This lesson will begin with a poem about nutrition. In this lesson students will be involved in a teacher facilitated discussion about different food choices for the five different food categories we will cover (grains, fruit, vegetables, dairy and protein). The lesson will move onto a worksheet that the students will complete in groups of four. The worksheet will lay out a blank menu for the day with each food category's serving sizes that need to be met. After getting their groups worksheet completed correctly, the students will divide the four meals between themselves, each representing a meal. Each student will draw a on a paper plate their menu and represent the serving sizes correctly.

As a class we will talk about making healthy choices, meeting daily servings, and choosing correct serving sizes. We will talk about what serving sizes of different foods looks like.

Fist -- a serving of vegetables or fruit is about the size of your fist
A rounded handful -- about one half cup cooked or raw veggies or cut fruit, a piece of fruit, or ½ cup of cooked rice or pasta – this is a good measure for a snack serving, such as chips or pretzels
Deck of cards -- a serving of meat, fish or poultry or the palm of your hand (don't count your fingers!) – for example, one chicken breast, ¼ pound hamburger patty or a medium pork chop
Golf ball or large egg -- one quarter cup of dried fruit or nuts
Tennis ball -- about ½ cup of ice cream
Baseball – 1 cup leafy veggies (lettuce, spinach)
Computer mouse -- about the size of a small baked potato
CD case-- about the size of one serving of pancake or small waffle
Thumb tip -- about one teaspoon of peanut butter
Six dice or Three dominoes -- a serving of cheese
Check book -- a serving of fish (approximately 3 oz.)
Ping pong ball – two tablespoons of peanut butter
Light bulb – ½ cup cooked beans
½ baseball – ½ cup fruit juice

Students will be put into groups of four and given the daily menu worksheet. I will explain that each worksheet needs to be filled out, completing each meal (breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner) to meet the choosemyplate.gov daily serving amounts. This means that each meal will need to include a group of food options (foods cannot be repeated in other meals) and the serving amount that is planned to be eaten (i.e. 1 cup, 4 ounces, 3 tablespoons). To make sure students are meeting the daily servings needed in each food group, students will need to use the tally chart at the bottom. For each time a serving is completed, a tally should be made in under that food group. This will allow students to quickly and easily add up their daily servings for each food group, and ensure their daily needs are met so that they can move onto the next part of the lesson.

Once students have completed the daily menu worksheet (and it has been checked over by a teacher), they will each choose a meal they would like to represent. Each meal will have its contents drawn out on a plate, and will be actual serving size. This means that if a student's meal includes a tablespoon of peanut butter, then their drawing should be about the size of a ping pong ball (because remember, a ping pong ball is about the size of two tablespoons, which is one serving size of peanut butter).

After all instructions are given I will ask students if they have any questions for me about what they have to do.

Menu Planning worksheet
Paper Plate Meal
Group work/coordination
Math skill (addition with fractions)

A good reference tool to use in addition to the others mentioned would be the choosemyplate.gov This now takes the place of the food guide pyramid.