Nutrition Lesson Plans That Promote Healthy Habits

Have you ever taught a class right after recess? Have you ever taught a class right after lunch? As teachers we've all noticed that food affects physiology. Yes, there really is such a thing as a "sugar high". The group of students that were half asleep at 7:30 am, the same ones that you wanted to pour cold water on so they'd wake up and pay attention before noon, are unrecognizable after recess. After ingesting junk foods, sugared juices, and other mood altering subtances, these same  students are now bouncing around uncontrollably, and yapping away a mile-a-minute. They are proof of  that old saying "You are what you eat".

This is why teaching students about health and nutrition is so important. We want our students to be healthy and wise. We want them to understand that chemicals in the environment affect everyone on the planet. We want them to know that empty calorie foods produce a reaction in the body. We want them to understand the long term affects of unhealthy habits.

The following nutrition and health lesson plans provide ways we can give students the tools and techniques needed to make sound choices. Through reading articles, doing activities, going over scientific vocabulary, assembling quantitative data, and interacting with classmates, students can learn about healthy habits. By using these activities, teachers can develop a kind of roadmap that will help them meet academic standards in ways that are engaging and practical for their students.

 Nutrition, Health, and Environmental Lesson Plans:

Environmental Awareness and Scientific Vocabulary

Upon completion of this lesson students will know the difference between organic solvents and ionic liquids. They will work in groups, discovering specific properties of various groups of solvents, and then will write a newsletter that reflects what they've learned.  Throughout the lesson students are asked questions like, "What is a solvent?" and "When were ionic liquids first invented?" after reading an article entitled "With a Splash of Salt, Industry May Reap Environmental Advantages".  I like the environmental issues the lesson sheds light on, and that scientific vocabulary like "carbon tetracholoride" and "aromatic hydrocarbons" are included in the lesson. I think as a reinforcement strategy, students might also list these words, and practice the correct spelling and pronunciation through peer-spelling drills and pronunciation-drills.

Analyzing Health, Lifestyle, and Marketing

In this lesson students analyze lifestyle, health, and marketing while reading the stories of three Americans, each one from a different social class. After breaking into groups, students investigate ways people can stay healthy, and incorporate quantitative and qualitative strategies that are aligned with academic standards. I really like the fact that this lesson is interdisciplinary. It combines health, nutrition, science, math, language arts, sociology, history, and many other academic content areas. Sicne the lesson encompasses so many topics, breaking it down into several mini lessons to be taught over a period of time may be wise. Here's a suggestion for a mini-lesson. While students use reading strategies to help understand the information, they could write down unfamiliar vocabulary words, and then look up the definitions. In addition to learning how the new word fits into the context of the article, students could also create original sentences using the newly acquired vocabulary words in a notebook that could be used throughout the school year.

Food Facts and Findings

In this lesson students analyze food marketing strategies and nutritional content. They condense their findings by creating food warning labels that convey the potential hazards of ingesting certain ingredients. This lesson gives students a chance to conduct scientific research that involves nutrition, and helps them see food packaging from a marketing perspective. I appreciate the combination of analytical and creative skills that this lesson requires. I think it would be equally beneficial to have students create food labels that showcase the positive benefits that certain foods yield.

Preventing Summer Hazards in a Healthy Way

This lesson enhances students' interpersonal skills by having students work in groups to brainstorm summer activities. It also reinforces their reading skills by having them read the article "How to Save Your Skin in the Season of Sun". It boosts their knowledge of scientific and health-related information when they answer a series of questions that include "How many cases of melanoma does the American Cancer Society estimate will be diagnosed this year?", and increases their vocabulary and math skills. As students work with each other to formulate public service announcements, they strengthen their knowledge of risks and hazards associated with summer activities, and improve their health-risk prevention awareness.  I like that students are given the power to create their own public service announcements, but I would additionally have them incorporate some kind of multi-media presentation (Power Point, iMovie, etc . . .) that would assist them in using technology, and expand their ability to use creative content in many different formats.