Differentiated Nutrition Lesson Plan

Submitted by: Patti Elfers-Wygand

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

In this lesson plan (which is adaptable for grades 3-7), students use BrainPOP resources (including the Make-a-Map tool and GameUp) to learn about nutrition and the components of a balanced, healthy meal.

Students will:

  1. Identify the five food groups and the components of a balanced meal.
  2. Use context clues to explore vocabulary related to nutrition.
  3. Use text dependent skills (video skills/auditory and visual skills) to inference and predict text and determine the central idea of text/video.

Materials:

  • Computers with internet access for BrainPOP

Vocabulary:

BrainPOP vocabulary: nutrition, proteins, carbohydrates, hetertrophic, nutrients, refined grains, vegetarian, vegan, consume, calories, appetite

BrainPOP Jr. vocabulary: grains, fiber, protein, calcium, dairy

BrainPOP ELL vocabulary: fruit, healthy, grape

Lesson Procedure:

  1. As a warm up, have students login to BrainPOP and preview the vocabulary for the Nutrition Movie. Students with lower reading levels may choose to watch the BrainPOP Jr. Eating Right Movie, and ELL students may use Level 1, Unit 4 “An Apple A Day", which will help the students learn the different vocabulary for various foods to help with understanding of the Nutrition vocabulary. Following this review, they can take the quiz. Have the ELL students also preview the vocabulary from the video prior to viewing the video, defining the words and using them in sentences.
  2. Remind students that we have been discussing how important it is to keep our body healthy and how exercise is an important aspect of our health. Today we will be discussing the importance of proper nutrition and foods that are necessary to keep our body healthy. This is important to help us maintain our proper body weight and to help us develop strong muscles and bones.
  3. Begin the mini-lesson: How do we identify the appropriate foods to eat for a balanced diet? Play/re-play the Nutrition Movie for the whole class and pause to answer questions as they arise. What does it mean to be a heterotrophic organism? How do we know what we should eat for a well-balanced diet? What foods might be included for a proper meal?
  4. Have students create a concept map with the Make-A-Map tool to show understanding of nutrition.
  5. Students will then play the game Sortify in groups of two to categorize the foods that go with each food group. They may watch the video again for additional review and understanding. (Be sure to pair weaker students with strong students so they can get some peer assistance.) For additional differentiation, use the Chef Solus Game for creating meals.
  6. For an additional assessment, have the whole class take the review quiz after students take the quizzes in their differentiated programs (BrainPOP Jr. and/or BrainPOP ELL) independently.
  7. For closure, have students share theur individual experiences and Sortify activity with the class. Encourage students to discuss how we can design a well-balanced menu for a day?
  8. As a homework assignments, students will complete the categorization chart for the Nutrition video. Below-grade-level students may use BrainPOP JR. to design a healthy menu for 3 daily meals.

Extension Activities:

Have students use the information learned in this lesson to create a Public Service Announcement (PSA) in Windows Movie Maker to inform the public the importance of healthy eating and the dangers of obesity. They need to include information of being health conscious through good choices of the 5 food groups and the danger about eating too many foods that are too rich in calories.
Filed as:  3-5, 6-8