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Scooter Around for Good Nutrition

Sandra Felice, who teaches both physical activity and nutrition, decided to combine the two subjects for this fun, culminating activity she developed for her nutrition unit.

Materials and Advance Prep

• 6 scooters
• 6 photocopy paper boxes
• 6 jump ropes — affix jump rope to the box (punch handle through) to make a delivery truck that can be pulled by the rope
• 6 grocery bags
• Plastic play food; empty, clean food packages or food pictures from each food group and the "Others" category
• 6 signs — Meat Store — 2 servings, Milk Store — 3 Servings, Fruit Store — 3 Servings, Grain Store — 5 Servings, Vegetable Store — 4 Servings, and "Others" Food Store
• 6 clipboards with a picture of the Little D's Five Food Group Dragon mini-poster for store owners to use
• Play money (optional)
• Gym, hallway or multipurpose room where scooters can be used

What To Do

1. Before class, put store signs up around the room. Also, put some foods in each box, making sure that there are foods from each food group and the "Others" category.
2. Divide students into three groups — delivery truck (scooter) drivers, food store owners and grocery shoppers. If you have more than 18 students, put a cashier at each store to accept play money or pair students together as shoppers or store owners.
3. Send store owners to their stores with a clip board and the Little D's Five Food Group mini-poster clipped to it.
4. After store owners arrive at their store, send the delivery truck drivers out to deliver their foods to the appropriate stores. If they are not sure where a food goes, the store owner and the truck driver should study the Pyramid on the clipboard and decide.
5. While the truck drivers are delivering their food, distribute the grocery bags and play money (optional) to the shoppers. Tell them they are buying enough food for one day and explain the number of servings they can buy from each store. For example, 3 servings from the Milk Store, 6 servings from the Grain Store, etc. Tell them they can visit the "Others" category store too, but they can purchase only one food because they should try to limit these foods and choose them after they choose Five Food Group foods.
6. After the truck drivers have delivered all of their foods, they should park their trucks and rest. While they are resting, review the number of servings needed from each of the Five Food Groups — 3 servings from the Milk Group; 2 serving from the Meat Group; 4 servings from the Vegetable Group; 3 servings from the Fruit Group; and 5 servings from the Grain Group.
7. After most of the food is "purchased," call all of the students together and inspect one shopper's bag to see if it has the recommended servings from each food group. When discussing each group, have the store owner for that group look at his chart and tell the group number of servings needed each day.
8. Ask each group to empty their bag's contents into a different box. Switch groups and start over again if time allows.