Food fuels our bodies. The foods we eat can give us energy, build strong bones, and maintain our muscle. Explore the ways each food group contributes to our health, and design a dazzling reusable shopping bag to remind you which foods your body needs!

• 1.

  Eat your vegetables! Have you ever been told that before? Why? What is the benefit of consuming all those colorful fruits and veggies? Discuss the importance of eating fruits and vegetables with your classmates. How many benefits can you identify?

• 2.

  What other foods does your body need? Explore the food pyramid with your class. You will find grains, dairy, protein, fruits, vegetables, and oil represented on the pyramid. In what ways does each of these groups contribute to the nutrition of a healthy body? How much of each group should you eat every day to get all the vitamins and minerals your body requires?

• 3.

  The grocery store is a great place to find all the delicious, nutritious foods recommended on the food pyramid. To help you make good selections while shopping, create a vibrant design on a reusable shopping bag with Crayola® Bright Fabric Markers! Draw the foods you love from each of the groups on the food pyramid!

• 4.

  For the best results, use a shopping bag that is 100% cotton fabric. Place a piece of paper underneath the drawing area to prevent bleed through. Draw your design, making sure you saturated the cloth. When you are finished, ask an adult to iron your design. Set iron on cotton setting and iron on the reverse side using a back and forth motion for 4 minutes. Or place garment in the dryer for 30 minutes on the hottest setting. This will fix the color to the fabric.

• 5.

  Stain Advisement: Fabric markers are permanent on clothing and contain colorants that may stain household surfaces. Wear a smock to protect clothing and cover your work surface. Recap markers as soon as possible and store in a horizontal position. Do not shake markers.

• 6.

  Be creative! Add a fun border or decorative details to your shopping bag. Share your design with the class when completed. Tell the students why you chose the foods on your bag and how those foods keep you healthy!

Standards

• LA: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
• LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
• LA: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
• LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
• SCI: Ask questions about the natural and human-built worlds.
• SCI: Offer causal explanations appropriate to level of scientific knowledge.
• SCI: Construct drawings or diagrams as representations of events or systems.
• SS: Explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies, and cultures address similar human needs and concerns.
• SS: Describe ways in which language, stories, folktales, music, and artistic creations serve as expressions of culture and influence behavior of people living in a particular culture.
• VA: Intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of experiences and ideas.
• VA: Select and use the qualities of structures and functions of art to improve communication of ideas.

Adaptations

• Possible classroom resources include: STANLEY'S "THIS IS THE LIFE!" by Alyssa Chase Rebein; Eat Lots of Colors: A Colorful Look at Healthy Nutrition for Children by Helen Marstiller; Good Enough to Eat: A Kid's Guide to Food and Nutrition by Lizzy Rockwell
• Invite a local physician or nutrition specialist to visit the class and present the benefits of a healthy lifestyle as well as the consequences of unhealthy choices. Prior to the visit, students compose questions for the visitor. After the meeting, students post learning to a class blog.
• Working in teams of two, students write a children's book which focuses on healthy food choices. The books referenced above can be used as examples of approaches for the teams. Students write an original story which includes references to their nutrition research. Stories are illustrated using various Crayola products. These stories can be hand written, word processed, or prepared to be presented electronically.
• Organize a time when older students can visit primary grade classrooms and share their original stories. After the reading experience, younger students pose questions to the older readers and discuss what they have learned from the stories.