Gardening for Nutrition

Students will sort fruits and vegetables by examining plants – grown in the school garden, purchased in the market, or featured in models or pictures – into the parts of the plant eaten as food, identify a serving size, and locate where on MyPlate the food belongs.

Students will become familiar with the foods they eat and healthy eating habits while learning about the MyPlate food categories.

Students create a rap song/chant and dance promoting the components of their favorite salad, and use chant as a device to remember that plants do not eat and only plants produce food.

Students will match vegetable seeds with the vegetable and learn a basic food fact about each then participate in a relay.

Students will research foods made from plant families (with support as needed), identify family members and common nutrients and create artwork of one family group or a food made from that family.

Students will be introduced to artists and their work in order to prepare them to create their own garden art or still life portraits. Appreciating the beauty of still life art and garden produce will increase interest in foods grown in the garden. Students will use that appreciation to develop promotional art to be displayed in the school to encourage fellow students to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Learning to read and utilize food labels and information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, students will compare nutritional value and caloric content of canned, frozen, and fresh fruits and vegetables, compare portions to serving sizes by actually measuring both and scale label information in direct proportion to recommended caloric intake.

Student will collect personal meal consumption data, align those foods to the food guide food groups, and cross reference that information with the MyPlate to compare personal eating habits and to recommended guidelines. Students also will use that information to create their own food web.

Using the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Nutrient Database,” the students will compete to predict which vegetables or fruits grown in the school garden contain the highest levels of specific nutrients, graph the results and research the value of those nutrients to their growth and health.

Students will sort fruits and vegetables (by examining plants grown in the school garden, purchased in the market, or featured in models or pictures) into the parts of the plant eaten as food, identify a serving size, and locate where on MyPlate the food belongs. Understanding the food storage function of a specific plant part will aid in understanding the nutrition provided by that plant part.