Three Healthful Meals:
A Practical Food-Guide-Pyramid Activity

You might share with students some information about the new food pyramid introduced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2005.

Draw students' attention to the fact that some foods might include ingredients from more that one food group. For example, a slice of pepperoni pizza would include a serving from the bread group (crust), the milk group (cheese), the meat group (pepperoni), and the vegetable group (tomato sauce).

Distribute glue, scissors, and markers.

Students will collect a handful of food images from magazines and glue them to the appropriate plates. Then they will return to the magazines to find other images that could help fill up their plates.

You might set up another table with art supplies. Students could actually draw, paint, or use colored paper to create additional items for their plates.

If your students have access to computers, they might use clip art sites that offer illustrations of food items. Following are a few good sites where students might find food art:

Clipart Guide: Food

Food Clipart

IconBazaar: Food Clipart

Food Clipart

Food Clip Art

Webweavers Free Clipart: Fruit

Free Clipart Pictures: Fruit

Vegetable Clip Art Index

Classroom Clipart: Vegetable Clipart

Food and Cooking Clip Art Index

Students might use Google Image Search to find additional images.

Allow plenty of time for the students to complete the activity (20 to 30 minutes). At the conclusion of the project, students will be responsible for recording the number of servings from each food group and identifying the foods. They should include foods they actually would eat for each meal. Collect students' plates, or have students present their work to their classmates. Display the plates on a classroom bulletin board.

Assessment

Check each student's finished project to see that all items are included. Deduct five points from a grade of 100 for each missing item. Each project should contain two servings from the meat group; three servings from the fruit group; three servings from the vegetable group; four servings from the milk and cheese group; and six servings from the bread and cereal group.

Submitted By

Mandy Logue, Alcorn Central Elementary School in Glen, Mississippi

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