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Nutrition
~ Inspiration
SUMMARY: This unit is connected to Hidden Villa's emphasis on Eco-Healthy Lunches and on developing student knowledge of the origins of what they eat. Using Reciprocal Teaching strategies, students learn about the basic components of food. They exercise graphing and fraction skills while studying food nutritional labels. They develop their critical thinking skills by using the information from their study to analyze media influences on what they eat. DURATION: 1
to 4 weeks GRADES: 4th-5th, can be adapted to 2nd-3rd
CALIFORNIA
STANDARDS |
| This
unit is developed around the state health framework for
the elementary grades. This framework is
actually quite lengthy and puts forth many health learning
goals for each developmental level. This unit clearly addresses
Health Expectation #1 (Students demonstrate ways in which
they can enhance and maintain their health) and Health
Expectation #2 (Students demonstrate informed use of health-related
information). Moreover, this unit was developed to
support state Reading Standards 1.0 (fluency and vocabulary
development) and 2.0 (reading comprehension of informational
texts), as well as the media literacy component of state
Listening and Speaking standard 1.0. In addition, this
unit offers a wonderful review of the Math standards in
Data Analysis (surveys, graphing) and Number Sense (4th,
5th - equivalent fractions and ratios). |
HIDDEN
VILLA GOALS |
| In
our "modern" society people have become further
and further removed from their food sources to the point
that many
otherwise intelligent children living in our urban centers
believe that food is produced at supermarkets and fresh produce
can be grown year round. Hidden Villa is part of the
"Slow Food" movement that focuses on helping children
learn to make informed decisions about what they eat;
encourages communities to eat locally grown produce to
the extent possible; and promotes the analysis of the
business and advertising practices of large food cooperations.
This unit, in combination with a class field trip to
Hidden Villa, provides a developmentally appropriate
way to introduce these concepts. |
CLASSROOM
RELEVANCE |
With
the increasing emphasis on standardized testing, we
teachers feel more and more
pressure to "teach to the test." Even within the standards of the state educational
framework
there are many crucial topics that are getting left
by the wayside in this testing frenzy. In reality,
life itself is the ultimate test of the state health
standards. Left at the mercy of multibillion dollar
advertising campaigns many of our students are making
ill-informed choices about what to eat and how to spend
their free time. The disastrous effects are already
being felt. Childhood obesity and type 1 (early onset) diabetes
are at an all-time high. In our classrooms, students
have difficulty focusing on and learning from our standards-based
lessons when they are wired on sugary cereals, tired-out
due to malnutrition or comatose from watching too much
television. Therefore, for both our long term (promoting happy, healthy, and productive lives) and short term (supporting successful achievement on yearly standardized tests) goals, it is essential that we equip our students with some concrete nutritional knowledge and critical media literacy skills.
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