Gregory, The Terrible Eater

AUTHOR:  Margaret Sornenson, Holy Rosary School, ID

GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: 3-4; science, health
Presentation, Decision Making, Group Work and Math skills of
graphing, addition, and division.

OVERVIEW:  This is an evaluation project for a Science
and/or Health unit of study on the basic food group, good
nutrition, and food sources of proteins, carbohydrates,
vitamins and minerals.

PURPOSE:  The purpose of this activity is for the students
to review and demonstrate their understanding of the need
for balanced meals and an understanding of the food sources
for proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and vitamins.

OBJECTIVES:
l.   Students will demonstrate an understanding of the four
     basic food groups.
2.   Students will construct a balanced menu.
3.   Students will use food advertisements to determine the
     best buys for their menu selections.
4.   Students will present their menu orally to the class
     and be able to defend their selections.
5.   Students will construct a graph to illustrate the total
     cost differences in their menus.

RESOURCES:
Newspaper food advertisements, graph paper,children's book
Gregory,  The Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
l.   Have students save food ads from local papers for a
     month prior to this assignment.
2.   Read the book GREGORY, THE TERRIBLE EATER, by Mitchell
     Sharmat. and then discuss with the class if Gregory had
     gotten some good advice for his eating habits?  Ask the
     students if their parents have ever tried this approach
     to entice them to eat foods that they dislike?
3.   Review the four food groups and review sources of
     proteins, carbohydrate, fats, vitamins and minerals.
4.   Divided the class into groups of three and four
     students each.
5.   Assign the groups the projects of planning a three meal
     a day menu for five days.
6.   Use the newspaper food ads to figure ;the cost of their
     menus.  Stress that economy is important.
7.   Each group presents their menu to the class and must be
     able to defend their selections.
8.   Record the total costs of each menu and they have each
     group construct a bar or line graph to show the
     differences in the menu costs.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:  This is a culminating activity.

Retrieved from  http://www.col-ed.org/cur/sci/sci51.txt  on April 24, 2008