Little D's Nutrition Expedition™

Activity 1 - Meet the Royal Food Family

Grade Level: 2nd Grade/Primary Elementary
Rating:

Materials and Advance Prep

Preview Suggested Instructional Strategy and Five Food Group Chart (PDF)
Duplicate Little D, the Five Food Group Dragon mini poster (PDF) - 1 per student. (Note: Mini-posters are used in several activities so collect or have students save them.)
Duplicate and cut out Royal Food Family Trading Cards (PDF) - 1 card per student (Note: Cards are used in several activities so have students save them. Two cards are used in Activity 9; you may want to make double now.)
Print The Royal Food Family to the Rescue (PDF) story
Write on the board: Sir Milkford the Scholar; King Henry the Egg; Queen Anna Banana; Princess Peapod and Prince Waffle
Write on the board: "Ow, ow, oooh, aaah, ooh!", "Mmm, good!"
Cut the dragon head from the Food Group Wall Dragon component sheet. Optional: Laminate.
Review Little D's Tasty Tunes™ Interactive Nutrition Game in Kids

Identify a wall space approximately 5' long x 1' high for building the Five Food Group Wall Dragon. Directions are on the Food Group Wall Dragon component sheet. Each food group is a circle. The color for each circle corresponds with Little D's colors on the Five Food Group Dragon mini-poster
Milk Group - Blue; Meat Group - Purple; Vegetable Group - Green; Fruit Group - Red; Grain Group - Orange

Suggested Instructional Strategy
1. Start by asking:

What does it mean to "be healthy"?
Why is being healthy important to students your age?
What are some things you need to do to stay healthy?
Who is interested in growing?
Who wants to feel good?
Who wants to do well in school and in sports?

Explain that for the next couple of weeks the class will learn more about how to get and stay healthy. Remind students that when they are healthy, they will grow, feel good, and do their best at home and school.

2. Introduce the Royal Food Family to the Rescue as a story about getting and staying healthy. Introduce the Royal Food Family listed on the board.

Read each name with students; pause and ask them to close their eyes and picture each character in their heads.

3. Explain that students need to watch and listen carefully so they can make the sound effects and help you tell the story. Point out the first phrase on the board. Explain:

When I point to my stomach, you will say, "Ow, ow, ooh, aah, ooh!"

Have students practice reading the phrase.

Point to the second phrase. Explain:

When I point to my mouth, you will say, "Mmm, good!"

Have students practice reading the phrase.

Explain that several times in the story, one of the characters does an activity. When you point to them, they need to listen for the action word and act it out. Ask:

What if someone in the story is playing basketball? How would you act out playing basketball?
How would you act out dancing?

For "high-energy" groups, establish boundaries regarding how much movement is appropriate.

4. Read Royal Food Family to the Rescue.

5. When you finish, add "Little D" to the list of names on the board. Review the story. Ask:

Why was Little D making that awful sound? He was sick.
Why do you think Little D was sick? He wasn't eating any foods from the Five Food Groups.
What do you think will happen when Little D gets to the Pyramid Palace? Accept all reasonable answers.

6. Distribute the Little D, the Five Food Group Dragon mini-poster. Find the name of each member of the Royal Food Family on the list on the board. Then ask students to point to the character on their posters. Ask:

Before you heard the story, what did you think this character (e.g., Sir Milkford the Scholar) would look like?
What's different about how the character looks on the poster?
What food group does this character stand for?
When you look at the body of this character, what food do you see?
Why do you think the artist chose that food? Because the food belongs in the character's food group.
What food did this character give Little D to start getting healthier?
What other foods are pictured on the poster for this food group?

When you've finished, ask:

What figure on the poster haven't we met yet? The cow

Let students know they will meet the cow in the next lesson.

7. Ask students to hold up one hand and spread their fingers. There are Five Food Groups needed for good health. As I call out each food group name, repeat it out loud. Bend down a finger each time we say a food group.

Ask students to spread their fingers, close their eyes, and see how many food groups they can remember, bending down a finger for each food group.

8. Talk about the importance of physical activity for staying healthy:

In the beginning of the story, the Royal Food Family was outside playing.
What was Henry the Egg doing? Shooting baskets
What was Queen Anna Banana doing? Swimming
What was Princess Peapod doing? Skating
What was Prince Waffle doing? Jumping rope
Why do you think they were playing? Accept all reasonable answers.
Being active is fun and it also helps your body stay strong and healthy.

9. Distribute a Royal Food Family Trading Card to each child. Explain:

Each card has the picture of one Royal Food Family member.
Each card also has two sentences.
One by one, each of you will read the sentences on your card and fill in the blank.
Then tell us one food in that food group that you like.

Select a card and demonstrate. Encourage students to read their card in a voice that they think fits the character.

10. Let each student read their card. Collect for future activities.

Check for Understanding
11. Have students turn over their Little D poster. Ask:

Show me with your fingers how many food groups there are. Five

Holding up each of the Royal Food Family Trading Cards as visual cues, ask students to answer the following in unison:

Sir Milkford the Scholar stands for what food group? Milk Group
King Henry the Egg stands for what food group? Meat Group
Princess Peapod stands for what food group? Vegetable Group
Queen Anna Banana stands for what food group? Fruit Group
Fruit Group Prince Waffle stands for what food group? Grain Group

12. Show the students the dragon head. Tape it to the wall and explain:

During the next few weeks, the Royal Food Family is going to teach Little D how to eat foods that will help him grow, feel good and be his best at school and play.
We'll make our own Food Group Wall Dragon as we learn about each of the Five Food Groups. This is our dragon's head.

13. Introduce Little D's Tasty Tunes™ Interactive Nutrition Game and arrange for students to play it to reinforce the names of the Five Food Groups.

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

Going Further
Hall Patrol
To emphasize the importance of physical exercise in building strong muscles, lead your students on "silent" walks (two to three minutes) through the school halls. Schedule these "mini" walks after the students have been sitting for an extended period of time to give them an opportunity to move their muscles.

Puppet Theater
Provide a cardboard box as a stage and set up a puppet theater. Make an extra set of the Royal Food Family Trading Cards for props. Encourage students to create Five Food Group scenarios.

Reviews

Little D's Nutrition Expedition™ is the best unit that I have used or seen that teaches about nutrition.

— 2nd Grade Teacher,
South Dakota

Paint a Five Food Groups on Parade mural