1

Lesson Plan Format

Name: Madison Khanna
Lesson Title: Building a Balanced Diet
Grade Level: Fifth grade
Time Allotment: 1.5 hour
Overview: Students will use what they already learned about the essential nutrients to
see if their meal plans are balanced and nutritious. They will use the National Nutrition
Database to research if the items on two of their meals is good to eat. The nutrients
they will be using to compare are proteins, sugars, and carbohydrates.
Subject Matter: Nutrition, health and wellness
Learning Objectives (SWBAT): given access to computers with internet and the
nutrition database students will be able to:
1. Understand the importance of a balanced diet.
2. Learn how to use a database to see how many nutrients are in the food they eat.
(The teacher will encourage the students to use the database in the future to
maintain a healthy diet)
3. Understand how to measure the quantity and portion size in our daily meals.

South Carolina Common Core Standard(s):

Standard 1: The student will comprehend concepts related to health promotion to
enhance health.
N-5.1.1 Examine the six essential nutrients, their function, and foods or f
food groups in which they are present.
P-5.1.1 Discuss the barriers to a persons practicing healthy behaviors(pg.51).
Standard 6: The student will demonstrate the ability to use goal-setting
skills to enhance health.
P-5.6.1 Construct a plan, including monitoring and assessing progress, to
achieve a health goal (for example, reduce stress, be physically active, get
more sleep, limit the amount of sugary foods/drinks in the diet.)

2
NET*S Standards
Communication and collaboration
Research and information fluency
Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making:

Materials and Equipment

*Technology- Computer/ tablet with internet and Word
*Print Materials- Health and Wellness portfolio the students are making
*Other Media- USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference
Introductory Activity:
The teacher will have the students review their portfolios with their meal plans
and excel spreadsheets. They will review the six essential nutrients to have a good
idea of how much of each nutrient you should be getting each day. They will have 15
minutes to reflect and review about the nutrients. They will be aloud to collaborate with
their peers sitting around them. The teacher will then show the class how the database
works and give an example of what they are looking for.
Learning Activities:
a. The students will do this activity individually since the previous lessons were
completed in groups.
b. The students will each have a computer or tablet to search on the database. They
will refer back to their meal plan and choose two of their meals.
c. In the database where it says to fill in three nutrients, the students will select protein,
sugars, and carbohydrate. These are some of the main nutrients we look at in food.
d. Each student will pick two of their meal plans to complete this activity. They will find
the food in the database that was in their meal plan and figure out how many of those
three nutrients are in each of the foods in the meal. Based on what they learned from
their research using excel they will figure out if the meal they created is nutritious,
balanced, and healthy. They will do this for two of their six meals.
e. The students will then write a paragraph on Word to report their findings and
explaining why it is healthy of not. For example, if they had apple juice in one of their

3
meals they would explain how after using the database they found out that apple juice
actually has too much sugar for one meal.
F. They will explain how they can fix the meal. The paragraphs will then be graded and
put into their Nutrition Portfolio.
Formative Evaluation:
While the students are doing their research and comparing the amount of
nutrients, the teacher will walk around and make sure each student is on task. The
teacher will ask the students to raise their hand if they have questions and she/he will
help them.
Culminating Activities:
At the end, the students will write a paragraph about what they found and put it in their
Nutrition Portfolio.
Summative Evaluation: A rubric is provided below to evaluate the students work and
ability to follow directions.
Cross-Curricular Extensions:
The students are working with numbers and serving sizes and comparing them which
helps them with their math skills.

Example of Database:

Rubric:

Rubric created on: http://rubistar.4teachers.org