What’s for Lunch?
Stage 1
Food, meals and nutrition
Content focus Built Environments Information and Communication Living Things Products and Services
Outcomes This unit contributes to the following syllabus outcomes. Knowledge and Understanding Students will understand that: • people organise spaces by assembling and arranging components to meet particular needs • information can be stored for later use • living things grow, reproduce, move, need air, take in nutrients and eliminate wastes • products can be created to fulfil specific purposes • products can be made, processed or grown. Students will: • give examples of the ways the different senses can be used in observation • name possible needs and wants of people • give examples of how people plan to make in order to provide for their own and others’ needs • recognise that technological activity affects people and their environments. Skills Students will be able to: • interpret data and explain their observations • name possible needs and wants of people • present ideas as to what they might plan as a design proposal • recognise their own use of technology in the school and home environment. Values and Attitudes Students will: • persevere with activities to their completion • respect the rights and property of others
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• work cooperatively in groups • gain satisfaction from their efforts to investigate, to design and make and to use technology.
Assessment Listed below are strategies that may be used in assessing this unit of work. • Have students retell their experiences of the luncheon. • Observe students during the designing and making of the luncheon. • Ask children to design a healthy meal that could be prepared for different occasions, eg picnic.
Links with other Key Learning Areas English Exploring purpose, audience and features of interviews. Practising formulating and asking questions. Discussing the language of invitations and menus, noting differences and similarities. Mathematics Classifying objects according to one or more attributes. Human Society and its Environment Identifying foods eaten by students in order to extend understandings of cultural diversity in their own community. Personal Development, Health and Physical Education Developing understandings about health and nutrition. Creative and Practical Arts Visual Arts: sequence beginning with remembered experiences, eg favourite foods.
Teacher notes Discussion of diabetes, allergies etc, would be appropriate at this stage, especially if there are students in the class with diet restrictions. Food groups to include in a healthy, balanced diet are bread and cereals,
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY K-6
meat and fish, fruit and vegetables, dairy products. With young students it is important that discussion of ‘bush foods’ also emphasises the dangers of eating unidentified berries, fruits etc found in students’ environment.
Suggested resources What Did You Eat Today? Nelson Short Cuts to Health and Living (kit) Buying Lunch at School (video) Computer software: graphics software, eg The Print Shop, Printmaster Plus, Deluxe Paint III, Children’s Writing and Publishing Centre People and places: The Royal Botanic Gardens; local markets; food market groups, eg Egg Board, Fish Marketing Authority Materials and equipment: cooking utensils, menus, ingredients as selected, pictures of foods, samples of vegetables to observe and group Teaching strategies 1 7
Cooperative learning Observing to explore and discover 18 Clarifying a design task 26 Organising tools, equipment and processes 38 Publishing
Task
Task
Design and make a healthy lunch for the class. Invite a guest, using computer technology to personalise invitations. Create an attractive menu. [W]
Investigate our need for healthy food. [G]
Activities
Explore how we can find out what people need to eat. Try the library, ask other people, eg a nurse, dietitian, Aboriginal health unit. Research whether all people need the same food, eg children, adults, grandparents, people with diabetes, allergies etc. Find out if people choose to eat the same foods. Discuss individual likes/dislikes of students in the class. Classify foods into groups, eg foods with leaves, red coloured. Try again using different criteria, eg red meat, white meat, vegetables, by taste, smell or touch. Identify healthy foods, why they are good for us and why it is important to provide a balance between different food types. Group foods into healthy and not so healthy. Invite someone to speak to the class about food and diet, eg nurse, doctor, athlete. Explore bush foods. Compare to other foods available to class. Research traditional Aboriginal diet.
The meal Discuss the range of foods that could be included in a lunchtime meal. Survey to discover the foods people like to eat for lunch. Brainstorm ideas about the ways of gathering information. Suggest questions that could be posed. By consensus, decide on a final set of survey questions. Use the questionnaire to interview other students, family etc. Present the information, eg make a graph, use a computer spreadsheet. Use this information in deciding the meal to be prepared. Refer also to knowledge of healthy food to ensure the choices are appropriate. Consider how the meal can be presented in an attractive way. Identify the necessary ingredients and utensils. Organise a way of obtaining these. The environment Create a hygienic workspace for preparing the food. Organise a suitable place for serving lunch to your guests. Consider space, appearance, accessibility, table setting, appropriate cutlery. The invitations Consider the requirements of the invitation, eg who is to be invited, how the name and address on the invitation can be changed, whether a reply is required. Select the information to be included. Using computer software try different ways of organising and presenting the information by manipulating text and graphics. Evaluate in terms of practicality and appeal. Jointly construct the final invitation. Design and organise a way for each student to create an individually addressed invitation. Produce the invitations and send to the guests. The menu Using a variety of simple menus, identify how information is presented. Decide on format, and materials to be used. Make the menus.
Activities
Task Investigate where our food comes from. [W]
Activities Group the food items identified earlier as plant or animal. Identify the parts of plants that we eat, eg leaves, roots, stems. Classify common fruit/vegetables according to the parts we eat, eg leaves: lettuce, cabbage; stem: celery, onions. Visit the local shops and identify the foods purchased at each, eg fruit and vegetables, meat, bread. Explore where food comes from before reaching the shops. Visit a farm, orchard or cannery. Observe the production of milk, eggs, grains. List common food eaten by the students and beside each name the source of food.
Task Investigate what makes a healthy lunch. [I]
Activities Individually list the types of food eaten for lunch (as opposed to other meals). Identify what makes these suitable for lunchtime eating, eg sandwiches are easy to wrap, salad doesn’t have to be kept warm. Explain why certain foods are not eaten for lunch. Discuss the variety of food eaten by people from various cultures. Explore social customs associated with eating lunch, eg in some places the main meal is sometimes eaten at ‘lunchtime’, different names for meals, implements used in different places/cultures.
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