Healthy Eating

in literacy and numeracy

Healthy Eating in literacy and numeracy

This PowerPoint is designed to provide ideas to enable you to carry the healthy eating theme into literacy and numeracy lessons.

The PowerPoint shows how the Food – a fact of life (FFL) website resources can be used to enhance the teaching of literacy and numeracy while reinforcing healthy eating messages.

As children’s abilities can vary a great deal, the ideas become progressively more challenging as the list on each page goes down. In this way, it is hoped that teachers will be able to identify the ideas most appropriate for their pupils.

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Literacy

InstructionStory writing

Poetry

Word work

Explanation

Persuasion

Now choose a topic…

Numeracy

Measure

Number

Data handling

Number

Choose an area of number…

The four operations

Counting

Fractions

Data handling•

Sort and classify objects -Choose different criteria to sort food pictures, e.g. by shape, colour, eaten cooked or

raw. Use FFL, 5-7, Key Fact 2 - Food Cards 1.

Green Circular

Data Handling continued…• Collect and interpret data in response to healthy eating questions: -Who, on our table, eats the most fruit in a day/week? Record in lists and

simple graphs, e.g. block, pictorial.

-What is the most popular type of fruit in our class? Record in tally charts, tables, pictorial and/or bar charts.

-At what time of the day is most fruit eaten? Record in a graph, interpret data and suggest reasons for the results.

- What percentage of each food group did I eat yesterday? Children can use the excel program to calculate what percentage of each food group they ate yesterday (FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 2 – excel worksheet 16 ). Use the program or draw a pie chart to show this and compare it with the Balance of Good Health percentages. Repeat for a different day (perhaps a weekend day) and compare it with the previous chart.

The Balance of Good Health

33%

15%7%

12%

33%

The food groups I ate yesterday

27%

20%

13%

7%

33%

Bread, other cerealsand potatoes

Milk and dairy

Foods containing fatand foods containingsugar

Meat, fish andalternatives

Fruit and vegetables

Data Handling continued…

• Draw bar charts -Use the information on Energy needs (FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 3, worksheet 21) to draw

bar charts showing some or all of the different age groups and their energy needs. -Use the Nutrient Cards (FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 4 – Food Cards 6) as a source of

information to draw graphs for the different nutrients in foods , e.g. bar chars to compare energy or protein provided by different foods.

-Ask children to bring in food labels and draw graphs based on the nutrients.

Measure

Choose an area of measure…

length mass

Length• Order a variety of food items according to size -Display a variety of foods and ask children to order them according to length/height, e.g. vegetables - carrots, leeks, runner beans or canned foods - tuna, chopped

tomatoes, sweetcorn.

• Measure food items in non-standard units -Measure dried spaghetti, a carton of orange juice or a leek with counting cubes or

straws.

Length continued…• Estimate and measure food items in standard units of

measure -Give children a selection of foods and ask them to estimate and then

measure the items (length/width or both). -Ask children to find the perimeter of different rectangular shaped foods/food

containers, e.g. a slice of bread, a cracker, a margarine tub, a cereal box. To make the task more challenging, choose foods with more complicated shapes!

• Convert one metric unit of measure to another -Ask children to measure items and then convert them into other metric units, e.g. a

leek is 24 cm long, how many mm is that? How many m?

Mass*• Order items of food according to mass -Give children items of food and ask them to order them according to

mass (holding the objects to judge the heaviness).

• Weigh items in non-standard units -Use balance scales to compare the mass of food items with objects in

the classroom, e.g. this carrot has the same mass as 21 plastic cubes or 16 pencils.

• Weigh items in standard units of measure -Make some of the recipes from the FFL website so children can practise

measuring in a real life context. Use this opportunity to explore capacity as well as mass.

-Ask children to change the recipes to suit a different number of people, e.g. e.g. halve or double them

-With more able children, this could be used as an opportunity to look at and compare imperial and metric measures of mass (and capacity).

=

* In the international system of units, kilogram (kg) is the unit of mass. In practice, mass is measured by weighing. For children ages 5-7, it is acceptable to treat weight as synonymous with mass.

Mass continued…

• Make sensible estimates of mass in everyday situations -Help children learn to judge mass more accurately by providing them with various

food cans, e.g. tomatoes, peaches, beans, and packets, e.g. cereal bars, rice, pasta. With the masses hidden, get the children to work together to estimate the mass of different items. After they have done this, reveal the mass of one item and give children the opportunity to adjust their estimates in the light of the new information. More items could slowly be revealed to help the children reach a closer estimate.

Mass continued…• Make sensible estimates of mass (continued) -To reinforce children’s understanding of mass, use FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 3 – poster 2,

3 and excel worksheet 18. Look at poster 2 and discuss with the children the mass and amount of different foods needed to get 400 kJ of energy.

-Children could weigh out the foods on poster 2 and look at poster 3 to see what they could do with that amount of energy.

-Poster 2 could also be used to prompt questions for mental maths work, e.g. How many grams of margarine would I have if I had 3 scoops? If I had 90g of chocolate, how many cubes would I have?

-The excel worksheet allows the user to change the mass of various items and see what happens to the energy content. This could be used on an interactive whiteboard, again, as a prompt for mental maths work (or on individual computers – embedded ICT). Children could be asked questions such as – if I had 200g of oranges, how much energy would that provide? Children’s answers could be checked using the excel program.

Counting and ordering• Count and order numbers -Use the FFL, 5-7, Key Fact 2 - Food Cards 1, to create ordering and counting

activities, e.g. How many fruits/vegetables can you count? How many red foods? How many types of bread? How many foods with circular or oval shapes?

-Using the FFL, 5-7, Key Fact 3 – Fruit Kebab, recipe 2, children can create fruit kebabs that contain a specified number of pieces of each type of fruit (counting skills). They can also experiment with repeating patterns. (Using this recipe, older children could do ratio work, e.g. create a kebab with the ratio of melon to grapes 2 : 3.)

-Other FFL recipes could also be used to promote counting, e.g. through counting out ingredients (slices, handfuls) and counting out portions for those eating.

Counting and ordering continued…-Using the Energy Cards (FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 3 –Food Cards 5), children can practise

readingand ordering 3 and 4 digit numbers. These cards can also be a prompt for getting

children to round the numbers up/down to the nearest 10 or 100 and questioning children on the value of digits in the numbers.-More able children could order decimal numbers using the Nutrient Cards (FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 4 – Food Cards 6). For example they could order foods according to the amount ofprotein they provide or find the 5 items that provide the most fat and put them in order.

- + The four operations ÷ X

• Whole numbers and decimals -Use the Energy Chart (FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 3 – worksheet 20) and the Nutrient Cards (FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 4 – Food Cards 6) to generate mental or written questions

of varying difficulty, e.g. How much energy would a 35kg child use if he/ she read a book for 30 minutes? If a 35 kg child ate two bread rolls and 50g cheese, would this give him/her enough energy to skip for 30 minutes? How much protein would be provided if I ate 2 lamb chops and 50g of baked beans? -Use food prices to calculate the cost of making recipes from the FFL website, e.g.

fruit kebabs. -Plan an end of term party - use the FFL recipes and calculate the amount needed

and cost for the whole class. Introduce the idea of ratio to increase the recipes. Make the food. -Calculate the energy content for a selection of foods, e.g. a cheese sandwich and

half an orange.

Fractions• Use simple fractions -Use cooking as an opportunity to explore fractions and related vocabulary, e.g. make

bread using the FFL recipe, get the children to work in 4s so they have to quarter the mixture, get them to halve their own portion to create two small rolls. Other recipes can also be used to get children to share and cut/divide ingredients into portions for preparing and consuming.

-Children could reduce or increase recipes from the FFL site, e.g. If you double this BLT recipe, what will you need?

-Introduce equivalent fractions through food, e.g. slice up a sandwich and demonstrate a

quarter is the equivalent of two eighths. -Explore fractions of quantities through food, e.g. Share this punnet of strawberries

into 5 groups (for 5 smoothies), how many strawberries in each fifth? How many in 2 fifths?

Instruction• Read and write instructions -Read the recipes from FFL, 5-7, Key Fact 3 & 4 (Fruit salad, Smoothie, Sandwich

wrap) and discuss the features of this type of text. -In pairs or small groups, re-read the method section of a recipe and mime or

Illustrate each stage. -Read and follow the instructions to prepare the food in the recipe. -Write a new recipe based on those read and tried, e.g. a vegetable/fruit kebab or fruit salad made with different types of fruit. Use the recipes as models for writing.

Instruction continued…• Read, write and identify the features of instructionsThe activity ideas on the previous page can be repeated with older children but to a

higher level : -Read recipes from FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 4 (Super salad, Triple Decker Sandwich) and

discuss the features of this type of text in detail, e.g. lists, numbered points - Identify key words, e.g. imperative verbs - cut, place, mix * -Follow the recipe instructions, taking more responsibility for organising equipment,

ingredients and hygienic practice. -Write new recipes and test them to see if the instructions are clear and the end

product is good. Write instructions for being hygienic (FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 5 – work on

hygiene)

*see the main British Nutrition Foundation website for individual, labelled photographs of different actions,

go to www.nutrition.org.uk Education, Cook Club and then Actions.

List punctuated by commas

Heading

Numbering Chronological sequence

Bullet point

Instruction continued…For more primary recipes, available in different formats, have a look at the main BritishNutrition Foundation website, go to: www.nutrition.org.uk Education, Cook Club and

then Primary School Recipes.

Step by step instructions with photographs.

A5 photographs with a sentence for each stage of the recipe.

A5 photographs with the action word for each stage of the recipe.

Story writing• Write Stories-Experiential stories: Make some of the recipes (FFL, 5-7, Key Fact 3 & 4) and ask children

towrite about their cooking experience or use the experience as a prompt to create a

fictional cooking story like The gingerbread man. Create a simple picture story book with

sentences.-Myths: Show a selection of interesting fruits and vegetables, allow children to handle

and taste them. Record a detailed sensory investigation of some of the items (how they look, taste, feel, smell). Take one of the fruits/vegetables and present the question, how did it come to be? Work with the children to draw out interesting reasons, based on the

features of

the food, as to how the fruit/vegetable came into existence.*

*For lots of labelled photographs of foods, including fruits and vegetables, go to our main website at www.nutrition.org.uk Education, Cook Club and then Ingredients.

Poetry• Sensory poetryAllow children to touch and taste a selection of fruits and or vegetables. Collect vocabularyto describe different fruit/vegetables under the headings of the five senses. Ask children to select one fruit/vegetable and collect their own words under the 5 headings. (Older children could use thesauri to expand their vocabulary list.) Children can then use these descriptive words as a starting point for their poetry work. Children could write:- shape poems, e.g. a poem about the taste, look and feel of a pineapple, andpresent it in a pineapple shape- acrostic poems, e.g. write the name of the chosen fruit/vegetable vertically down the pageand begin each line with a word that starts with that letter.

They could also explore other poetry styles such as haiku, lists and cinquain.

FFL, 5-7, Key Fact 4 – objective d, is a lesson on 5 A DAY which could be used as before or along side this poetry work.

Poetry continued…

• Multicultural poemsUse the activities ideas below as stimuli to help children write poems about meals and

foods from different countries. You could use some of the poetry styles suggested on the

previouspage.-Use the World Food Cards and the PowerPoint from FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 1 to get children thinking about meals from around the world. How do they look? Have children tried

them? What are they like? -Set up a tasting session of foods from around the world , e.g. breads, cheeses, fruits.

Discuss and compare tastes. Ask children to find out more about the foods, e.g. when and withwhat they are eaten, associated traditions. (Children could take a certain type of food

andwrite what it is like indifferent parts of the world, e.g. bread.)- Try making some foods from different places around the world, e.g. a tropical fruit salad made with Caribbean fruits, naan bread (recipe – FFL, 5-7, Key Fact 2).

Explanation• Healthy EatingTeaching children about healthy eating during other lesson, e.g. PSHE or science will enable them to use the subject knowledge to complete literacy tasks such as those suggested on the next page.

Depending on the age of the children and their background knowledge, use FFL, 5-7, Key

Fact 4 or FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 2 (Balance of Good Health materials) to teach children about

the Balance of Good Health. (FFL, 8-11, Key Fact 5 provides resources for teaching about hygiene and other ways to

keep healthy.)

Persuasion• Use persuasive devicesUsing resources from FFL, 5-7, Key Fact 4, teach children about the importance of eating

a balance and variety of foods to stay health, including 5 A DAY. Discuss with the children what foods they enjoy. Talk with the children about how they would encourage people to eat a variety of foods from the Balance of Good Health, especially fruits and vegetables. Talk about how foods look when they are most appealing, e.g. fruit when it is washed and chopped into bite sized pieces, colourful salads. With this information children could then

do some of the activities on the following page:

• Recognise, read and expand vocabulary

-The Alphabet cards from the main British Nutrition website* can be laminated and used as a display freeze to help children learn the alphabet. The attractive food pictures can be used to help children develop a wider knowledge of different foods.

-The website above also contains labelled photographs of ingredients, equipment and actions which can be used to create attractive displays and help children learn to recognise and read words. (Use the web address below then - Education, Cook Club and either Ingredients/Equipment/Actions.)

-Food Cards 1 (FFL, 5-7, Key Fact 2) can be used to expand children’s food vocabulary and develop word recognition. They can also be sorted alphabetically to develop alphabet ordering skills (the number of cards given to order could be reduced or expanded according to age/ability).

-Children could taste a selection of unfamiliar fruits (or vegetables) and then make a ‘Fruit dictionary’ to record the information (appearance and taste). Older/more able children could research information (encyclopaedias/the internet) about the fruit/vegetables, such as their origin or the growing conditions needed to create more complex dictionaries.

* www.nutrition.org.uk Education, Teacher Centre and then Alphabet Cards

Word work

Persuasion continued…

• Use persuasive devices-Design a poster, leaflet or flyer to persuade younger children/peers to eat a balance andvariety of foods or 5 A DAY.-Compose a radio jingle or television advert to encourage healthy eating or the consumption of more fruit and vegetables.-Discuss with children current healthy eating promotion on television and throughposters/leaflets. Evaluate these adverts for their persuasiveness, clarity and quality of information. What are the persuasive devises?-Write a persuasive letter or hold a debate on a healthy eating issue, e.g. starting a

healthy food tuck shop, selling fruit salad on sports day, starting a breakfast club/ increasing the variety of food options available, opening an after school cooking/growing club*

*For more information about promoting these clubs in your school go to: www.foodinschools.org

Explanation continued…

• Read and write explanations-Children could read BOGH information/resources themselves and then write a simplified explanation using the 5 food groups as their 5 main paragraphs, to help them structure

theirwriting.-Using information from the FFL website resources, children could write explanations on

other food related issues such as - how to be hygienic when cooking.-Children could produce their Balance of Good Health/hygiene explanation as a

PowerPoint presentation which would also develop speaking and listening and ICT skills.