Category: Nutrition

Fruit Lesson & Galette Lab

Consumption of fruit in the daily diet is important for all age groups!  What’s to love about fruit?  A lot actually!  Fruit is available in many forms from fresh to frozen to canned and even dried.  Fruit is a nutrient dense, low calorie food that can be eaten alone as a snack or incorporated into a meal or dessert.  Fruits can be eaten raw or cooked and there are so many to choose from, some more seasonal than others!  This fruit lesson focuses on the classification of fruits, how to select quality fruits and explores enzymatic browning. It also features delicious galette labs.  Galettes are unique to most students and a little different than making pies, but they are easy to make and amazingly delicious especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!

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Plant Based Proteins Part II: Seeds

If you visited the site last week, you saw that the plant based protein lesson was focused on beans and legumes. This week is a continuation of plant based proteins, concentrating on seeds!

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Plant Based Proteins Part I: Beans & Legumes

I am a big fan of Michael Pollan’s work!  I especially like what he has to say about food in his documentary “In Defense of Food”.  Even if I don’t have time to show my students the documentary in its entirety, I do like to focus on certain parts of it.  One in particular are his 7 words that he uses to sum up healthy eating: “Eat foods–Not Too Much–Mostly Plants”.  It’s a great way to introduce students to different plant based foods!  Read on to learn more about how those 7 words equate to a lesson about beans and legumes.

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Mindful Eating: A Talking Point Lesson & Activity

Talking point lessons may just become a reoccurring series!  I love when I stumble upon a topic that is both interesting and engaging, but doesn’t require a lot of time and effort. These types of lessons are great for sub plans, unexpected assemblies, early dismissals or weather delays that can wreak havoc on keeping classes on the same timeline. Many districts are requiring teachers to present their students with e-lessons on snow days.  What better way to do this than with a talking points lesson that you can cater and adapt to your needs!  This lesson and activity revolve around “mindful eating” because most of us often do the opposite!  So, learn more about how you and your students can become more mindful of your eating! On a side note, if you have a topic that might lend itself well to a talking points lesson and/or activity, please let me know in the comment section below and I’ll see what I can do!

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MyPlate Stations & Activities

Tired of creating web-quest style assignments only to find that the website has changed and your web-quest no longer meshes, leaving you to reinvent the wheel?  This is partly why I created the MyPlate stations. The information within the stations was created using reliable website sources which I will cite below. Therefore, the content won’t change, unless the information gets updated when the guide gets reviewed every 5 years.  Additionally, stations allow students to move around, work at their own pace and use the resulting notes to complete follow-up assignments or activities that reinforce the material.  Read on to learn more…

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The Basics of Soup!

Did you know that January is National Soup Month?  Soup is the perfect comfort food for a typically cold, winter month or any other day for that matter!  To celebrate this meal which has so much to offer in the way of health benefits, versatility in its types, and cultural ties, I’ve created a Hyper-Slide of activities to help students learn more about soup.  Read on to see how you can add a mini soup unit and lab to your repertoire!

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Parental Feeding Styles

Until recently, I wasn’t aware that the parenting styles affected anything other than how children are treated in regard to following rules, handling misbehavior and discipline. Well, it turns out that parental feeding styles can also be applied to the way that eating patterns and habits are managed with children. This lesson incorporates this information and has students researching strategies to help children develop a healthy relationship with food. So, read on to learn more about how you can teach this concept and theory in your child development, parenting or nutrition classes.

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Food Labeling Claims

Do you know the difference between a health claim and a nutrition claim?  Most of my students don’t!  This lesson explores the difference between the two as well as why it is so important to understand what food labeling claims actually mean when reading a food label.  This lesson includes some informative and creative activities, incorporating the information learned so that others might be enlightened.

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#ShowMeYourOvernightOats

Oats are a staple most cooks cannot live without!  How many other whole grains pack as much healthful variety into their product?  The thing I love about oats is the fact that they can be customized in so many recipes from breakfast foods, baked goods, healthy snacks, and even used in place of bread crumbs when making things such as salmon patties or meatloaf!  I wanted my students to see, taste and appreciate the goodness that oats have to offer so when I saw a YouTube ad by Quaker Oats promoting an oats contest, I knew how I wanted to incorporate this information into my grain unit.  However, if you don’t teach a unit specifically about grains, no worries as this can easily be incorporated into a breakfast  or healthy snack unit!

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HANGRY: A Healthy Eating Talking Points Activity

Have you ever needed a short activity to fill time due to a “surprise” assembly, early dismissal or one class finishing before another?  This activity can be stretched or shortened depending on your needs!  Hangry is a real concept that most of us have experienced at one time or another and because of this, it can be a very relatable topic for students to talk about and make connections to. I’ve included some activities that work well with this topic, so, pick and choose or do them all!  

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