case STUDIES

Activity 1 - Cafeteria Nutrition

My intense nutrition lessons began at this point.

Students made posters and then brought in food containers of the foods they eat. We made categories for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Students rotated through stations and answered questions about each group. They then voted on the best/healthiest choice.

Students went through one of the lunch periods to find out what food choices their classmates were making at lunch. Students carried laptops and iPod Touches with them as well as the district nutrition pamphlet to help break down food nutrition and calories for each food item. Findings were recorded along with ideas on what they could choose next time.

Activity 2 - Physical Activity Application

Students got together in groups and created physical activities that were introduced during the games.

They then shared with the class creative ways to perform these physical activities in areas from strength and flexibility to cardio.

After presenting to the class all the ideas, the class then moved around in stations to try out the variety of activities available to them.

Students recorded where they needed to improve. These activities were added to our class warm up time, and students graphed their improvements over the course of the semester.

Activity 3 - Food Pyramid Planners

Students worked on their personal food pyramid planners as they learn how to make healthy choices. As a class, we discuss the Pyramid Pile Up game and each food category, including "junk."

Using the MyPyramid.gov website, students track and record their food intake and physical exercise daily. Emphasis is put on eating more fruits and veggies since most teens rarely get this in their diet. I discussed making one change at a time and adding fruits and veggies to their diet is the first step.

Students created photo albums of fruits and veggies that they were going to eat. The photo album helped remind them to get in their daily 5. They used photos of items they have never tried before but will do now, as well as foods that are in season for them to eat. I feel that this a good way to help teens focus on the importance of eating fruits and veggies and this a fun and simple way to do so.

Activity 4 - Super Projects: Cube Game

Students create several games including the Cube Game to play in class and then share with the middle school. This was an opportunity for the high school students to share information to another age group.

Students uploaded pictures of fruits and veggies to the cube pattern. Another cube is made with questions such as "what are vitamins found in this food' and "how can you prepare this food."

Students cut out the cubes and placed them around a cardboard cube to give it support. Then students got with a partner to make a team. Two teams were assigned to a particular area and then faced off. Random cubes were placed at each face-off location with answers.

With five minutes for each round, students rolled the dice and answered as many questions as they could. The winner moved up a spot and the loser moved down a spot.

Students were rewarded with apple slices at the end of the game.

Activity 5 - Student-Created Games: Who Am I

Using the computer lab, students created badges about particular fruits and vegetables. Each badge included a picture and information on the produce item such as vitamins, origin, and other fun facts.

Without the student seeing the badge selected for them, one badge is put on each student's back.

The game is like a mixer, where students have to walk around the room and ask one question about the fruit/veggie and then try to guess what it is. The students learned about different fruits and veggies and in particular the food that they had to guess.

Activity 6 - Grilling with Fruit and Veggies

Students worked on trying different foods and finding new ways to prepare them. As a class, everyone went outdoors and grilled some fruits and vegetables. I pulled some good grilling recipes to give to students and then showed them some of the websites I used to get them. I want students to look up other recipes in the future to try at home.

After building the fire, students got separated into different stations as they were in charge of particular food prep. Several items were prepared such as grilled apples, bananas cooked on the coals, potatoes using several varieties, corn cooked on the coals, zucchini, squash, etc.

After all the food was finished cooking, we made a buffet line and students served an individual portion from each of the cooked items. They all had to take a no thank you bite. Several turned up their noses with the squashes, but they took a small taste and liked it.

After clean up, I had students tell me what they liked about the food and give me feed back about what they were going to do at home with new foods.

Activity 1 - Snack On This

As a class, students created a three day graph showing what kind of snacks they ate during the school day.

I divided a poster board in half with a marker, labeling one side "healthy choices" and the other "unhealthy choices."

I had students packages and bags of their snacks to each half of the "day one" poster. We decided as a class which category each snack belonged in. To preserve our results, we took a photo.

I selected two other days to graph student snacks but surprised them so they didn't purposefully bring healthier options.

After filling in the last poster and taking a photo, we compared the three graphs and analyzed if the class has improved during the project.

I ended the lesson by posting a list of healthy snack options for kids to take home to their parents.

Activity 2 - KRCE Nutrition 101

I assigned each student a particular fruit or vegetable seen in the Playnormous games to research in the library. Students wrote what vitamins were in their fruit/vegetable and what it did for the body.

Student homework was to bring a show-and-tell object of the produce item they were assigned to class the following day. They could print a picture from the internet, hand-draw a picture, or purchase the actual produce item at the grocery store.

The following day, in preparation for videotaping, each student created a cue card about their fruit or vegetable. In large print, I had them write one "did you know" sentence using the research recorded from the previous day. I videotaped each student reporting their one important fact using the cue card for help and their homework show-and-tell item as a prop.

Since lighting and video equipment was available, the students also did a report on their fruit or vegetable as part of a class news production. It was shown to the entire school!

Activity 3 - Brownie Experiment

As a class, we read "The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue" by Missy Chase Lapine to learn how to create "purple puree" (a mixture of spinach and blueberry) and "flour blend."

That evening I baked two pans of brownies: a typical boxed one and Light Brainy Brownies using a healthy flour blend and purple puree. I brought the two pans to school the following day.

I had students vote which pan of brownies they thought was made with healthier ingredients and why.

As a class, we joined the lunch ladies in the cafeteria with the two pans of brownies. We polled the cafeteria ladies to see which they thought was the pan of healthier brownies and why. We videotaped their responses and contrasted the class' opinion with that of the cafeteria ladies.

At the end the lesson I revealed the correct answer and posted the healthier brownie recipe for kids to take home to their parents.

Activity 4 - Nutrition Survey

Continuing our lesson on graphs, I polled parents about how Playnormous had impacted their child. You can use a free online service like Survey Monkey or print out one and send it home. Sample questions include "Before your child was introduced to Playnormous, how aware (very, not at all, etc) were they about nutrition and having healthy eating habits?" and "Did you notice any of the following behaviors (increased physical activity, increased knowledge of nutrition, etc) in your child after they were introduced to Playnormous?"

After gathering all the results, we created a graph for each question. As a class, we read and interpreted each graph.

Activity 4 - Super Projects: Cube Game

Students create several games including the Cube Game to play in class and then share with the middle school. This was an opportunity for the high school students to share information to another age group.

Students uploaded pictures of fruits and veggies to the cub pattern. Another cube is made with questions such as "what are vitamins found in this food"How can you prepare this food"

Students cut out the cubes and placed them around a cardboard cube to give it support. Then students got with a partner to make a team. Two teams were assigned to a particular area and then faced off. Random cubes were placed at each face-off location with answers.

With five minutes for each round, students rolled the dice and answered as many questions as they could. The winner moved up a spot and the loser moved down a spot.

Students were rewarded with apple slices at the end of the game.

Activity 1 - How Are You Peeling?

As a way to introduce vegetables to my students, I had parents get involved. After reading the book "How Are You Peeling?: Foods with Moods" to the class, I asked parents to purchase their child's favorite vegetable (or one that they wished they would like) and transform it into a feeling.

I posted a few pictures that the book had in it - so that parents would have a clearer model.

I asked parents to take pictures while their Kindergartener worked on this project. We then shared all of our fruit and vegetable "feelings" together.

Activity 2 - Plant a Class Garden

Using large bucket containers, students plant a container garden of vegetables. We started with cylinders of soil, and after our lesson from a master gardener, Mr. Palmie, we were on our way. We planted broccoli plants, green beans, green onions, and radishes. With plenty of sunshine and love, we started to see growth.

Each day we took time to water the plants and measure their progress. Students wrote about the experience and progression of the garden every day in their plant journals too.

Students interviewed each other about their personal garden using the class videocamera.

Students finish the garden lesson by drawing a picture of their ideal garden and writing a short essay about their picture.

Activity 3 - What's On The Menu?

Students participated in a cooking lesson that was filled with a wealth of nutrition. The goal was to create a fruit smoothie and whole wheat tortellini with roasted vegetable sauce. Both were packed with fruits and vegetables, many of which students said previously that they did not enjoy.

I asked parents to bring a child-sized apron if they had one and to prepare an alternate lunch in case their child did not enjoy the meal being served.

A class demonstration was held that introduced the ingredients required for each dish and how they were prepared. Students got to crack eggs, mix and kneed the whole wheat dough, and press pasta in a roller.

Students got to sample fruits that went into the fruit smoothie, add yogurt to a blender, and observe proper blender safety. Everyone got to try a cup of fruit smoothie after the demonstration.

After the lesson, students went on a picnic to eat the food that they helped prepare. Using the class videocamera, I interviewed students about what they thought of the food after trying it. The children were surprised to discover that they actually liked the dishes created.

Activity 1 - Foods for Life Animation

I told the class that they were going to create an animation about healthy foods. In the computer lab, I had students find images of healthy foods online. They used photos of produce, healthy website links or whatever they wished--we got creative. We saved all the images and collect them in digital format.

Using Animoto.com, a free animation creator, we put images in order and added movements to the photos. Students volunteered ideas for text to include in the animation, and we voted on the background and sound.

As a class, we watched our creation and shared it with another classroom.

Activity 2 - Playnormous Trading Cards

As a class, I reviewed the food groups discussed in Pyramid Pile Up. Students gave examples of foods that belonged in each category.

In the computer lab, students visited BigHugeLabs.com and clicked on the trading card template. I instructed students that they were going to create a trading card for each food group. It helps to also write these groups on the board to remind students.

Students typed in "food" for the title and "grains" for the sub-title on their first card. They opened a new window and started researching the grain group. They had to write one sentence on the card and upload a picture. We did this for each food group, saved and printed the results. At the end of the project we had a set of really imaginative trading cards to share with one another!