Build a Meal Tips and Tricks

Model how to use the interactive before releasing students to play on their own. Demonstrate how to use the mouse to pick your age, picture of boy or girl, and the picture that best describes how active you are. Draw students’ attention to the empty calorie bar with a goal number of calories, and an empty plate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You make want to repeat this part of the interactive a few times, selecting different genders, ages, and activity levels. Talk with students about how these factors affect the amount of calories children need.

Show students how to use the help button in the upper left hand corner. They can use this audio tool anytime they get stuck.

Make sure students understand the correlation between each box color and its food group. The orange boxes represent the grains group, the green boxes represent the vegetable group, the red boxes represent the fruit group, the blue boxes represent the dairy group, and the purple box represents the protein group.

Invite students take screenshots of their completed meal selections. They can use these images to share their game play choices with a partner and discuss their thinking.