Tag: Middle School

Frozen Pizza Comparison, Ingredient Investigation & Makeover Challenge

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Teaching teenagers about nutrition and consumer skills can be difficult except when it involves pizza! Americans eat a frozen.pizzaton of pizza on a regular basis because it doesn’t require much time or effort and because it’s fairly easy on the wallet as well. However, do students really know which frozen pizza is the best as far as taste and money is concerned, what’s inside their favorite frozen pizza, how it’s made or even how to make a frozen pizza healthier? This lesson and all of its parts can be done in their entirety or can be selected in parts….it’s up to you and how much time you want to devote to this lesson and activities.

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The ABC’s of Eating Disorders

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The National Institute of Mental Health reports that 2.7 percent of teens (both males and females) between the ages of Be Aware13-18 will struggle with an eating disorder. In my school that would calculate out to approximately 20 students, which is 20 students too many! It’s important to teach students what eating disorders are, what their characteristics are including the warning signs, why they occur and how to get help.

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Six Essential Nutrients Lesson Plan

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Essential nutrients are those that must be provided through a balanced diet as the body cannot make them or make nutrient.chain.Ithem in sufficient amounts. Every food we eat is made up of nutrients. Trying to get teenagers to understand the importance of eating key nutrients and what they do for our bodies can be challenging as there is so much information and sometimes only a limited time in which to teach it. So in order to give students an overview of the key nutrients without taking several weeks to cover the materials, I developed a combination of teacher directed and student directed activities. To help students understand the amount of nutrients in the foods they choose, I have students participate in a Tater Topper lab and then “Profile Their Potato” for essentials nutrients using the My Recipe portion of Supertracker.

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Healthy Eating & Exercise Vision Board

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Have you ever seen an idea that sparked another idea? Well that is what happened with this lesson plan. Edith Rohrer, a FACS teacher from Indiana, Vision Board. I shared a web based personalized goals activity using the Choose MyPlate website. When I saw this great activity, I immediately thought there should be a follow-up assignment to help students visualize, plan and set goals to help them achieve their personal eating and exercise goals based on this information. And so the vision board project was created.

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Literal Interpretations from a Child’s Mind

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One day when my children were young and couldn’t sit still I commented on how they were acting like they had “ants in their pants”. I didn’t think literal.int.picmuch about the phrase until my then preschool aged daughter literally checked her pants for ants! This is when I realized that children don’t always interpret the true meaning behind some of the common phrases that have been around forever; they actually interpret them literally. This lesson has students illustrating common phrases based on how a preschooler might interpret or visualize the phrase literally.

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Literacy & Reading to Children Lessons

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I read to my children ALL the time when they were young, and if nothing else, I wanted them to be readers! And, fortunately, they are! There Read.to.Childrenare so many benefits associated with reading to children at an early age from bonding to improved vocabulary (which helps now that the SATs are right around the corner). This lesson explores the amount of time students spend reading to other screen and electronic device activity and encourages them to research and explore why reading to children is so beneficial to their growth and development. I’ve also included a fun component for students to learn the do’s and don’ts of reading to children while encouraging them to enhance their own oral presentation skills by reading aloud a children’s book.

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Vegetarianism

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How could I say “no” when my students wanted to learn more about vegetarianism?  We had already covered major nutrients so they knew the ins and outs of complete and incomplete proteins and how to make complementing protein combinations.  Still, they wanted…

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The Power of Purple: Shaken Baby Syndrome & The Period of Purple Crying

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While Shaken Baby Syndrome might be a familiar term associated with child abuse, the Period of Purple Crying may not be. The two terms are closely related as the constant crying associated with purple crying may lead one to violently shake their child. This lesson educates students about both to hopefully decrease the risks of both occurring in the future. This lesson also includes a fairly quick and easy community service project for students of all ages and abilities to complete to help spread information about the important cause.

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Ideas for Teaching Safety in Child Development

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Child proofing is essential to a house or day care center when little ones are involved. It’s amazing what little ones can get into once they become keeping kids safemobile. You’ll want to make sure you’re taking every precaution to keep your little one’s environment safe. Trying to decide what to teach about the safety of children can be difficult as all of the topics are important.

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