Fun with Food: The Food Pyramid Lesson Plan

The lesson plan, "Fun with Food: The Food Pyramid" created by Lisa Gassiott, allows teachers to create a fun learning environment when learning the importance of the food pyramid. Student's will be able to share the kind of foods that they normal eat in their households, and will learn where the items go within the pyramid. After presenting the information to the class, they will be able to identify where they need to eat more of daily, and what items they should be eating less of. "The student will learn about the Food pyramid and a well balanced diet through interactive and group activities." (Gassiott, 1999)

The lesson allows different disciplines to be used which helps enhance the student's learning. Math is one of the disciplines that are used in this lesson plan, where students have to identify the amount of servings are in each category of the pyramid. They will use addition and subtraction to identify the amount of food that they are either lacking or consuming too much of. "The teacher will read the worksheet with the students and help them to name the foods on the pyramid. The teacher will also ask questions like, 'What are the foods we need to eat the most of?" (Gassiott, 1999) With giving student's the ability to create their own food pyramid, and draw different types of food into those categories they are exercising their arts and craft skills, which keeps them interested in learning the subject. Science can also be a discipline that is covered, as student's might have question like, "How do they know that we have to eat this many fruits a day?" Teamwork is also generated through this lesson plan, giving the students the ability to work to create their own meal plans which teaches them discipline, nutrition, and compromise.

Using a interactive video to integrate in the lesson plan would be a way to enhance the lesson. This use of technology would keep the students interested because children like watching TV, and absorb what they watch like a sponge. With technology growing, it can be a very useful tool to teach students as this is their generation, a generation where technology is everything and keeps the children interested.

Gassiott, L. (1999, April 29). Fun with Food: The Food Pyramid. Retreived June 13, 2010, from http://www.eduref.org/virtual/lessons/interdisciplinary/INT0100.html

DISCLAIMER: This blog is an assignment for an Intersiciplinary Studies cource at National University. It is not a real blog.