MyPlate: Healthy Eating Lesson

CA State Standard: Grade 9-12

1.4.N: "Describe dietary guidelines, food groups, nutrients, and serving sizes for healthy eating habits."

2.2.N: “Assess personal barriers to healthy eating and physical activity” (California State Board of Education, 2008, p. 46)

7.2.N: “Critique one’s personal diet for overall balance of key nutrients” (California State Board of Education, 2008, p. 46)

7.3.N: “Identify strategies for eating more fruits and vegetables” (California State Board of Education, 2008, p. 47)

California State Board of Education. (2008, March). Health Education Content Standards for California Public Schools: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve. Retrieved from http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/healthstandmar08.pdf

Background:

Watch the following video: Healthy Eating and Exercise Video by MyPlate

As the video above describes, 17% of teenagers in the United States are now obese. Not only does this often create problems for those teens currently, such as shortness of breath, keeping up with friends, and feelings of insecurity, but obese children often grow to be obese adults which can lead to more serious health problems. Obesity is an epidemic that must be controlled. Unfortunately, many teenagers do not know how to eat healthy. This lesson will teach how to build a healthy diet.  

Task:

In this lesson, you (the students) will reflect on and share with the class personal barriers that keep you from eating healthy and exercising. You will also examine your normal diet to see determine how healthy your eating habits are compared to the MyPlate guidelines. After reviewing the MyPlate website, you will show your understanding of the nutrition guidelines through creating a Glog as well as identify strategies for eating more fruits and vegetables.

Resources:

-Glogster EDU student account (teacher supplied this at the beginning of the school year.)

-Internet search: (MyPlate.gov website and YouTube videos)
-Online classroom discussion board for required student posts

Process

Step 1: Watch SpongeBob trying to eat healthy Vine

Post: On the discussion board, post 3 reasons why it is hard for you to eat healthy. Be truthful; this post is meant to be a serious reflection of your own personal barriers to eating healthy (Standard 2.2N). The first video found in the Background section examines a few common reasons. If these are ones that make it hard for you, you may share one of them, but the other two must be your own.

Step 2: Quick! On a piece of paper, write down everything you remember eating in the past two days; snacks, drinks and meals included. Put this aside for later.

Step 3: Go to Choose My Plate Food Groups

“MyPlate illustrates the five food groups that are the building blocks for a healthy diet using a familiar image—a place setting for a meal. Before you eat, think about what goes on your plate or in your cup or bowl” (http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/).

Now look at the different food groups on the website. For each food group, there are different examples of foods that fit in that category. Take a look at each food group and the percentage of each food group that should be on the plate.

The picture below shows a healthy set up for each meal.

Using different foods on the website under each food group, create three meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) that fit the above picture plate.

-Next, go to Glogster EDU and sign in to your student account. Create a Glog with the three meals you have created set up just like the above picture. Google search google images to find pictures of the foods you want in your three meals, rather than just writing out the names of the foods. Next, underneath each meal, write the percent of the plate that each food from each food group takes up. So, for example, if for dinner you make your plate half broccoli, then one thing you will write underneath that meal is 50% broccoli.  Make sure that your labels are clearly and correctly written under the meal they apply to. Organization in this matter is important. Also, make sure that your percentages of food on each plate are the recommended amount under the MyPlate website. Attractiveness of the Glog is also included in the requirements. Please look at the rubric below for more details on what I am expecting.

After completing your Glog, publish it to the classroom site for your classmates to view.

Rubric:

Multimedia Project : MyPlate Glog Teacher Name: Mrs. Hellinger  Student Name:     ________________________________________

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Requirements	All requirements are met and exceeded.	All requirements are met.	One requirement was not completely met.	More than one requirement was not completely met.
Organization	Content is well organized using headings or bulleted lists to group related material.	Uses headings or bulleted lists to organize, but the overall organization of topics appears flawed.	Content is logically organized for the most part.	There was no clear or logical organizational structure, just lots of facts.
Mechanics	No misspellings or grammatical errors.	Three or fewer misspellings and/or mechanical errors.	Four misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	More than 4 errors in spelling or grammar.
Attractiveness	Makes excellent use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance the presentation.	Makes good use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance to presentation.	Makes use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. but occasionally these detract from the presentation content.	Use of font, color, graphics, effects etc. but these often distract from the presentation content.

Step 4: Think of two ideas of how to eat more fruits and vegetables. Post these on the class website. (Example, take celery and peanut butter to school for snack instead of chips.) Read and comment on three of your classmate’s ideas.

Step 5: (Conclusion) Think about how the food you ate in the last couple of days compares to what you see about healthy eating or on the MyPlate site. Write a journal page (one whole page)about this along with what you have discovered about your current eating habits. Also include how you can make healthy changes to your diet. (This will be turned in to the teacher in class.)