The Five Food Groups

Lesson 1: Meet the Five Food Group Friends

This first lesson helps students learn about different foods and sort them into food groups. Students will also learn why eating from all five food groups keeps our bodies healthy. Kids will meet the Food Group Friends through fun, hands-on activities. They will pretend to "check out" groceries and even become a food group themselves while learning how to sort foods.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Name the five MyPlate food groups and pick out foods that belong in each one.
• Explain why it's important to eat foods from all five food groups.
• Show the right way to wash their hands and explain why we wash hands before and after cooking and eating.

Big Questions to Think About

• What are the names of the five food groups?
• Which foods belong in each group?

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Supplies and Preparation

Discover MyPlate Materials:

• The Five Food Groups poster
• "Reach for the Sky" song
• Food Cards
• Friendship Pocket Look and Cook Recipe (one copy per student, plus one to display)
• Emergent Readers about Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, Protein Foods, Dairy, and Where Food Comes From
• Food Group Friends Profile Cards
• Student Workbook activities
• STAR Chart
• A handout for parents: "Welcome to School Lunch!"

Other Supplies:

• Suggested books for Book Club, such as Bread and Jam for Frances, I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato, and Delicious! A Pumpkin Soup Story
• The school food menu
• Crayons, scissors, glue, construction paper, paper plates, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, cardboard tubes, poster boards, star stickers, and markers

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Whole Group Activities

Warm Up (20 minutes)

1. Hang up the poster called The Five Food Groups so everyone can see it. Have students sit in a circle on the floor. Place two hoops or a sorting mat in the middle. Dump out a big pile of buttons or other small objects. Show students how to sort the objects by something they have in common — like color, size, or shape. Let students take turns sorting the rest. Write down what you sorted together as a class. Then have students put the objects away and sit back down.

1. Explain that just like we can sort buttons by color or size, we can also sort foods into food groups. Foods that are in the same group are alike in some way.

1. Use the poster to introduce the five food groups: Fruit, Vegetable, Grains, Protein Foods, and Dairy. Ask students to think about which group their favorite food belongs to. Keep track of everyone's answers on the poster. Ask: Why do you think your favorite food belongs in that group? Have students jump each time they say "Five Food Group Friends." Ask: How many words did you say? Then have them say "Five Food Friends" and think about the first sound in each word, and which letter matches that sound. Now have students say their own name and think about its first sound. Can they think of a food that starts with the same sound? (For example: Britney—broccoli.)

1. Spread the Food Cards out in the middle of the circle. Ask each student to pick a food they ate this week. Tape their cards up on the board.

1. Pick two fruits students chose — like an apple and an orange. Ask: What food group do apples and oranges belong to? Explain that fruits grow on plants and come in many colors. They often taste sweet and are great for snacks or dessert. Fruits help keep our bodies healthy and help us grow. Ask students to name other fruits that were picked. (For a full list of foods in each group, check the Five Food Groups handout.)

Try this for fun! Ask students to smile and point to their teeth and gums. Some fruits help heal cuts and scratches and keep our teeth and gums healthy.

1. Keep asking students which food group their cards belong to:

• Ask: What food group do broccoli and sweet potatoes belong to? (Vegetables) Just like fruits, vegetables come in many colors — green, orange, and red. Some, like carrots and broccoli, are fun to crunch when eaten raw.

Try this for fun! Have students pretend to put on "night-vision goggles" by making circles with their hands around their eyes. Ask them to spot other vegetables on the cards or poster. Remind students that some vegetables have vitamins (things our bodies need) that help heal cuts and scratches, and some vitamins help us see better, especially in the dark!

• Ask: What food group do chicken and peanut butter belong to? (Protein Foods) All foods in this group have protein. Some protein foods come from animals — fish comes from fish, beef comes from cows, and ham comes from pigs. Others come from plants, like beans, sunflower seeds, veggie burgers, tofu, and nuts. Protein foods help us build strong muscles, which help our bodies move.

Try this for fun! Have students move different body parts — take a deep breath, blink, smile, snap their fingers, tap their toes, or march in place. Explain that even small movements need muscles.

• Ask: What food group do milk and yogurt belong to? (Dairy) Most dairy foods, like cheese and yogurt, are made from milk. Milk usually comes from cows, but can also come from sheep or goats. Some soy milks count as dairy too. Dairy foods help build strong bones and teeth. Our skeleton — all the bones in our body — helps us stand up and protects important parts like our brain, lungs, and heart.

Try this for fun! Sing the "Dry Bones" song, starting at the toes and moving up to the head, like: "The toe bone's connected to the foot bone; the foot bone's connected to the leg bone..." Have students point to each bone as they sing.

• Ask: What food group do bread and rice belong to? (Grains) Grains come from plants like rice, wheat, and oats. Wheat is often ground into flour to make bread, tortillas, crackers, and noodles. Grains give our bodies energy to move and play.

Try this for fun! Have students check their pulse (how fast their heart beats) by pressing two fingers gently on the inside of their wrist. Then have them do 10 jumping jacks and check again. Ask: Is it faster now? Explain that their heart beats faster because their body needs more energy to jump than to sit still. The more active we are, the more energy our bodies need from food.

1. Ask students: We've talked about ways different foods help us stay healthy. What are some of those ways? (Strong bones and teeth, strong muscles, energy to move and play, healing cuts and scratches.) Point out Nate and Kate on the poster. Explain that throughout Discover MyPlate, these two characters will remind everyone to choose healthy foods. They eat from all five food groups so they can be their best!

1. Introduce the Food Group Friends: Farrah Fruit, Reggie Veggie, Jane Grain, Dean Protein, and Mary Dairy, using the Food Group Friends Profile Cards.

1. Show each Food Group Friend and explain how their bodies are made of foods from one food group. These characters help us remember which foods go where:

• Farrah Fruit — apple, blackberries, bananas, watermelon, strawberry, kiwi, grapes, orange, cherries
• Reggie Veggie — carrot, broccoli, snap peas, spinach, beans
• Jane Grain — whole-wheat bread, whole-grain pasta, whole-grain cereal, brown rice, popcorn, graham crackers
• Dean Protein — chicken, ham, egg, beans, peanuts
• Mary Dairy — yogurt, milk, cheese, and soy alternatives like soy yogurt and soy milk

Put all the Food Group Friends Profile Cards up on the board. Give each student a Food Card. Have them take turns "giving" their card to the Food Group Friend made of the same kind of food. Then talk as a class about which food group each card belongs to. For example, beans could go to Dean Protein, since his hair is made of beans, and beans are a protein food. But beans could also go to Reggie Veggie, since his nose is a bean too! That's because beans belong to both the Protein Foods Group and the Vegetable Group.

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A Note on "Sometimes" Foods

Some foods don't belong to any of the five food groups at all — like candy, jelly, cream cheese, soda, butter, sugar, honey, and fruit punch. These foods have extra sugar or unhealthy fat, but they don't give our bodies what they need to stay healthy. Other foods, like cookies and ice cream, do belong to a food group (Grains and Dairy), but they aren't the healthiest choice because they have a lot of added sugar or unhealthy fat. All of these are called "sometimes foods" — foods we should only eat once in a while, not every day.