbohydrate foods. 2. Supply fiber to the body fiber is the part of a plant that can t be broken down by our digestive system. Fiber keeps our bellies and hearts working well. Carbohydrates come primarily from plants. They are so important that most experts recommend that at least ½ of the calories in our daily diets come from carbohydrates. Believe it or not, carbohydrates are found in 4 different food groups on MyPlate and a few foods in the 5 th food group. Carbohydrates are in the Grains, Fruits, Vegetables and Dairy groups. In the Protein food group carbohydrates are in beans but not the meat. Which of these food groups come from plants? Which one of these food groups comes from an animal? Eating foods from several food groups is a great way to make sure you are getting plenty of carbohydrates. Because the grain group is an excellent source of carbohydrates, let s begin this lesson by focusing on this group. What are some of the foods in the grain group? Examples include whole wheat bread, cereal, pasta, corn tortillas, muffins, popcorn, oatmeal, and crackers. Do grains come from plants or animals? Plants! In fact, grains are seeds. Take a look at this poster I brought in with me and see how many different grains there are that we can eat. There are even more grains than this that we can eat, but these are some of the most common. We make the many different Grains group foods you know and eat from these grains (or seeds), such as bread, cereal, and noodles. Some of them we cook and eat the seed itself, like rice and oats. Many foods are made from grains and as you saw in the poster, most of the grains look a lot alike. So, how do we get from these seeds (grains) of plants to the Grain group foods you eat? I m going to tell you that story and I m going to use wheat as the example but the story is true of any of the grains. Remember, there are many different grains to choose from and no matter which grain you eat, it will give you the energy that your body needs to keep going each day. Eating foods made from the different kinds of grains is healthy way to give your body the energy it needs. To tell the story, let s go back to the wheat seed or the kernel as it is sometimes called. Take a look at this wheat stalk. This is how wheat grows. I m going to walk around with the wheat stalk and I need you to be very quiet so that you can hear it when I tap it. What do you think is on the inside, making that noise? Seeds, wheat seeds! Each wheat stalk has 30-50 seeds on the inside! A wheat seed contains three parts: 1. Bran: The bran is what you see on the outside the other hard shell of the grain. It is the part of the seed that Using the MyPlate poster, point to each food group as they are mentioned to give the kids a visual. Show pictures of foods from the grains group. Show the Grains are Seeds poster with examples of real grains. Go over the poster and discuss the foods we get from each one of the seeds on the poster may also reinforce with picture or food models. Walk around with the wheat stalk and tap it for the students to hear. Show the students a bag of wheat seeds. Show students Grain Anatomy or seed model to illustrate the different parts of the seed. 2

provides the most fiber and B vitamins. 2. Germ: This is the baby plant. This part of the seed is packed with nutrients like vitamin E, some minerals, and antioxidants. 3. Endosperm: This is the soft, inner part of the grain. It contains some nutrients but not a lot. But, it does have a lot of the energy we get from these foods. Let s take a look at some real seeds. I have one wheat seed for each of you to examine. I want you all to be scientists and see if you can find all three parts of the seed. On the outside, you see the brown part, which is the protective coat, also called the bran. You can also see the baby plant beginning to sprout out of the seed. This is called the germ. Break open your seed and see what you find on the inside. The white part, also called the endosperm, is the food for the baby plant, which looks a bit like milk now that it is wet just like the food for baby people! Making Bread Does anyone know how we make bread from wheat seeds? First we have a picture of the wheat stalks growing in the field (picture 1). Notice that they are green. After a while, they turn brown or golden (picture 2). This means that they are ready to be harvested. Farmers use a big machine called a combine to cut down the wheat and take out all the seeds (picture 3). The machine pulls out the wheat seeds so that we can use them (picture 4). Then the wheat seeds are taken to a mill and ground up into little tiny pieces to make flour (picture 5). This is the flour that we use to make bread. Then, we mix the flour with other ingredients such as eggs, oil, and water to make dough (picture 6). Then we put it in a pan, bake it in the oven, and we get a loaf of bread (picture 7)! There are many different types of bread we can make. Here, we have a picture of white bread and whole wheat bread (picture 8). Can anybody tell me the difference between white bread and whole wheat bread? Which one do you think is healthier for you? (Grind wheat berries demo describing the important nutrients in each layer.) Now, which one do you think is healthier: White bread or whole wheat bread? o Whole grain foods are made using the whole seed. Because you are eating all 3 parts of the seed when you eat a whole grain food, you are getting all of the nutrients that whole grains offer (fiber, B vitamins, vitamin E, some minerals and some protein). o But refined grain foods, foods that aren t whole grain, contain only the endosperm, so you miss out on a lot of vitamins and minerals. How can you tell if a food is made from whole grains or refined grains? When trying to figure out if a food is a whole grain, you need to read the ingredient list. If the first ingredient in a food uses the word whole, or words, 100% whole, it is a whole grain. For example, a whole grain food might list whole oats as its first Distribute sprouted wheat berries (or whole wheat berries) to each student to further illustrate the parts of the seed. (To sprout wheat berries, place a handful of wheat berries on a wet paper towel in a plastic container, uncovered. Keep at room temp and dampen as needed until sprouted (a few days) OR soak berries in water overnight, then drain and put into a strainer and rinse 1-2x a day until sprouted less likely to encourage mold growth; store in fridge.) Use Making Bread pictures to illustrate how bread is made from wheat berries. Use the grinder to grind wheat berries into flour and sift. Put a handful of wheat berries in the grinder and grind. When finished show the students what the flour looks like. Tell them that this is whole wheat flour because it used ALL three parts of the seed the WHOLE seed. Whole wheat flour results from grinding the seed and using all of it. Whole wheat flour is used for making whole wheat bread. Sift the flour into a bowl. The flour that comes through is white. This is white flour. Show to students and compare it to the color of the flour left in the sifter. The flour in the bowl should be whiter than what is left in the sifter. The white flour is the small part that falls through the sifter. This is the food inside the seed (or the endosperm). This is what we use to make white bread. The white flour is made up of only the endosperm and none of the bran or the germ. Remind students that the bran and the germ have more nutrients. OR show white flour and whole wheat flour models. Hold up the 8 x 11 Cheerios Breakfast Cereals poster and tell students that the first ingredient listed is whole oats (or can allow a student to read the first ingredient). Ask them if this is a whole grain cereal yes. Go through other breakfast cereals to provide 3

4 ingredient or it might say 100% whole wheat. We just spent a lot of time talking about the grains group, but remember carbohydrates are also found in the Fruit group, the Vegetable group, the Dairy group and beans from the Protein group. Game: Whole Grain or Refined Grain? We are going to play a game to see if you understand the difference between whole grains and refined grains. How much Grain group foods should we eat? Now that we know the difference between whole grain and refined grain foods from the Grains group let s take a look at MyPlate again. How much of your plate should be foods from the grain group? That s right! One quarter of your plate should be grains. That s a lot! examples. Divide the class into teams (or the whole class can answer the questions together) and ask the questions in the Whole Grain or Refined Grain PowerPoint. Show the MyPlate poster or plate model. Types of Carbohydrates There are 3 types of carbohydrates that we eat: 1. Sugars (or simple sugars) these carbohydrates dissolve easily in water and taste sweet when eaten. a) Naturally occurring sugars: such as the natural sugar found in fruit and milk. We don t add sugar to fruit and milk, it is naturally there. b) Added sugars: these are sugars we add to foods such as cake, candy, cookies, sweet breakfast cereals, sodas, and fruit canned in heavy syrup. Remember Senorita Sugar? Our nutrient superheroes make our bodies strong and healthy. Senorita Sugar is not a superhero! She is an added sugar and can cause all sorts of trouble. Why should we avoid sugar? Too much sugar can cause dental decay and weight gain. Sugar contains no vitamins and minerals. There are many names for sugar. Can you think of any? Some common names are sugar, brown sugar, honey, powdered sugar, corn syrup, and maple syrup. Also, any word that ends on ose is a sugar. 2. Starches Starches are the second type of carbohydrate. They do not dissolve in water and do not taste sweet. Starches are made and stored in plants in the seeds, stems, and roots. Rice, wheat, potatoes, corn, peas, and beans (pinto beans, kidney beans, and lima beans) are all examples of starchy foods. Our digestive system has to breakdown, (digest) the starches in food so body can get the energy out of the food. Optional Activity: Give each student a saltine cracker. The saltine contains some sugar and some starch. When you put it in your mouth, the sugar If you want you can put sugar in a container of water and allow students to see that by the end of class, the sugar has dissolved. Hold up Senorita Sugar puppet. Have the students look back to the handout from the label reading lesson, Read It Before You Eat It, to see other names for sugar. Place a handful of cheerios in water and allow students to observe that they do not completely dissolve. Using construction paper, link several chains together, show students and tell them starches are made of many glucose units. Show students the glucose and starch chains again. Remind them that our bodies use glucose for energy. The body is constantly breaking down chains of glucose and starch in order to get the energy it needs. Which chain is the quickest source of energy (which can be broken down in the body most quickly)? Glucose. Break apart the glucose chain to show that it doesn t take long. Foods that are pure

5 dissolves right away (remember it dissolves in water). The starch will break down eventually to glucose, but it takes awhile. The enzyme (amylase) in the saliva helps us to break the starch down into sugar. Have students hold the crackers in their mouths until they can taste the sweet sugar. 3. Fiber Fiber is the third type of carbohydrate. Fiber helps to give plants their shape so in a way, fiber is lake a plant s skeleton or bones. Vegetables, whole fruits, whole grains (remember the bran in the wheat seed contains fiber), beans and nuts are all good source of fiber. Do you remember that I said that starches are stored in the stems and roots of plants? Vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, and spinach are not starchy. This is because the stems and leafy portions of the plant do not contain much starch. Because we cannot digest fiber, it: 1. Helps us feel full so we will not eat as much food and we will not feel hungry too soon after eating the fiber containing food. 2. Keeps our digestive system healthy by helping move things through and getting rid of waste products (poop) regularly. 3. Helps us to fight disease. A high fiber diet helps to prevent heart disease by lowering cholesterol. A high fiber diet helps to fight diabetes by helping to control blood sugar (fiber changes the way our bodies respond to insulin) and a high fiber diet has been shown to prevent some types of cancer (colon). Finding Carbohydrates on the Nutrition Label Now let s talk about where carbohydrates are found on the nutrition label. o Total carbohydrates = sugars + starch + fiber in the food o Sugars = both naturally occurring and added sugars o Fiber = listed as dietary fiber. Some labels may also separate fiber into soluble and insoluble fiber. o Other carbohydrates = starch 4. Remember to also look at the ingredient list to find out if a food is a whole grain food or a refined grain food. Look for the word whole followed by one of the grain names (wheat, oats, barley, corn, rye) or look for brown rice listed as the first ingredient. Challenge Now that you know about the grains group, I challenge you to try two whole grain foods from the grain group every day until I come back. I ll ask you about them the next time I teach nutrition in your class. sugar, such as jelly beans or fruit juice give us quick energy but are not the healthiest choices because they don t stay with us long. We get hungry quickly after eating or drinking these sugary foods. Next break apart the starch chain. Our bodies break starches down into glucose. Ask students which will stay in our bodies longer and help us to feel full glucose or starchy foods? Starch foods. Remember that glucose or sugar dissolves in water, starches do not. Because starches are broken down more slowly, they give us energy over a longer period of time. Starches give us a steady supply of glucose whole sugars give us one quick gulp. Demonstration: Take a canned bean and smash it in between your fingers. The bean breaks down because it contains starch. Next take a piece of broccoli and smash it. Ask the students why it doesn t break down because it doesn t contain starch. It contains fiber. The stem of broccoli is like a skeleton, or bones. Using black construction paper (or paper clips); link together several chains to form fiber. Ask students to imagine that these chains are made of metal. Finally, pretend to pull the chain apart. It cannot be broken because we cannot digest the fiber. Remember it acts like a strong skeleton that can t be broken down. High fiber foods act like a scrub brush in our bodies and help to keep our digestive systems clean by moving food through and out. Using the Cheerios Food Label poster, show students where carbohydrates are located on the food label. Taste Test Ideas

6 Whole grain cereal mix Whole grain bagels with cream cheese Rice cakes and sunbutter Raisin bran muffins Popcorn Small Group Activities (10-15 minute activities) Teacher Activities: 1. Student worksheets 2. Whole Grain Helper Activity Nutritionist Activities: 1. Make whole grain cereal snack mix with the students. Additional Activities 1. White vs. Whole wheat: Using a food scale, weigh the difference between white and whole wheat bread. Why is one loaf of bread so much heavier than the other? Which bread do you think has the most nutrients and fiber? 2. Carbohydrates Foods Poster: Using Carbohydrates Foods poster (folded in half), have the students look at the continuum of foods from candy to starchy, high fiber vegetables. Ask them where they would find sugars on the poster. The left hand side shows foods with added sugars Senorita Sugar. The middle left contains foods with natural sugars milk and fruits. Ask students which foods on the poster contain starches and fiber (fruits, vegetables, beans). Ask them which foods are the healthiest and why - the right side of the poster contains starch and fiber and take longer to break down into glucose and, therefore will give us energy over and longer period of time. Next, show the bottom portion of the poster Grains. Ask them which foods contain sugars cookies, poptarts, and sweetened cereals. Which foods contain starch (all of them)? Which contain the most fiber (oatmeal, popcorn, corn tortillas, brown rice, and whole wheat bread)? Again ask them which foods on the poster are the healthiest and why. Then ask them to point out with foods are refined grain foods and which foods are whole grain foods. Which are the healthiest (whole grain foods)? Why? Because they contain all three parts of the seed and give us more vitamins, minerals, and fiber. 3. Find the Whole Grain Cereal: Divide the students into 4-5 groups. Have cereal food label sheets at different stations. Have the groups visit each station and fill out the What s in Your Cereal handout. Or, if the students are sitting in groups already, give a box to each group and rotate the boxes through the groups. Once each group is finished, discuss the answers to the handout and what they thought as a class. 4. Food label or Whole Grain Detective Handout Comparison: Pass out a food label and a whole grain detective handout to each student. Explain that a lot of foods try to disguise themselves as whole grains with tricky words like multi-grain, grain goodness, or 100% wheat. But these imposters will not fool us if we know what to look for. Don t look just at the color of the bread or the front of the label. The first place we should looks is the ingredient label. One the ingredient label, the very first item should say whole (wheat, oats, corn, rye, etc.) Show them the slide with breads A or B as an example. If using Whole Grain Detective handout, ask 3 students to read the 1 st ingredient and tell if it s a whole grain or not. Variation 1: Instead of passing labels around to students, just hold up cereal boxes, tell students what the first ingredient is and ask them if it s a whole grain. Variation 2: Have students rank the cereals lowest to highest in fiber content or sugar content to highlight that we want more fiber and less sugar in our grains. Student Handouts Carbohydrates Note s Page Whole Grain Detective Handout

7 Chef Solus Fiber Crossword Puzzle What is in Your Cereal Worksheet Grains Word Search Parent Handouts 10 Tips: Make Half Your Grains Whole (English & Spanish) The Truth about Carbohydrates (English & Spanish) Grains Handout (English & Spanish) Wellness Ways Whole Grain Foods (English & Spanish Lesson Roadmap Review Mind grabber- Jumping jacks Discussion o Carbohydrates overview; food groups that are good sources of carbohydrates o Grains group; Grains are seeds poster; Seed anatomy Making bread o Whole grains Why do we need carbohydrates? Energy &Fiber Types of carbohydrates: Sugar, Starches, Fiber Finding carbohydrates on the nutrition label: total CHO, sugars, fiber, other CHO Wrap up Challenge: Eat 2 whole grain foods each day Durham County Department of Public Health Nutrition Division (919) 560-7837. This material was funded by the SNAP-Ed Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program. In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, political beliefs or disability. To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Offices of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice) or (202) 720-6382 (TTY). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. SNAP, or Food and Nutrition Assistance, provides nutrition assistance to people with low income. It can help you buy nutritious foods for a better diet. To find out more, call (919) 560-8000.