• HOMESUBSCRIBERENEWDIGESTSHELP

:: Calendar Resources

THE FOOD PAGE

SEPTEMBER 29TH, 1895 It was on this day that the famed French chemist Louis Pasteur died in Hauts-de-Seine, France. A remarkable scientist, Pasteur developed a vaccine for rabies, carried out important work in germ theory, and developed a method, now called pasteurization, to prevent bacteria and molds from causing illness through infected raw milk, beer, and wine.

ALL ABOUT MILK & COWS -- A WEB TREK:
  [ *see links below* ]
This web trek focuses on food sources for milk and dairy products, as well as the producers of milk -- cows. Find a student worksheet attached to cover comprehension questions, and an answer key with extension activities and interactive resources at the 2nd link below.

FEED ME!
[LINK2]
What do you eat, and how much do you eat? These are two important questions that enormously impact students' well-being. Visit the food pyramid in the first link, learn about healthy choices, and then have students use the chart on the 2nd link above to create their own food diaries.

HOW DID THAT GET ON MY PLATE?
Geography skills should be improved with this upper elementary lesson plan, and students should gain a knowledge of the global food system. They will use selected online math and geography resources to calculate locations across the world for their food sources. Student handouts and worksheets are included.

THE FOOD TIMELINE:
Nutrition for kids hasn't always held the same ingredients across history. For instance, pistachios were much more favored in 7,000 B.C. than they are today! And did you know that yogurt was a prized food in Mesopotamia? Or that popcorn - that wonderful movie theater treat - was used by the Aztecs for ceremonial decoration? How cool is that? Learn about the history of food with this fascinating and interactive timeline.

NUTRITIONAL BAD BOYS!
[LINK2] [LINK3]
Sodas, sugary cereals, potato chips, Twinkies, candy... your students know them and love them, right? Or is there a change happening in the way we choose our so-called junk foods? Some schools can no longer carry sodas in vending machines; they must carry juice and sports drinks instead. Are those juices necessarily better than sodas? Do read the labels; it all depends on what's inside those containers. Have students conduct a survey to see what junk foods are favored at their school; compare labels between juices, or even some juices and sodas for nutritional content; learn what these "bad boys" of nutrition do to students' bodies and create posters to enumerate the effects; see if students are attempting to go healthier with their snack foods; create a healthy foods snack food campaign; plan a healthy "junk" food exhibit, with free trials of snacks; plan a school-wide moratorium on junk food, or...? Try and address the issue of healthy vs. junk food snacks, pursuing an interesting angle to the subject.

THE HUNGER TREE:
Upper elementary students will consider hunger as both a global and local issue in this social studies lesson plan. How do hunger and poverty affect school children? What actions might be taken to alleviate these major concerns? Students will work in small groups to fill out their own hunger trees before presenting them to the class; a template is included.

BREAKFAST DETECTIVE:
Students will read the clues, then drag and drop their guesses into the mystery box to see if they correctly identified the right food in this online game for elementary students.

DINING DECISIONS:
Ask students what their bodies need for the best fuel to operate at optimum energy levels and give them the best performance? What they put into them is important; have them take this online dining challenge here.