The Five Food Groups and The Food Pyramid

Brian Bayes
3/4th Grade Physical Education

Common Core Standards:

Standard 1: Demonstrates competency in motor skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety
of physical activities.
Standard 2: Demonstrates understanding of movement concepts, principles, strategies and tactics as they
apply to the learning and performance of physical activities.
Standard 3: Participates regularly in physical activity.
Standard 4: Achieves and maintains a health-enhancing level of physical fitness.
Standard 5: Exhibits responsible personal behavior and social behavior that respects self and others in
physical activity settings.
Standard 6: Values physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and/or social
interaction.

Lesson Summary:
This lesson will focus around teaching the students about the five food groups and the food pyramid. The
students will be divided into five groups and each will be assigned one of the food groups. They will then have
to use the computers to research their food group and print off pictures of different types of food in their group.
The kids will then come together and make a giant food pyramid on the gym floor and take turns teaching each
other about their group. Afterwards, the whole group will play a game where they have to organize the
different foods into the right categories on the pyramid.
Estimated Duration:
This lesson plan should take up two class periods which would be about two hours. The first day will be when
the students spend time learning about their individual food groups and teach the other students what they have
learned. The second day will be a brief review of what was learned on day one followed by a game
demonstrating what they have learned.

Commentary:
The students should be interested in the lesson because it is about food which all kids like. I plan on getting
them first interested by having cupcakes, cookies, and other unhealthy, yet very appealing foods up at the front
of the class when they walk in. They will then get to have one of the snacks after they complete the activities.
This will get them interested in what I have to talk about and in the mood to talk about food. A problem that I
could run into is students not understanding how to operate a computer to look up information and pictures. To
prevent this, I will ask for volunteers who are comfortable with computers first and separate them so there is at
least one in each group who can help the others.

Instructional Procedures:
Day 1:
Students will come in and sit together on the floor. I will give a brief overview of the food groups and the food
pyramid, using real food examples as visual aids. Then I will explain the assignment and answer questions that
the students have and ask questions using a smartboard where students can come up and click the correct
answer. (15 minutes)
I will ask who knows how to use the computer/google and divide them into 5 groups. The rest of the students
will then be evenly put into those groups. Each group will be assigned a food group. (5 minutes)
Students will go to computers and open google. They will work on researching examples of foods in their
assigned food group. They will find pictures of those foods and print them off. They will cut these pictures out
and bring them out to the gym floor after they are finished. (20 minutes)
There will be a giant paper food pyramid on the floor of the gymnasium that the students will sit around. The
groups will take turns taping their pictures to the correct layer of the food pyramid and teaching their
classmates what they learned. (15 minutes)
Students will then leave for the day.
Day 2:
Students will return to their places in the gym around the food pyramid they created during the last class. We
will review what they have learned using the smart board that allows student interaction.. (10 minutes)
The food pyramid will be placed on the wall and all the food pictures will be taped on the opposite wall on the
other side of the gym. I will also have an identical pyramid and other pictures to add. The students will be
divided into 2 groups for the game and instructions will be given. (10 minutes)

The two groups will play the game in a relay race type of fashion. One at a time, they will run to the other side
of the gym, pick a food, run back and place it on the food pyramid in the correct location. They can get help
from their teammates when they need it. The first team to complete their pyramid wins. The game can be
repeated if the students want to and if time allows. (25 minutes).
After the game is finished, the students will meet back in the middle where I will review everything they have
learned over the past two classes with a PowerPoint presentation and ask them some review questions. (10
minutes)

Pre-Assessment:
At the beginning of each day when I am first addressing the students I will ask questions to the group and see
if the students know the answers. This will be a way that I can pre-assess what the students know about the
lesson before we begin the class for the day. The students should know more of the answers on the second day
since we previously learned it the day before. How well they do on answering these questions will determine if
I need to spend more time teaching before we do the activities.
Scoring Guidelines:
The way these questions will be scored will be based on how many of the correct answers are given
without assistance. The more questions that the students get right, the more prepared they are for the
lesson.
Ongoing assessments for this lesson will be going on throughout the activities in this lesson. I will walk
around the classroom and listen in on what the students are having trouble with or doing well with. This will
help me know what I need to explain more and help with.
Post-Assessment:
The post assessment for this activity will be a simple quiz on the next class day before we begin the new
lesson. The quiz will be 10 basic questions about the food pyramid that they will have to take by their selves
with no help from teachers or other students.
Scoring Guidelines:
They will be graded on correctness and included in their final class grade. The quiz will demonstrate
their basic understanding of the material we covered over the past two classes.

Differentiated Instructional Support

Describe how instruction can be differentiated (changed or altered) to meet the needs of gifted or accelerated
students:

This activity could be altered in many ways to meet the needs of gifted students. If there are just a few gifted
students in the class there could be an extra activity for the students to do as homework. I would have them
create a powerpoint presentation presenting what they have learned about the food pyramid. This would
require extra effort and skills to challenge them more than the other children. If the whole class is accelerated
students, the game could be modified to use words instead of pictures. Challenging them to read what food and
then decide where it goes.
Discuss additional activities you could do to meet the needs of students who might be struggling with the
material:
I would have extra fun worksheets made up to give to students that are having a particularly difficult time
grasping the material. I would also have websites such as http://www.abcya.com/trip_food_pyramid.htm that I
would recommend students spend time looking at to better understand.

Extension
http://www.nourishinteractive.com/kids/5-food-group-games
http://www.abcya.com/trip_food_pyramid.htm
http://www.healthyeating.org/Healthy-Kids/Kids-Games-Activities/My-Plate-Match-Game.aspx
These are all links that lead to fun kid friendly games that the kids could enjoy while furthering their
knowledge about the food pyramid. These sites are bright colored and made for kids so it will catch their
attention and feel like they are playing a game rather than learning. It will help them understand it more than
they do just hearing me talk about it.

Homework Options and Home Connections

A homework assignment that I would send home would be a picture of an empty food pyramid and a page of
pictures of food. The students would have to color and cut out the pictures and glue them to the pyramid in the
right spots. This homework assignment would be graded based on completion but we would go over it in class
to make sure they understand their mistakes. This could be modified to make it technology-based by using a
computer program to compete it online instead of on paper.
Another assignment could be to have them go over the recommended links and play the games. This would
have them using technology and learning more outside of the classroom. The parents could help the children
that do not know how to use a computer.

Interdisciplinary Connections
This lesson could be integrated with the concept of calories and exercise. After learning about which foods are
good and bad for you, the students could then learn about how much food youre supposed to eat and how

much youre supposed to exercise. These two things could farther their understanding about being healthy and
help them understand how to take care of their body. Counting calories would integrate math into the lesson
and it all would integrate health into the lesson. The kids would be getting physical education, health, and math
all at once.
Materials and Resources:

For teachers

Computer, Printer, Overhead Projector, Smart Board, Paper, Tape

For students

Computers, Printers, Something that accesses the internet at home, Coloring materials,
Glue

Key Vocabulary
Food pyramid, food groups, grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat, calorie, exercise