Curriculum – Nutrition (Public Schools of Brookline, MA)

The following curriculum was prepared for The Michael Driscoll School in Brookline, MA:

NUTRITION

Description –

This Unit is being prepared for a kindergarten class at the Michael Driscoll School in Brookline, MA. The class is made up of 19 students; 12 boys and 7 girls. Though their age range is not that broad (all of the students are between 5.7 and 6.6 years old), there is still a great deal of diversity in the class. While some students come from affluent and established families, others come from families who do not have the same level of financial resources. Also, while some families have been in Brookline for a long time, others have only recently come to the area (if not the country). Three students are from Russia, one is from Guatemala (one of a pair of adopted twins), and one other is from China. As a result, many students are often taken out of the classroom for extended periods to work on their language skills. One student has Downs Syndrome and is on an Individual Education Plan (IEP), as is another student who suffers from speech and language difficulties.

Though the cultural differences present in the classroom may pose difficulties for some students, they also offer many benefits. As many of the students and their families hail from so many diverse and distant lands (in addition to the aforementioned students, the class also includes a student who’s father is from Cameroon and another whose parents are French), the possibilities for family involvement (e.g., discussing and demonstrating dietary differences from their home cultures) in this Unit are exciting. Before the Unit begins, a letter will go home to parents inviting their participation. It is hoped that, through the involvement and celebration of the various cultures that contribute to the class, the Unit will be able to deal not only as a venue in which to examine and experiment with food and nutrition, but also as an arena in which to discuss cultural diversity.

As there are a number of communicative and language issues in the class, this Unit will include both verbal and non-verbal elements and both individual and group projects, so that each student will be able to participate and contribute at a level at which he or she is comfortable. As this Unit is also based around a topic that is also broad and potentially complicated, the activities will be designed so as to allow for participation from and educational appreciation from the greatest number of students. As the students interact with each other and with the materials presented in activities that call upon their own experience and interests, they will be able to construct their own learning, thereby making it more important and comprehensible to them.

Among the Lessons that are planned for this Unit are a student-driven and highly participatory sorting activity which will allow students to come to see the common elements that define the various food groups (e.g., grains, fruits and vegetables, dairy, and proteins), readings about healthy eating and about where and how food is produced, diet tracking and journaling, trips to a local fruit stand and a local restaurant, and the students’ creation of their own “fruit stand” and “restaurant” in the classroom. Through these and other activities, this Unit will be integrated into the curriculum (e.g., by using math time to count and add the number of foods in each food group that the students eat, by using literacy periods to read about nutrition, etc.) and will make nutrition a more prevalent part of the students’ lives, both during and after the Unit.

Rationale –

Especially in these days when obesity is such a prevalent problem, when fast food and other less nutritious food choices are so prevalent and accessible, and when so many parents use food as a means of appeasing or rewarding their children, instilling in children their own sense of the importance of proper nutrition and appropriate food choices is literally vital. Children who do not learn good eating habits early on are much more likely to develop serious health problems – including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and many others – later on. As a former fitness trainer who continues to value good nutrition as part of an overall health regimen, I hope to inspire my students by introducing them to the wonderful and diverse world of food that can be enjoyed and appreciated as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle.

According to Howe, “the purpose of science education is to provide the learning environment, the experiences, and the opportunities for discussion and reflection, that will lead to…frameworks for understanding natural phenomena” (quoted in Kostelnik, Sodernman, Whiren, 1999, p. 342). Lind goes so far as to define science as “the process of finding out and a system for organizing and reporting discoveries” (Lind, 1997, p. 75). According to Kostelnik, et. al., “children have a driving need to learn” (1999, p. 342). Especially as kindergartners are still greatly involved in Piaget’s pre-operational stage, during which they have a limited ability to see things from perspectives other than their own (Cole & Cole, 2001, p. 163), it is all the more important (and enjoyable) to have them learn about themselves and how to take care of their own bodies while dealing with their own preferences and choices.

In regards to health and nutrition education, Hendricks & Smith claim that children “are responsible for their own health” (Hendricks & Smith, 1995, 70). They also say that nutrition must be included in an academic program in order to “foster awareness of different types of food and to promote exploration and inquiry into food choices” (ibid, 73). Such “exploration and inquiry” will be the main thrust of this Unit. By allowing students to be exposed to and to then explore a wide variety of foods and food choices – many of which, Eliason and Jenkins suggest, they “have never tasted” and therefore “know little about” (Eliason & Jenkins, 1999, 194) – it is hoped, at least, that the students will come to make better, or at least more informed choices when it comes to nutrition.
In the process of encouraging such choices, however, it must be remembered that encouragement is the most and best that can be done. Citing Bomba’s “seven do’s for fostering good nutritional attitudes,” Eliason and Jenkins suggest that children be “encouraged” rather than forced to taste new foods (ibid, 193). They go on to suggest that any introductions of new foods, or in fact any experiences dealing with food, be kept pleasant and not limited by any one experience. Especially as many children need to have foods repeatedly introduced before they agree to try them and then perhaps incorporate them into their diet, it is important to offer them ample opportunity to experiment and explore food, as opposed to forcing or bribing them. This Unit will provide a forum in which such exposure and experimentation can take place.

As discussed by Birch, Johnson, and Fisher (1995), the idea of “bribing” children with or about food raises another important issue related to dietary planning: Too often, certain foods (e.g., cookies and other sweets) are used as reward. For example, who has not heard such phrases as “If you finish all of your dinner, you can have dessert,” or “If you behave while I shop, I will buy you a candy bar before we leave,” etc.? As a result, many children come to see sweets not only as pleasurable in and of themselves, but also as symbols of positive behavior. Is it any wonder, then, that many adults also “reward” themselves with such foods? Apparently, bad habits are hard to break. According to Birch, et. al., “coercive feeding tactics (such as rewarding children for eating foods they do not spontaneously consume) may have the immediate effect of increasing intake [but] they can also have negative long-term effects” (Birch, 1995, pp. 74-5). That is why this Unit will address such issues, presenting healthier alternatives that can be enjoyed just as much.

As it is the parents who often make dietary decisions for their children, it is hoped that they will agree to be actively involved in this Unit as partners and providers. It is also hoped that this Unit will initiate an open discussion about what their children eat. Though food is, at base, a means of nutritional delivery, it is also a complex aspect of daily life that involves such diverse elements as culture and religion, economics, environment, and personal preference. Such diversity offers a wide array of educational possibilities, but it also establishes many potential obstacles, or at least considerations, that need to be dealt with before any education or change can take place. Through dialogue with parents and other people who wield influence in how diets are constructed (e.g., store owners, food marketers, etc.), this Unit will help to enlighten all involved as to the needs and desires of all the others.

According to Eliason and Jenkins, “children need to know where foods come from” (ibid, 196). As so much of what children (or, at least, urban and suburban-based children) eat is processed and packaged, they say, “it is difficult…to remain aware of nutritional values” (ibid, 194). Furthermore, as few children relate to food in contexts other than their homes, restaurants, and the supermarket, few of them have a strong sense of where it comes from or what goes into it. Through field trips to a local fruit stand, the students will learn first hand about how food is actually produced and what can and often does happen to it on its way to them. In so doing, social studies elements will be incorporated into this curriculum as the students’ dietary decisions are informed regarding natural versus processed foods.

In the process of learning more about themselves and how to take better care of themselves (which is surely an egocentric goal), the students will also be involved in a number of Massachusetts Department of Education Educational Frameworks, not only for science, but for a number of other subjects as well. Through the sorting of foods into food groups, the students will develop mathematical skills such as those involved with classifying items and organizing them into groups that can be measured and compared. Properties of matter will also be dealt with through such classification, as students will be allowed to sort according to their own systems (e.g., by color, size, etc.) as well as by the guidelines and distinctions inherent in the idea of food groups. Cooking lessons will not only continue to develop mathematical skills (e.g., measuring), they will also allow the students to inquire into the nature of food production and to explore how variation of a recipe results in different products. Discussion of favorite foods will introduce social and cultural studies into the Unit and will allow the students to learn about each other while potentially expanding their dietary menus. As some of the foods will be used for purposes other than eating (e.g., using beans to make visual patterns and musical shakers), the students will come to see the wide array of purposes many foods serve. They will also be able to introduce food into still more curriculum areas, such as music and art.

Nutrition is a complex issue. As such, it can often be overwhelming, even for those who have studied it all their lives. In order to make it more accessible to the kindergarten students, this Unit will involve a wide variety of scientific processes and therefore a wide array of possible points of entry, many of which can be dealt with at a variety of levels. Through this Unit, students will learn and engage in such useful skills as observing, recording, and sharing data, coordinating and classifying objects according to sensory data, asking questions about and investigating similarities and differences among various objects (and the reasons for them), and using various tools and procedures to investigate a central topic and to process (and thereby change) a given object. Lesson 2, which is based on Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Carle, 1987) will introduce elements of life-cycle study (MA. Content Standard C), Lesson 5, which involves research into how culture affects diet, will involve elements of habitat study (MA. Content Standard C), and Lesson 4, which involves cooking, will introduce aspects of chemistry to the Unit (MA. Content Standard B). Throughout, the students will also be dealing with the primary principles of health and health maintenance (MA. Content Standard F).

The Unit is designed so that, even if an individual student is weak or simply not confident in a certain skill, they will be able to enter and enjoy the process through other means. For example, if a student is not confident with their writing abilities, drawing and verbal expression will also be allowed and encouraged. As some of the students are not at the same level as their classmates in terms of classification, writing, and communicative skills, etc., the Unit will combine individual, small group, and large group activities and also verbal, written, and visual activities so that each student will be able to showcase and develop their skills. When the students are in groups, each group will be supervised and supported by a teacher or aide. During individual exercises, teachers will circulate in order to provide support and assistance where necessary. In this way, the greatest number of students will be able to participate and learn.

Students will be assessed according to how their final products come out (e.g., whether their various journals are completed appropriately) and also according to how they derive their answers. For example, when asked to classify foods into groups, the students will be closely observed and occasionally interviewed in order to ascertain and assess their thought processes and what they are bringing to the experience. Many activities will depict and demonstrate these processes without explicit interrogation. For example, in the act of sorting various foods, students will reveal which aspect of the foods prevails as the most prominent and important in their minds. That one student classifies according to color while another does so according to which foods they like and dislike is significant and such experiences and explanations will be tracked as much as possible.

The end goal of the Unit will be an increased understanding of and appreciation for food and nutrition. While this may be very well exemplified through the activities that will be offered during the Unit, it will also manifest itself through the ways children eat after the Unit is completed. For this reason, the Food Journals (Lesson 3) will be very important as they will not only allow children to keep track of what they eat on any given day and thereby to classify and study their meals according to food groups, portions, etc., they will also allow for trends and changes to be tracked. In this way, the development of the student’s individual and group understanding and of their overall dietary habits will be traceable and assessable.

Goals and Objectives – Through this Unit, the students will come to understand the following:

Content Goals-
Nutrition is important and should be kept in mind when planning one’s diet.
Food imparts nutrients to the body that help it function and grow.
“Nutrients” are the good things in food that help us stay healthy.
People need to eat certain foods every day in order to maintain their health.
Some foods are more necessary than others and therefore require that people eat more of them each day.
A proper diet is important for a happy and healthy life.
Healthy food does not have to be boring or tasteless.
Just because a food tastes good may not mean that it is the healthiest option.
Foods come in a wide variety of forms and flavors.
Foods can be combined or otherwise altered to change their taste, texture, etc.

Process Goals-
Gathering, recording, organizing, processing, and analyzing data.
Recording, discussing, and drawing conclusions based on observations.
Observing, recording, and discussing transformation in states.
Comparing and contrasting.
Discussing similarities and differences among data and investigating reasons for these.
Searching for patterns.
Describing and communicating observations and conclusions through drawings, graphs, dramatizations, and words.
Hypothesizing about changes in actions.
Using the Internet as a research tool.
Investigating and discussing cultural diversity.
Cooperating with classmates to expand knowledge and understanding.

Unit objectives:
Tracking daily food intake.
Depicting amounts of various foods eaten each day.
Investigating why certain foods are necessary for the maintenance of health and for proper growth and development.
Investigating why certain foods fit into various categories and groups.
Maintaining a healthy diet.
Making healthy diet choices.
Exploring the wide array of foods that are available and how to make healthy food choices.
Investigating and discussing personal preferences and their inherent diversity, and how cultural background can affect such choices.
Investigating what goes into the foods we eat and how they are , processed, and delivered.
Exploring the world of restaurants.
Making things to eat and discussing the processes used.

Lesson 1: What We Eat

As an introduction to ideas regarding what people need to eat in order to maintain their health and to develop properly, the students will first be asked to take a closer look at the foods that they already eat. This will be accomplished by having them bring in examples of some of the foods that they eat on a regular basis. In an effort to simplify matters, the students may simply be asked to save the packages from foods that they bring in for snack and lunch over a series of days. Such a practice will also help them later on as they keep track of what they eat on subsequent days (Lesson 3).

Once the foods have been collected, either in individual boxes or as a group (with each student’s contributions being labeled with his or her initials), they will be presented in a centralized grouping, from which the students will each be asked to select a sample to categorize according to whatever characteristic they deem appropriate (e.g., color, shape, size, etc.). As many of the children may still be involved in the Piagetian mode of centration, it is expected that they will only be able to categorize the foods according to one characteristic at a time. This will be sufficient, however, for the purposes of this Lesson and how it fits into the larger Unit. In fact, the assumption that they can only categorize according to the one aspect that they consider to be most important will be useful, as it will allow the students’ opinions and thought processes to be assessed according to which aspect they each choose as the basis of their classification.

Once the students have become familiar with the idea of sorting foods according to various characteristics, they will be prompted to consider the foods in terms of what each is made of. For example, the Fruit Roll Ups^® and fruit-flavored snacks will be separated from the cookies and grain-based foods and the students will be asked to suggest why such distinctions have been made. In this way, the idea of “food groups” will be introduced. This distinction and the appropriate vocabulary will be reinforced with repeated categorizations over a series of days. Not until the students are able to select foods and categorize them according to which group each belongs to will the Unit be able to proceed effectively.

In addition to encouraging the students to focus more intently on what they eat each day (which is an underlying theme and goal of the entire Unit), this Lesson will also lead them to deal with environmental print, such as that found on labels and packaging. While many children can recognize characters like “Cap’n Crunch” and “Toucan Sam,” they may not be able to actually read the words on the boxes on which these cartoon characters appear (i.e., “Cap’n Crunch” and “Froot Loops,” respectively, both of which are potentially troubling in that they demonstrate and perhaps even encourage unconventional spelling). Furthermore, the students may also not realize that these characters and the “toy surprises” they often tout are intended to promote sales of foods that, in addition to providing them with nutritious elements (which often have to be added), also deliver excessive amounts of sugar, salt, and fat, which, according to all dietary guidelines, should be kept at a minimum. By bringing such things to the students’ attention, it is hoped that they will come to make more informed decisions regarding what they eat.

At the beginning and end of the Unit, the students will be asked to produce a journal entry in which they complete the sentence, “My favorite food is….” Those students who wish to will be allowed to share these entries with the rest of the class and supportive, non-judgmental discussion will be encouraged. During this discussion, students will be asked about special foods they have enjoyed within the context of their families or cultural groups. In this way, the important topic of cultural diversity will be introduced to the Unit as a means of explaining the wide range of foods that will be discussed and investigated throughout.

Such consideration at the start of the Unit will set the tone for the introspective elements that are so vital to proper food choices. A revisiting of this topic at the end of the Unit will allow for tracking of potential changes in the students’ personal preferences. This bookend approach will also help contain the Unit within the larger parameters of the academic year, while allowing the students to use even the conclusion as a jumping-off point for further consideration.

Developmental Domains – This Lesson will deal with the following domains:

Aesthetic-
Students will examine various foods and arrange them in an orderly manner according to common elements and sensory aspects.

Cognitive-
Students will become familiar with various foods and how they are organized into food groups.

Language-
Students will discuss their views regarding how various foods can and should be classified.
Students will describe personal preferences through journaling.
Students will share information with their classmates through graphic depictions and presentations.

Physical-
Students will arrange foods and images of foods into food groups.

Social-
Students will discuss and come to appreciate each other’s preferences and tastes.

Content Areas – This Lesson will deal with the following content areas:

Mathematics-
Students will categorize food according to certain properties.

Science-
Students will investigate, question, discuss, and learn about various characteristics of food.
Students will ask questions and make predictions about various foods.

Language Arts-
Students will talk and write about food.
Students will discuss personal preferences.

Social Studies-
Students will discuss how different people have different preferences when it comes to food and will investigate how these preferences relate to cultural background.

Curriculum Frameworks – This Lesson will deal with the following areas of the Learning Expectations of the Brookline Public School system:

Math-
Students will count, sort, and classify objects, persons and things.
Students will identify an attribute by comparing objects.
Students will identify, copy, describe, extend and create color, size, or type-of-object patterns.
Students will notice patterns found in the real world.

Science-
Students will observe and describe details, note similarities and differences among objects.
Students will ask questions and make predictions.
Students will listen to and comment appropriately on statements of other children and adults.
Students will use a common working vocabulary as it relates to the Unit.
Students will apply personal experience and knowledge to make predictions.
Students will search for patterns in their observations and create explanations.
Students will describe and communicate observations and conclusions through drawings, graphs, dramatizations and words.
Students will compare and describe objects according to color, shape, texture, odor, sounds, size.
Students will count and compare quantities of objects.
Students will use their senses to observe and describe familiar objects.
Students will group objects by similarities.

Language Arts-
Students will follow two- or three-step directions.
Students will comment appropriately on statements of other children and adults.
Students will give attention to speaker without interrupting.

Social Studies-
Students will practice and acquire habit of listening to stories.
Students will take part by being helpful and cooperative to others.
Students will work with diligence and honesty.

Goals – Through this Lesson, the students will come to understand the following:

Content Goals-
Foods can be classified into groups, including grains, fruits and vegetables, dairy, and proteins.
People should eat certain amounts of each food group every day in order to grow healthy and strong.
Some foods are more necessary than others and therefore require that people eat more of them each day.
Some foods are not as healthy as others and should be kept to a minimum.

Process Goals-
Gathering, recording, organizing, processing, and analyzing data.
Discussing similarities and differences among data and investigating reasons for these.
Cooperating with classmates to expand knowledge and understanding.

Objectives – During this Lesson, the students will:

Learn to classify foods according to common elements.
Discuss the foods they eat and how they fit into a healthy diet.
Reflect upon and discuss personal preferences involving food and how cultural differences may contribute to these.

Materials –

Examples of each food group (e.g., a loaf of bread, apples, broccoli, a can of tuna, cookies)
Writing and art materials (e.g., pencils, pens, markers)

Procedures –

Students will be asked what they know about food and this information will be written down for later review.
Students will bring in examples of foods they eat normally.
Students will be asked to categorize these familiar foods and to explain their reasoning for doing so. Their chosen means of categorization (e.g., by size, color, etc.) will be recorded for later discussion.
Students will discuss various ways of classifying foods, including the idea of food groups.
Students will discuss how various foods can be made from similar ingredients and how many different forms a given food can come in (e.g., apples, applesauce, apple juice).
Students will write about and depict their favorite foods.
Students will discuss personal preferences and how cultural differences may affect them.

Adjustments/Accommodations –

As all students may not have the same level of familiarity with the same realm of foods, and as all students can benefit from even the simplest classifications, the foods presented will be selected from among those the students have been regularly observed eating and from those they have brought in to class. In this way, the students’ connection to the exercise will be more natural and therefore stronger. Students who have difficulty drawing or writing the names of their foods will be assisted by adult staff who will also be available to take dictation from the students or help them simplify their depictions to a comfortable degree.

Another possible means of simplification will be to name a number of foods (e.g., breakfast foods such as cereal, milk, juice, toast, etc.) and have the students stand when something that they ate that morning is mentioned. By making sure that each item named is from a different food group (e.g., cereal and toast from the grains group, milk from the dairy group, fruit juice from the fruits and vegetables group), the students will come to see and experience the distinctions among the various groups and also how they interact in any given meal.

Evaluation / Assessment –

By asking the students to bring in foods for the sorting activity, the Lesson will allow for a non-judgmental assessment of their current dietary habits. Once the foods have been gathered, the student’s preferences will be assessed according to the criteria by which they sort the foods. These criteria will be recorded so that the students’ individual learning and change over time can be tracked. As has been discussed, students of this age define objects according to the one criterion that they consider to be most important. As such, their means of sorting the foods will demonstrate their priorities. If, for example, a student sorts by color or size, as opposed to by food group, this will show that they consider physical characteristics to be more important (or perhaps simply more familiar) than what is actually inside each food and of what each consists. In their discussion of various means of sorting, these preferences and priorities will be discussed in such a way that will hopefully lead some students to reconsider the foods and their means of clarification among them, either immediately or later in the course of the Unit. Throughout the Unit, student contributions will be recorded and discussed at the time and, if appropriate, later on as well. In this Lesson, for example, the categories by which the students sort their foods will be recorded as a means of documenting their thought processes and choices. Any questions that arise in the process (and in the Unit as a whole) will be also investigated and answered as best as possible, so that the students can not only gain information, but also the validation of having their opinions taken into consideration.

As this Lesson involves personal preferences, judgment will be kept to a minimum. In fact, this Lesson will be used as a forum for supportive discussion of differences and as a means of emphasizing the importance of accepting people who may be or act differently from others. As the classroom is so culturally diverse, this Lesson should facilitate a lively, supportive, and mutually-edifying discussion that will allow the students to not only explore their personal preferences but also to investigate how and why they may differ from those of their classmates.

Lesson 2: Caterpillar Diet Journals

In this Lesson, students will be introduced to the process of keeping track of what they eat in order to track patterns and trends. This will be done through the use of the familiar story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, in which a caterpillar eats an increasing number of foods; one more on each passing day. After being read the story, the students will be given Very Hungry Caterpillar Journals (sample attached), in which they will write their own versions of the story. This activity will help bridge the students’ learning from the familiar story to the new activity of keeping track of their own diets that will be presented in the next Lesson.

Developmental Domains – This Lesson will deal with the following domains:

Affective-
Students will develop a greater sense of dietary habits and how what people and animals eat affects them.

Cognitive-
Students will come to consider food in terms of its effect on the eater.

Language-
Students will be read a story and then write their own version of it in a prepared journal.

Content Areas – This Lesson will deal with the following content areas:

Mathematics-
Students will count and depict increasing numbers of items.

Science-
Students will observe and discuss how eating affects the eater (e.g., the caterpillar grows fat and eventually turns into a butterfly with the help of the food he eats) and how food is involved in the life cycle.
Students will ask questions and make predictions about foods and their relationship to the life cycle.

Language Arts-
Students will discuss and write about what the caterpillar eats.

Curriculum Frameworks – This Lesson will deal with the following areas of the Learning Expectations of the Brookline Public School system:

Math-
Students will count, sort, and classify objects, persons and things.
Students will demonstrate a reasonable sense of numbers relevant to their everyday lives.

Science-
Students will search for patterns in their observations and create explanations.
Students will describe and communicate observations and conclusions through drawings, graphs, dramatizations and words.
Students will count and compare quantities of objects.
Students will group objects by similarities.

Language Arts-
Students will follow two- or three-step directions.
Students will comment appropriately on statements of other children and adults.
Students will give attention to speaker without interrupting.
Students will choose to write.
Students will write from left to right in line, from top to bottom of page.
Students will repeat part of a story.

Social Studies-
Students will practice and acquire habit of listening to stories.
Students will learn to recognize narrative story elements (e.g., chronology and narrative order).
Students will dictate sentences about story elements of character, event, setting.
Students will take part by being helpful and cooperative to others.
Students will work with diligence and honesty.

Goals – Through this Lesson, the students will come to understand the following:

Content Goals-
It is important to eat a sufficient amount of food from each food group.
A proper diet is important for a happy and healthy life.
Numbers increase in a stepwise manner.

Process Goals-
Gathering, recording, organizing, processing, and analyzing data.
Searching for patterns.
Describing and communicating observations and conclusions through drawings, graphs, dramatizations, and words.
Cooperating with classmates to expand knowledge and understanding.

Objectives – During this Lesson, the students will:

Classify foods into food groups.
Track daily food intake.
Depict amounts of various foods eaten each day.
Keep track of the various foods the caterpillar eats and how each food affects the caterpillar.
Begin to consider how changes in diet might affect other elements of the caterpillar’s life.

Materials –

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Carle, 1987).
Caterpillar Diet Journals
Writing and art materials (e.g., pencils, pens, markers)

Procedures –

1. Students will be read Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

2. Students will discuss the various foods the caterpillar ate and how it was affected by its eating habits (e.g., that eating so much caused the caterpillar to grow fat but that the food was necessary for it to continue on in its prescribed life cycle).

Students will each be given Caterpillar Diet Journals.
Students will be asked to write their own version of the story, depicting and describing the (varied) types and (increasing) numbers of foods that the caterpillar ate on each subsequent day.
These Journals will be shared with the class and then kept as part of the continuing record of each student’s learning.
As the Journals are shared, students will discuss the various foods that were used in terms of such aspects as personal preference.

Adjustments/Accommodations –

Though every student has recently participated in a concentrated study of number words (e.g., “one,” “two,” etc.), as some students may still have difficulty with writing these (or with writing in general, especially for such a prolonged assignment), teachers and aides will be available to help them. There will also be a set of picture cards that will include the appropriate number words, along with a selection of food words (e.g., “banana,” “carrot,” “fish”) that the students will be allowed to use to help them complete the Journals. If students still find it difficult to write the appropriate words, they may be allowed to simply draw the appropriate number of items on each page. In this way, it is hoped that all students will be able to participate in and learn from this exercise, in preparation for the next Lesson.

Evaluation / Assessment –

Whether or not the students are able to depict an ever-increasing amount of foods eaten on each day of the Journal will demonstrate whether or not they were able to comprehend and interpret data presented in the reading. The final Journals will also demonstrate the students’ abilities to make use of the appropriate number and food words they have been provided in this and previous lessons. The students’ ability to replicate the story they have been read, along with their ability to keep track of the order of the numbers and the corresponding foods will be assessable by reading the Journals once they have been completed. The processing revealed in discussion regarding how diet can affect the dieter will also be assessed in terms of how well the students are coming to understand the importance of proper nutrition and a healthy diet and how different beings have different dietary needs.

Lesson 3: Personal Diet Journals

Now that the students have been introduced to the idea of food groups and to the process of keeping track of what an individual eats in a given period of time, they will be asked to keep track of their own diets according to these parameters. With the help of parents and teachers, the children will be asked to record how many items from each food group they eat on a given day in a Personal Diet Journal (sample attached). By repeating this process later in the Unit, the students will be able to track changes over time and to thereby keep track of how their diets have changed and to what extent they have come to comply with the guidelines depicted in the Food Pyramid.

Developmental Domains – This Lesson will deal with the following domains:

Affective-
Students will develop a greater sense of their dietary habits and of how what they eat affects them.

Cognitive-
Students will explore and investigate how their diet may change over time.
Students will come to consider what they eat and what that may mean in terms of nutrition.

Language-
Students will discuss what they eat and write about it in a journal.

Physical-
Students will keep track of their diet and explore how changes affect them.

Content Areas – This Lesson will deal with the following content areas:

Mathematics-
Students will categorize food according to certain properties.

Science-
Students will investigate, discuss, and learn about various characteristics of their own diets and the physical and emotional effects of food.
Students will ask questions and make predictions about various foods.

Language Arts-
Students will write about what they eat and keep track of how they feel.

Social Studies-
Students will discuss their diets and how they differ. In so doing, they will revisit earlier discussion regarding cultural diversity.

Curriculum Frameworks – This Lesson will deal with the following areas of the Learning Expectations of the Brookline Public School system:

Math-
Students will count, sort, and classify objects, persons and things.
Students will demonstrate a reasonable sense of numbers relevant to their everyday lives.

Science-
Students will apply personal experience and knowledge to make predictions.
Students will search for patterns in their observations and create explanations.
Students will come to conclusions based on observations and investigations.
Students will describe and communicate observations and conclusions through drawings, graphs, dramatizations and words.
Students will count and compare quantities of objects.
Students will group objects by similarities.

Language Arts-
Students will follow two- or three-step directions.
Students will comment appropriately on statements of other children and adults.
Students will choose to write.
Students will write from left to right in line, from top to bottom of page.

Social Studies-
Students will take part by being helpful and cooperative to others.
Students will work with diligence and honesty.

Goals – Through this Lesson, the students will come to understand the following:

Content Goals-
Nutrition is important and should be kept in mind when planning one’s diet.
People need to eat certain foods each day in order to maintain their health.
A proper diet is important for a happy and healthy life.

Process Goals-
Gathering, recording, organizing, processing, and analyzing data.
Discussing similarities and differences among data and investigating reasons for these.
Cooperating with classmates to expand knowledge and understanding.

Objectives – During this Lesson, the students will:

Keep track of the various foods they eat.
Depict amounts of various foods eaten each day.
Discuss and explore how various foods make us feel.
Look for patterns related to their diet and their overall health and well being.
Begin to consider how changes in diet might affect other elements of their daily lives.

Materials –

Personal Diet Journals
Writing and art materials (e.g., pencils, pens, markers)

Procedures –

Students will be reminded of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and will recall how the book kept track of the daily diet of the titular character.
Students will also be reminded of their own Caterpillar Journals and of the process of keeping track of a diet over a period of time.
Students will discuss how their diets change over time and what might happen if they ate the same foods or even the same amounts of food every day.
Students will each be given a Personal Diet Journal.
Students will be lead through the process of entering information in the Journals-

Students will describe to the teacher what they ate for breakfast and will write each food on a separate line.
Students will describe how they felt before and after the meal through the use of one of three emoticons (e.g., hunger and/or bloating will be depicted with the unhappy face, satiety with the happy face, etc.).
Students will then repeat this process for lunch.

At the end of the day, students will take their Journals home to fill in information regarding all meals not eaten as school.
The next day, students will bring their Journals back and discuss them, in terms of what and how much they ate and what they noticed about their diets.

Note: This process will be repeated at the end of the Unit, in order to track changes in diet and also in the students’ opinions and perspectives regarding food.

Adjustments/Accommodations –

As students may not have the vocabulary to accurately depict changes in satiety, mood, etc., teachers will circulate around the room assisting them through dictation and other supportive means. Adaptive Journals will be made available in which the students need only check off the food groups to which the various things they ate belonged and circle an emoticon representing how they felt before and after. Parents will be asked to help the students keep track of foods eaten before and after the school day. With this additional support, it is hoped that all of the students will be able to form some idea of how what they eat affects how they feel and how what they eat may change over time or in reaction to various circumstances.

Evaluation / Assessment –

While the physical aspect of this journaling (e.g., how each student’s handwriting improves and how much more concretely they are able to keep track of and describe what they ate as the Unit progresses) will help to assess the level to which the students understand what is being asked of them, the true results will again be measured according to how their diets change over time and how the ways in which the students consider and deal with food changes, both during and after the Unit. It is hoped that, through keeping track of what they eat and how they felt before and after eating, the students will not only develop their data collection and observation recording skills, but that they will also come to notice patterns that they can then extend in order to plan future meals and snacks. Some students may even be able to make predictions regarding future diet plans based on their investigation and data collection. Through keeping track of student questions and comments, it is further hoped that progress of their mental processes and means and manners of consideration will also become evident. The students’ learning will continue to be assessed according to how the students’ diets change and what sorts of questions and comments they make regarding food.

Lesson 4: A Trip to the Fruit Stand

This Lesson will introduce students to the wide array of fresh and organic foods that are available to them. It will also introduce a number of processes involved in producing various foods and transporting these and other foods from their respective points of origin to the student’s lunch boxes, dinner plates, etc.

According to Eliason and Jenkins, “it is more difficult today to remain aware of nutritional values because prepackaging, vending machines, and fast-food restaurants” (Eliason & Jenkins, 194). Furthermore, Goodwin and Pollen add, “formulated, fabricated, fake foods…are displacing wholesome foods in the diet” (Goodwin & Pollen, 1980, 14). It is therefore hoped that, by introducing students to whole foods and the processes that many of them are put through on route to their stomachs, they will come to consider what form of a given food may be the most reasonable and most nutritious for them.

Developmental Domains – This Lesson will deal with the following domains:

Aesthetic-
Students will interact with various foods and food processes in a variety of ways, exploring each with all appropriate senses.
Students will explore how processing various foods can alter their appearance, flavor, etc.

Cognitive-
Students will learn how food is produced and what may happen to it between its point of origin and its arrival on their plate.
Students will come to consider how their food is made and what this may mean in terms of nutrition.

Language-
Students will read about and discuss the processes involved in food production.
Students will discuss the many kinds of fruits and vegetables that are available to them in terms of which they are familiar with, which they prefer, etc.

Physical-
Students will explore various forms of produce.

Social-
Students will interact with a merchant while investigating the processes that many foods are put through in the act of harvesting, cleaning, and presenting for purchase.

Content Areas – This Lesson will deal with the following content areas:

Science
Students will investigate, discuss, and learn about various processes involved in food production.
Students will ask questions and make predictions about various foods.

Social Studies
Students will explore how food products are made and processed.
Students will get to know a local food merchant and see how he plays a part in their lives.

Curriculum Frameworks – This Lesson will deal with the following areas of the Learning Expectations of the Brookline Public School system:

Science-
Students will observe and describe details, note similarities and differences among objects.
Students will ask questions and make predictions.
Students will listen to and comment appropriately on statements of other children and adults.
Students will use a common working vocabulary as it relates to the Unit.
Students will describe ideas about ‘how,’ ‘why,’ and ‘what would happen if.’
Students will apply personal experience and knowledge to make predictions.
Students will come to conclusions based on observations and investigations.
Students will describe and communicate observations and conclusions through drawings, graphs, dramatizations and words.
Students will listen to other students’ ideas and raise new questions about scientific phenomena.
Students will use their senses to observe and describe familiar objects.
Students will use drawings and words to record observations of plants and animals.
Social Studies-
Students will practice and acquire habit of listening to stories.
Students will demonstrate respect for persons and property.
Students will take part by being helpful and cooperative to others.
Students will work with diligence and honesty.

Language Arts-
Students will give attention to speaker without interrupting.
Students will comment appropriately on statements of other children and adults.

Goals – Through this Lesson, the students will come to understand the following:

Content Goals-
There are many kinds of organic foods that are readily available.
Foods can be combined to make other foods.

Process Goals-
Gathering, recording, organizing, processing, and analyzing data.
Discussing similarities and differences among data and investigating reasons for these.
Cooperating with classmates to expand knowledge and understanding.

Objectives – During this Lesson, the students will:

Observe and explore how foods are grown, processed, and transported to them.
Consider how processes affect various foods in terms of how they look, taste, etc. and how nutritious they are.

Materials –

Books regarding food and food processing
Various foods
Field trip permission slips
Writing and art materials (e.g., pencils, pens, markers)

Procedures –

Students will be read Danilo the Fruit Man (Valens, 1993).
Students will discuss which fruits and vegetables they are familiar with, which they prefer, etc.
Students will be taken to a local fruit stand, where they will learn about how food is grown and processed and explore the wide variety of foods that are available to them.
Students will take home various foods from the market and compare them with the foods that they eat at school and those that they eat at home.
Students will use the foods taken from the market to use as ingredients for the next Lesson.
Students will depict their experiences and what they learned at the store, as well as some of the foods they saw there that they might not have seen before.
Students will replicate the fruit stand in the Dramatic Play area, delegating and rotating through appropriate roles so that the scenario can be maintained for a period of days.

Adjustments/Accommodations –

As each student will come to this Lesson with a different set of knowledge and expectations, it is hoped that, by allowing them to freely explore the fruit store, they will each demonstrate personal preferences and also that they will all be able to find some point of entry into the discussion of food production. For students with a smaller range of experience with the items presented, more familiar items (e.g., apples, bananas) will be included alongside more exotic varieties, so that everyone can enjoy at least part of the creation of the next Lesson. It is also hoped that this familiar basis will encourage all students to expand upon their established menus and to explore the wide variety of available items.

Evaluation / Assessment –

While at the fruit stand, it is hoped that the students will ask questions of the proprietors in order to find out where the various foods come from, how they come to be at the store, and what happens if a certain item is not in season, etc. All such questions and points of discussion will be recorded, both as a general record and as a tool that will facilitate the recreation of the fruit stand in the classroom. Upon their return to the classroom, the students will also be asked to draw what they remember from the trip. These recollections will be incorporated into their Unit journals as a record of what they have learned and discovered.

As for the replication of the fruit stand, while it will be important that the students do not leave out any important props, the true gauge of the success of this element of the Lesson will be the amount of time the students spend in the Dramatic Play area and for how long they choose to maintain these scenarios in this space.

Lesson 5: Cooking

Eliason and Jenkins stress the importance of allowing children an opportunity to help in preparing wholesome foods (Eliason & Jenkins, 196). By allowing them to be directly involved in the creation of their food, they not only come to have a better understanding of how food is processed and how processing affects the food itself, they also come to have a personal stake in their diet. Experience with cooking and other forms of food processing also allows the children to develop a sense of self-esteem and accomplishment as they are able to enjoy the results of their own work. It also fosters cooperation among the students as they all come to enjoy the fruits of their communal labors.

This Lesson will begin with a reading of Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen (Sendak, 1970), which is intended as a pleasant introduction to the absolutely fantastic things that can come from cooking. Once a positive feeling about cooking has been established, the students will be introduced to the actual processes involved through a series of weekly cooking sessions. At each of these four initial sessions, a different food group will be dealt with. Among the recipes that will be presented are “carrot coins,” which are carrots cooked in brown sugar and water. Not only will this recipe involve a familiar member of the fruit and vegetable group, it will also demonstrate how cooking can change the texture of foods (in this case, softening them). Other creations which will similarly demonstrate how processing food can affect its taste, texture, etc. will be the production of raisins (which will allow the students to observe and record the process on a daily basis throughout the week), and peanut butter (which will combine the processes of cooking and grinding, allowing the students to experience the changes that result from each), and number salad (which will incorporate the counting and pattern skills with which the students have been working this semester). Appropriate readings and discussions will accompany all of these sessions in order to prepare the students for what they are about to do and what they should be focusing on in the process.

For this Lesson, the students will be divided into four groups, each of which will produce one item representing a given food group. At the beginning of this Lesson, the students will be read the story of Oliver’s Fruit Salad (French, 1998), after which all students will also be involved in the production of a fruit salad that will created from items purchased at the fruit stand that was visited in the previous Lesson. By combining fruits in original recipes, it is hoped that this activity will invite and encourage students to expand their personal menus and to try new foods and food combinations in a supportive and safe environment.

After each individual food group has been investigated through various recipes and cooking experiences, this Lesson will culminate in a final recipe in which all four food groups will be represented together. For this final session, a food from each food group (e.g., raisins from the fruit and vegetable group, soy nuts from the protein group, chocolate chips from the dairy group and graham crackers from the grains group) will be presented at various locations throughout the room. Each student will be given a mixing bowl and then allowed to visit these various stations to collect the ingredients for their personal recipes. Once they have collected their ingredients, the students will bring their recipes to teachers, who will record them on an individual recipe card. Once this has been done, the recipes will be presented to the class and shared with all who wish to partake. In this way, it is hoped that the children will not only come to see the fun that can be had in the cooking process, they will also learn about the myriad results that are possible and which combinations prove to be more appetizing than others.

Developmental Domains –

Aesthetic-
Students will get hands-on experience processing food.

Affective-
Students will develop mutual trust and appreciation as they are encouraged to try each other’s recipes and to share in the cooking process.
Students will develop self-esteem as their creations are presented to and enjoyed by the class.

Cognitive-
Students will think about how much of each ingredient they want to take and how they want to combine and process their ingredients.
Students will have to consider their classmates when devising their recipes so that everyone can enjoy and benefit from the final products.

Language-
Students will be read a story about cooking and will deal with appropriate vocabulary while experimenting with the actual process.
Students will discuss various cooking processes and how they wish to handle them.

Physical-
Students will develop fine and gross motor skills as they select, measure, and physically process their ingredients.
Students will work with food and physically explore how various foods are produced.
Students will explore the physical transformations some foods undergo during various cooking processes.

Social-
Students will compare their recipes with those of others and discover what kind of recipes prove to be enjoyable to whom.
Students will offer suggestions and comments on each other’s creations.
Students will develop industry-related skills through processing food themselves. Such practices will also enhance their sense of self-esteem as they come to take pride in their work and enjoy the fruits of their labors.
Students will work together to produce food.
Students will discuss personal preferences regarding food.

Content Areas – This Lesson will deal with the following content areas:

Mathematics-
Students will measure ingredients in a variety of simple recipes.
Students will make comparisons among various items.
Students will count, sort, and classify objects, persons and things.
Students will measure, compare and order several objects using a non-standard unit.

Science-
Students will investigate, question, discuss, and learn about various characteristics of food.
Students will ask questions and make predictions about various foods.

Language Arts-
Students will follow two- or three-step directions.
Students will comment appropriately on statements of other children and adults.
Students will give attention to speaker without interrupting.
Students will repeat part of a story.

Social Studies-
Students will develop industry-related skills through processing food themselves. Such practices will also enhance their sense of self-esteem as they come to take pride in their work and enjoy the fruits of their labors.
Students will practice and acquire habit of listening to stories.
Students will take part by being helpful and cooperative to others.
Students will work with diligence and honesty.

Curriculum Frameworks – This Lesson will deal with the following areas of the Learning Expectations of the Brookline Public School system:

Math-
Students will count, sort, and classify objects, persons and things.
Students will make simple measurements using cups, strings and graduated cylinders.

Science-
Students will listen to and comment appropriately on statements of other children and adults.
Students will apply personal experience and knowledge to make predictions.
Students will search for patterns in their observations and create explanations.
Students will come to conclusions based on observations and investigations.
Students will identify and name various colors, shapes, textures, odors, sounds.
Students will compare and describe objects according to color, shape, texture, odor, sounds, size.
Students will count and compare quantities of objects.
Students will use their senses to observe and describe familiar objects.
Students will group objects by similarities.
Students will observe and describe details, note similarities and differences among objects.
Students will ask questions and make predictions.
Students will use a common working vocabulary as it relates to the Unit.
Students will describe ideas about ‘how,’ ‘why,’ and ‘what would happen if.’
Students will describe and communicate observations and conclusions through drawings, graphs, dramatizations and words.
Students will listen to other students’ ideas and raise new questions about scientific phenomena.
Students will make simple measurements using cups, strings and graduated cylinders.

Language Arts-
Students will give attention to speaker without interrupting.
Students will comment appropriately on statements of other children and adults.
Students will follow two- or three-step directions.

Social Studies-
Students will practice and acquire habit of listening to stories.
Students will demonstrate respect for persons and property.
Students will take part by being helpful and cooperative to others.
Students will work with diligence and honesty.
Students will practice and acquire habit of listening to stories.

Goals – Through this Lesson, the students will come to understand the following:

Content Goals-
Many foods can be safely experimented with and it can be enjoyable to do so.
Processing changes the way a food looks, feels, tastes, etc. and may also alter also how nutritious it may be.
Cooking is one such process.

Process Goals-
Gathering, recording, organizing, processing, and analyzing data.
Observing, recording, and discussing transformation in states.
Hypothesizing about changes in actions.
Recording, discussing, and drawing conclusions based on observations.
Comparing and contrasting.
Cooperating with classmates to expand knowledge and understanding.

Objectives – During this Lesson, the students will:

Observe and explore how foods are grown and processed.
Learn how to process foods into new foods and food forms.
Experiment with combining various foods from each of the food groups.
Compare foods before and after various processes have been conducted on them.
Consider how processes affect various foods in terms of how they look, taste, etc. and how nutritious they are.
Process foods to make new foods or food forms.
Measure amounts of various foods.
Keep track of the amount of each food that is used in the final recipe.
Experiment with and investigating the results of combining various amounts of different ingredients.
Investigate the transformations that foods undergo during various cooking and processing procedures.
Consider what might happen if the amounts of the various ingredients or if the cooking processes themselves were changed.
Hypothesize about changes in actions.

Materials –

Oliver’s Fruit Salad (French, 1998)
In the Night Kitchen (Sendak, 1970)
Ingredients
Measuring cups
Mixing bowls
Recipes
“My Recipe” sheets
Cups
Forks
Writing and art materials (e.g., pencils, pens, markers)

Procedures –

Students will be read a book about a boy who comes to love natural fruits only when they are combined in a fruit salad.
Students will use ingredients procured in the previous Lesson to make their own fruit salad.
Students will be given individual cups, forks, and recipe sheets.
Students will visit each of four fruit stations in the classroom, taking one to four pieces of each fruit and combining them in their cups.
At each station, teachers will write the appropriate number of pieces taken by each student on their recipe cards, so that they can keep track of their recipes.

NOTE: If time permits, students will be allowed to visit the stations again and try a new combination of ingredients. If they choose to do so, they will be asked to predict how they think the two recipes will differ and then to discuss whether or not their predictions were accurate.

Students will then be read a book about a fantastic adventure in a kitchen.
Students will discuss the real (non-fiction) and imaginary (fictional) aspects of the story.
Students will be introduced to a recipe (i.e., “carrot coins”) that involves taking a familiar food (i.e., carrots) and processing it in a way that may be unfamiliar, at least in terms of hands-on experience (i.e., cooking).
Students will be asked to discuss what they think will happen to the food in the process of cooking.
Students will participate in the supervised processing of the food and will discuss the process and the results, comparing the actual results to their predictions.

Adjustments/Accommodations –

As certain students may be apprehensive around stoves, etc., they will be allowed to discuss the process before and after, getting their information from other students who were willing and able to participate in a more hands-on way. It is hoped, however, that the safe and supervised environment will encourage students to participate to the best of their abilities.

If a student claims to be averse to a given ingredient, however, they will still be encouraged to include at least one piece of it in their recipes. In this way, it is hoped that their menus and dietary horizons will be gently expanded and that they will come to see how combining different ingredients can result in unique, novel, and hopefully enjoyable taste sensations.

Evaluation / Assessment –

This Lesson will be assessed according to how successfully the students are able to engage in and understand the processes involved. That does not mean, however, that they will be judged based on how the final product tastes. Rather, “success” means how fully they are able to comprehend that the process of cooking caused a change of state in the food.

As they will have a hand in food processing, it is hoped that the students will be satisfied with the results. The main thrust of the Lesson, however, will involve the students’ learning about food and how processing affects it in terms of its look, feel, taste, etc. This learning will continue to be assessed according to how the students’ diets change (which will be tracked through a return to their Personal Diet Journals at the end of the Unit) and what sorts of questions and comments they make regarding food.

Though the choices that the students make when creating their fruit salad recipes will depict their personal preferences, they may also demonstrate their understandings of and predictions regarding which flavors may go well together and which fruits and vegetables are used in some of their favorite processed foods. Hopefully, there will be sufficient time and materials for those students who wish to experiment with various combinations of ingredients. In this way, they will be able to develop their sense of preference and their understanding of how combining various foods affects the overall taste. The student’s changing considerations of foods will also be reflected in their later Diet Journal entries that will be composed towards the end of the Unit and in their continuing discussions of food and their thoughts and opinions about it.

While engaged in an actual cooking process, the students will hopefully come up with questions and predictions regarding what they think may occur and how the products involved may change. These predictions will also be recorded so that later discussion will be easier and so that the students can learn about the act of predicting itself. In this way, the students’ thought processes will be more clearly depicted and demonstrated. They will also be able to learn that just because a prediction is incorrect does not make the act of predicting wrong and that the process of inquiry is often more important than the focus of that inquiry.

Lesson 6: Musical Food

This Lesson will demonstrate how foods can be used for other things besides eating and nutrition. By using various foods and food containers to make sounds, the students will engage their materials in a new way and expand their understanding of the complex world of food.

The Lesson will involve creating instruments out of various types of dried foods (e.g., beans, pasta, etc.) and food containers (e.g., paper plates, tin cans). Students will be asked to predict what kind of sound each item will make before trying it out. They will then be asked to reflect upon their predictions and to consider how the same materials might be used to make a different sound. At the end of the Lesson, the students will be gathered together in a supermarket symphony, which will be recorded.

Lesson 7: Digital Food

In an effort to incorporate technology into the Unit and to expand upon the repertoire of entry points and investigative possibilities, this Lesson will be introduced during a Computer class to allow and encourage the students to find out even more about food, specifically as it fits in with various cultures. In this Lesson, students will investigate how differences in habitat and culture can affect diet. They will do so by performing research on the typical diets of various regions and countries, including the many nations from which they trace their own lineages.

Developmental Domains – This Lesson will deal with the following domains:

Affective-
Students will develop a greater sense of dietary habits and how they differ throughout the world.

Cognitive-
Students will come to consider how food plays a role in various cultures.

Physical-
Students will depict a typical diet in another country.

Social-
Students will work with partners to investigate their chosen topics.

Content Areas – This Lesson will deal with the following content areas:

Science-
Students will use technology to investigate, question, discuss, and learn about various characteristics of food.
Students will ask questions and make predictions about various foods.

Language Arts-
Students will discuss their question with study partners and share their results with the class.

Social Studies-
Students will work with other students to investigate a given topic.
Students will investigate cultural differences regarding food and diet.

Curriculum Frameworks – This Lesson will deal with the following areas of the Learning Expectations of the Brookline Public School system:

Instructional Technology-
Students will locate and use letters, numbers, and special keys on keyboard.
Students will place the cursor at a specified location on the screen.
Students will use mouse correctly.
Students will print.

Science-
Students will plan and conduct a simple investigation knowing what is to be compared or looked for.
Students will listen to and comment appropriately on statements of other children and adults.
Students will search for patterns in their observations and create explanations.
Students will come to conclusions based on observations and investigations.
Students will describe and communicate observations and conclusions through drawings, graphs, dramatizations and words.
Students will listen to other student’s ideas and raise new questions about scientific phenomena.
Students will explore ways in which to accept and accommodate the different needs of others.

Language Arts-
Students will follow two- or three-step directions.
Students will answer questions on material read aloud or explained.
Students will comment appropriately on statements of other children and adults.
Students will give attention to speaker without interrupting.
Students will tell fictional and personal experience stories.
Students will include detail and descriptive words to tell or retell a story.

Social Studies-
Students will practice and acquire habit of listening to and following stories.
Students will notice connections between geography and the way people live.
Students will work with diligence and honesty.

Goals – Through this Lesson, the students will come to understand the following:

Content Goals-
Food is important to all people, regardless of where they live.
Different cultures have different diets and foods that are special and unique to them.
Just because someone else’s diet is different does not mean it is “wrong” or “bad.”

Process Goals-
Using the Internet as a research tool.
Investigating and discussing cultural diversity.

Objectives – During this Lesson, the students will:

Investigate the dietary customs of various peoples and regions.
Discuss the differences among these customs.

Materials –

Computers
Personal Diet Journals

Procedures –

Students will get together with their Computer Lab Study Buddies.
Students will look on the Internet to find information regarding the traditional foods of their respective source cultures.
Students will print this information and share it with the class, leading to a discussion of cultural diversity and the unifying element of food.

Adjustments/Accommodations –

As each student will be paired with an older student who is familiar with the ways of the Internet, and as all of them have experienced similar lessons as part of other units (e.g., aquatic life), there will not be much need for explanation regarding how to go about conducting the research. As for the information itself, however, specific sites will be suggested in order to facilitate every student’s successful research.

Evaluation / Assessment –

Though the process of investigation and research will be important, and though it will be made evident by the amount and types of materials that the students end up with at the end of their research, this Lesson will be judged not so much according to how the students come to find their information, but more according to the passion and energy with which they share and discuss it. It is hoped that students will raise questions regarding what might happen if they lived in another culture or how immigration affects the new host country, etc. As each student will be exploring and explaining about their own culture, it is hoped that they will all learn and be able to teach as well. Especially as the class is so culturally diverse, this Lesson should be edifying and enjoyable.

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