Little D's Nutrition Expedition™

Activity 8 - The Dragon's Tail

Grade Level: 2nd Grade/Primary Elementary
Rating:

Materials and Advance Prep

Preview Suggested Instructional Strategy
Little D, the Five-Food-Group Dragon mini-poster (PDF) - one per student
Duplicate "Others" Come Last handout - 1 per student
Tape
Small size Post-it® notes
Optional: Print pictures of "Others" category foods. Color with markers or crayons. Or collect pictures from magazines or newspaper ads. Attach to a shade in your classroom. Keep it rolled up until Step 3.
Review the "Others" category; page 3 of the Nutrition Backgrounder (PDF).
Decide how to present the "Others" Come Last (PDF) story. Suggestions:

Read the story aloud and have students:

Pantomime the activity for all boldface action verbs.
Chant the "Others Come Last" line, which occurs three times in the story.

Have students take turns reading the story aloud.
Do a choral reading. Divide the class into two groups. One reads Little D's and the other reads Sir Milkford's dialog in unison. You read the narrative.

Cut out the dragon tail and review directions for where to place it.
Little D's Interactive Nutrition Games in Kids

Suggested Instructional Strategy
1. Review the Five Food Groups.

Show me with your fingers how many food groups you need to grow up strong and healthy. Five
On the count of three, name a Milk Group food that builds strong bones and teeth.
On the count of three, name a Meat Group food that builds strong muscles.
On the count of three, name a Vegetable Group food that helps your eyes see in the dark.
On the count of three, name a Fruit Group food that helps your body heal cuts and bruises.
On the count of three, name a Grain Group food that gives your body energy for school and play.

2. Distribute and use Little D, the Five-Food-Group Dragon mini-poster to introduce the "Others" category. Ask:

Do you remember the story about how Little D met the Royal Food Family?
What foods was Little D eating when he lived alone in the cave? Candy, cake, soft drinks, potato chips, cookies
Look at the poster. What food group is candy in?
How about cake? How about soft drinks?
Why do you think none of these foods are on the poster? Accept all reasonable answers.
After Little D learned about the Five Food Groups, he was still confused about foods like cookies and cake. So one day he went to Sir Milkford and asked for help.
What do you think Sir Milkford told him about cookies, cake and chips? Accept all reasonable answers.
Do you think Little D will ever eat cake, cookies and chips again? What makes you say that? Accept all reasonable answers.

3. Distribute the "Others" Come Last handout. Read the story to the students (they participate with actions and chant), or have them read it aloud. Optional: When you get to paragraph 4, pull down the shade with "Others" category foods. (See Advanced Preparation.)

4. Have the students name the "Others" foods on Sir Milkford's shade and list them on the board. Cake, potato chips, candy, soft drink, cookies, doughnut

Ask students to identify more foods in the "Others" category. Answers may include brownies, marshmallows, fruit punch, corn chips, etc. Add these foods to the list.

Write "'Others' category" above the list of foods on the board.

5. Explain that foods like soft drinks, candy and potato chips are called "Others" because they do not belong to one of the Five Food Groups.
Ask:

Why do you think these foods are not in a food group? Accept all reasonable answers.

Point out:

Foods in the Five Food Groups help our bodies grow and stay healthy. Any foods that do not help the body grow and stay healthy are in the "Others" category.

6. Write "Cause" and "Effect" on the board. Under "Cause," write "Why." Under "Effect" write "What." Explain that an effect is what happens and that the cause is why it happens. Provide an example such as: "I went out in the rain and I got wet." Help students recognize which is the cause (I went out in the rain) and which is the effect (I got wet).

7. Ask students to remember when Little D met the Royal Food Family. As you ask, summarize each question and answer on the Cause-and-Effect chart.

Cause
(Why?)
Little D wasn't eating Milk Group foods

Effect
(What?)
He had weak bones and unhealthy teeth

Little D had weak muscles. Why? He wasn't eating any Meat Group foods.
Little D couldn't see in the dark. Why not? He wasn't eating any Vegetable Group foods.
Little D's bruises didn't heal. Why not? He wasn't eating any Fruit Group foods.
Little D didn't have energy. Why? He wasn't eating any Grain Group foods.
Little D was sick and wasn't growing up strong and healthy. Why? He wasn't eating any Five Food Group foods.
Little D didn't eat foods from the Five Food Groups. Why not? He was filling up on foods from the "Others" category.

8. Explain that it is okay to eat "Others" once in a while, as long as you first eat foods from each of the Five Food Groups. Remind the students that only foods in the Five Food Groups can help them grow up strong and healthy.

Under "Cause", write the phrase "Five Food Groups Come First." Ask:

What should we write under "Effect"? Grow up strong and healthy.

9. Help the students compare and contrast the Five Food Groups with the "Others" category.

How often should you eat foods from the Five Food Groups? Every day.
Why do you need to eat foods from each of the Five Food Groups every day? Because each food group helps the body grow and stay healthy in a different way.
Why don't you need to eat foods in the "Others" category? Because the body does not need these foods. Foods in the "Others" category do not help the body grow and stay healthy.
What does "'Others Come Last" mean? You can eat something from the "Others" category if you have room left after eating from the Five Food Groups.

Check for Understanding
10. Tell students:

I'm going to name several foods. If the food is in the "Others" category, make a big "O" with your arms above your head.
If the food is in one of the Five Food Groups, hold both arms up and stretch out all five fingers.

Milk (Five Food Groups)
Broccoli (Five Food Groups)
Candy (Others)
Grapes (Five Food Groups)
Potato chips (Others)

Cake (Others)
Chicken (Five Food Groups)
Doughnut (Others)
Noodles (Five Food Groups)
Soft drink (Others)

11. Say:

Since foods in the "Others" category do not help the body grow and stay healthy, we won't make a circle for them on our Wall Dragon.
Instead, we'll put "Others" last. They'll make up the tail of the dragon. You can eat something from the "Others" category if you have room left after eating from the Five Food Groups.

12. Attach the dragon tail to the back of the Grain Group circle on Wall Dragon. Ask several students to name an "Others" category food that they eat. Print the names of several "Others" category foods on small Post-it® notes and stick on the tail.

13. Collect Little D, the Five Food Group Dragon mini-posters for Activity 9

14. Allow students to continue playing Little D's Interactive Nutrition Games to reinforce the Five Food Group concepts.

All of Little D's games are found on NutritionExplorations.org in Kids.

Going Further
Energy In
Make a chart with all of the students' names on it. Write the days of the week across the top:

Have students identify the foods they ate during school hours (breakfast, snack, lunch), and write with different colored markers the names of the foods that were eaten.
Blue = Milk Group; Purple = Meat Group; Green = Vegetable Group; Red = Fruit Group; and Orange = Grain Group. Also, have students pick a color to indicate the "Others" category.
Post the chart and have students write in the foods eaten each day.
At the end of the week, review the chart. For every "Others" food listed, have students brainstorm a Five Food Group replacement.

Energy Out
Make a chart with all of the students' names on it. Write the days of the week across the top of the chart.

Have students identify activities that can be done during free time after lunch and/or at recess. Have the class create a color code for the activities they identified. For example, jumping rope could be red, playing tag could be green, and swinging could be purple. Also, have the students pick a color for miscellaneous activities.
Use the colors the class selected and code the activity list.
Post the chart. Have the students fill in a block on the chart to indicate the kind of physical activity they are involved in at recess and/or lunchtime each day.
At the end of the week, review the chart. For every non-movement activity listed, have students brainstorm a fun activity that gets them moving.

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