Exploring MyPlate with Professor Popcorn Grade 4: Energized by Food Grade 4: Lesson 1 (4:1) MyPlate Objectives Upon completion of Lesson 1, youth will: 1. State that food and physical activity are important for overall health. 2. Identify five food groups in MyPlate and name at least two foods in each group. 3. State why it is important to eat different types of foods. 4. State why breakfast is important to health. 5. State why physical activity is important to health. 6. Follow recommended handwashing steps before preparing or eating foods. KCAS Health, Nutrition: 2.31 Health, Psychomotor Skills 2.31 Health, Safety, 3.2 Display board Visual packet for Grade 4, Lesson 1 (4:1) Copies of preprogram evaluation (Lesson/Activity 1) Optional poster board and cards for Food Group Jeopardy (Lesson/Activity 2) Snack supplies (Lesson/Activity 10) Copies of recipes (Lesson/Activity 10) Copies take-home handouts: Parent Letter, Lesson 1 MyPlate Poster Evaluation Questions Addressed in this Lesson: #4 I eat breakfast #5 I do physical activities like walking to school, helping around the house, using the stairs, or walking the dog. #6 Being active is fun. #7 Being active every day is good for me. #10 I wash my hands before making something to eat. Note: The content and visuals in Grade 4 are similar to Grade 3, though the activities are different. Each grade is written so that it can stand alone. If you are doing Grades 3 and 4, be sure to adapt the wording of the main concepts so that it is fresh information.
1. Preprogram Evaluation Tools (Use only EFNEP approved evaluation tools) 2. Introduction - MyPlate (For background information, visit www.choosemyplate.gov) (Note: When discussing MyPlate, concepts such as oils, foods that don t fit (such as soda pop and candy), discretionary calories, etc., may arise. Discuss them factually and briefly, then continue with main focus of the lesson.) Illustrated talk: Use Visuals 4:1A and 4:1B. Professor Popcorn will be our guide in learning about healthy eating. He has been exploring MyPlate and has made lots of discoveries that he s going to share with us! Scientists have grouped foods together according to their nutrients and used that information to create MyPlate. Optional activity (if not planned for fifth grade): Food Group Jeopardy (Note: Use this activity to start the youth thinking about food and to determine how much they already know about nutrition.) 4.1 Approved EFNEP youth evaluation tools. 4:1A Professor Popcorn 4:2B - MyPlate Food Group Jeopardy board and list of questions (See the file named Jeopardy Instructions. ) Or Ask, Have you seen or heard about MyPlate? What have you heard or seen? What can you tell me about it? (Depending on answers, the tone of the lessons will be new material or review, and then go into more detail.) There are three main messages in MyPlate: Eat healthy foods, be physically active, and have fun. Five groups of foods make up the plate. Describe each group. Foods within each group contain similar nutrients. We need foods from each of the different groups to provide a variety of nutrients vitamins, minerals, as well as things such as protein and carbohydrates. Some of the areas on the plate are larger than others. That is to remind us to eat more food from some food groups than from others. We also need to be physically active each day.
3. Where Do Foods Fit? Ask, What foods do you think fit into the Grains Group? Vegetables Group? Fruits Group? Dairy Group? Protein Foods Group? Oils? We will be talking more about each of these groups in the coming lessons. (Note: Candy and soda pop do not fit into MyPlate. They are outside the plate. Foods such as french fries, ice cream, and other higher calorie foods should be eaten in smaller portions and not very often.) 4. Variety Is Best To be at our best, we need a variety of foods and physical activity. We need to eat some foods from each group of MyPlate. Just one group will not give your body everything it needs. Activity: Using Visual 4:1C, select a few students or do the puzzle as a group. Mix up all of the pieces and have them decide how they go together. What group can be left out and still solve the puzzle? (None we have to have all of them to make the puzzle work.) Now, let s use the concept of variety and apply it to choosing breakfast foods. 5. Breakfast Start the Day Right! Scientists have found that eating breakfast every day helps youth learn better. Breakfast means break the fast (a fast is going a certain time without food, like from bedtime to morning). Without breakfast, our brains do not work as well and it is hard to learn new things. Whenever you see Professor Popcorn with a magnifying glass, it means he is exploring a concept in more detail. (Visual 4:1D) He is going to help us explore how to choose healthy foods for breakfast. What does the word healthy mean? What are healthy foods? (Note: Healthy means different things to different people. Some definitions are foods that keep me from getting sick, help me grow, be strong, have nutrients, are low in sugar or fat.) Activity: Divide into groups. Ask each group to: Choose foods that would be in a healthy breakfast. Why did you choose those foods? Would you eat this breakfast why or why not? Classify the foods into the various food groups. How many food groups did you use? 4:1C Variety Puzzle (Cut into pieces) 4:1D Professor Popcorn Investigating
6. Make Healthier Choices Illustrated talk: Use Visual 4:1B as you explain the following concepts. In the following lessons, we will be exploring each of these foods groups in more depth and learning about healthy choices from each food group. Some foods are higher in fat and sugar than others. We should eat small amounts of these foods. Let s take a moment to compare foods from each group. Which food group do they belong in? Should we eat more or less of this food? If a food is high in fat and sugar, we should eat less of it. Here are some examples (Use Visual 4:1E): Grains Whole grain oat Cereal with cereal added sugar Vegetables Baked potato Potato chips Fruits Apple Apple pie Dairy Skim milk Ice cream Protein Foods Fish Fish sticks 4:1B MyPlate 4:1E Stay on the Bottom Whole grain oat cereal Cereal with added sugar Baked potato Potato chips Apple Apple pie Skim milk Ice cream Fish Fish sticks 7. Physical Activity Explain that being physically active is just as important as eating healthy foods. In fact, we should be healthy every day! Our bodies were made to move. Eating healthy foods and being physically active keeps us healthy and can be fun! What does being physically active mean? What types of activities are physical? What activities do you do that are physical? What do you do with your family? What can you try that you haven t tried yet? Activity: Professor Popcorn Climbs Some Steps Let s join Professor Popcorn and walk up steps. (Pantomime walking up steps, one at a time, two at a time, fast, slow, etc.)
8. Food Safety Activity (For background information, see Food Safety Concepts in the Introductory Materials.) Can you tell me the four Fight BAC! Rules? (Clean, separate, cook, and chill.) (Show Visual 4:1F.) If these have not been discussed before, describe them. Today we re going to look into what clean means. Before we eat or prepare a snack or meal, there s something we need to do so the food we eat is safe and won t make us sick: We must wash our hands. Activity: Have the students pantomime as you talk through the steps. If possible, have one or two of them demonstrate in front of the class while you give the directions: 1. Wet your hands with warm water. 2. Apply soap and scrub thoroughly for 20 seconds. (You could sing Happy Birthday while you wash.) 3. Rinse hands well. 4. Using a paper towel, dry hands. 5. Using the paper towel, turn off faucet. 6. Be careful not to get germs on your hands after you have washed them. (Note: If this is the only grade you are teaching from the Professor Popcorn curriculum, we suggest that you use the handwashing activity from Grade 2, Lesson 1, Activity 7.) 4:1F Fight BAC! Rules Clean Cook Separate Chill 9. Let s Review Ask the youth to answer these questions: What are the things related to MyPlate that help keep us healthy? What are the five food groups in MyPlate? Why should we eat different foods? How can we choose healthier foods from each food group? Why is breakfast important to health? Why is physical activity important to health? 10. Snack MyPlate Sampler Peanut Faces MyPlate Recipes 11. Take Home Parent Letter, Lesson 1 Take-home handouts Adapted by Texas A & M AgriLife Extension from original work: Frischie, S. (1993). Switzer, B. (2002). Vandergraff, D., & Coleman, G. (2006). Exploring My Pyramid with Professor Popcorn, Purdue University Extension/Consumer and Family Sciences/4-H Youth Development. Adapted with permission for use in Kentucky, from adapted materials: Scott, A. (2012). Exploring MyPlate with Professor Popcorn, Texas A & M AgriLife Extension. Brooke Howard-Jenkins, M.S. Nutrition Education Program Curriculum Coordinator Educational programs of Kentucky Cooperative Extension serve all people regardless of race, color, age, sex, religion, disability or national origin.