Lesson 1: Meet the Five Food Group Friends

This first lesson focuses on identifying different foods, sorting them by food group, and understanding that eating from all five food groups helps keep us healthy. Students will meet the "Food Group Friends" through hands-on activities—like pretend grocery shopping and even becoming a food group themselves—as they learn how to classify foods.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Name the five MyPlate food groups and identify food choices that belong in each one.
• Explain why it's important to eat foods from all five food groups.
• Show the correct way to wash their hands, and explain why washing hands before and after cooking or eating matters.

Essential Questions

• 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 (order or download at TeamNutrition.USDA.gov):

• The Five Food Groups poster
• "Reach for the Sky" song
• Food Cards
• Friendship Pocket Look and Cook Recipe (one copy per student, plus a display copy; teacher instructions on pp. 77–79)
• Emergent Readers: Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, Protein Foods, Dairy, and Where Food Comes From (teacher and student versions)
• Food Group Friends Profile Cards
• Student Workbook (Activities 1–5, pp. 5–9, 11, 12)
• STAR Chart
• Parent Handout: Welcome to School Lunch!

Additional Supplies:

• Suggested books for Book Club (these are only suggestions, not official endorsements):
• Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
• I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child
• Delicious! A Pumpkin Soup Story by Helen Cooper
• School food menu
• Crayons, scissors, glue, construction paper, paper plates, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, cardboard tubes (like empty paper towel rolls), large poster boards (if available), star stickers, markers

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Whole Group Activities

You can use these activities in any order to help students reach the lesson's goals.

Warm Up (20 minutes)

1. Hang the poster The Five Food Groups where everyone can see it. Gather students in a circle on the floor. Place two hoops (or a sorting mat) in the middle, then pour out a large container of buttons or other small objects. Show students how to sort the objects by a shared feature—like color, size, or shape. Let them practice sorting the rest. Use the poster's Activity Area to record the results together as a class. Afterward, have students put the objects away and return to their seats.

2. Explain that just like we sort objects by color, shape, or size, we also sort foods into groups. Foods in the same group share something in common.

3. Using the poster as a guide, introduce the five food groups: Fruit, Vegetable, Grains, Protein Foods, and Dairy. Ask students which group(s) their favorite foods or meals belong to, and record their answers as a class tally on the poster. Ask: Why do you think your favorite foods belong in those groups?

Then have students jump each time they say, "Five Food Group Friends." Ask: How many words did you just say? Next, have them say "Five Food Friends" and ask: What is the first sound in each word? What letter matches that sound? Now have students say their own names and identify the first sound. Ask: Do you know a food that starts with the same sound as your name? (For example: Britney—broccoli.)

4. Spread the Food Cards out in the middle of the circle. Ask students to pick the card that shows a food they ate sometime this past week. Tape their chosen cards on the board or a flip chart.

5. Choose two foods students picked from the Fruit Group—for example, an apple and an orange—and ask: You picked an apple and an orange. What food group do they belong to? Explain that fruits grow on plants and come in many colors. They're often sweet and are eaten as snacks or desserts. Fruits help our bodies stay healthy and grow. Ask students to name other fruits that were picked, and review any fruits they may have missed. (For a full list of foods in each group, see the Five Food Groups handout in Appendix C, pages 103–105, or online at fns.usda.gov/tn/discover-myplate-nutrition-education-kindergarten.)

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

6. Continue asking students which food groups their Food Cards belong to.

• Ask: What food group do broccoli and sweet potatoes belong to? (Vegetables) Like fruits, vegetables come in many colors—green, orange, red, and more. Some vegetables, like carrots and broccoli, are fun to crunch when eaten raw. Ask: Who likes baby carrots, jicama, or cherry tomatoes with low-fat ranch dip as a snack?

Try this for fun! Have students make pretend "night-vision goggles" with their hands and look around for other vegetables on the Food Cards or poster. List these together in the Activity Area. Remind students that, like fruits, some vegetables give our bodies vitamins—nutrients that help heal cuts and scratches. Some vegetables also contain a vitamin that helps our eyes and skin stay healthy and helps us see better in the dark!

• Ask: What food group do chicken and peanut butter belong to? (Protein Foods) All foods in this group contain protein. Protein foods can come from animals—some names are easy to guess, like fish from fish, while others are different, like beef from cows and ham from pigs. Protein foods can also come from plants, such as beans, sunflower seeds, veggie burgers, tofu, and nuts. Share other protein foods students named. Protein foods help build strong muscles, which let 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, march in place, or flex their arm muscles. Explain that every movement, big or small, uses 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 it can also come from sheep or goats. Some fortified soy drinks (soy milk) also count as dairy. Dairy foods help build strong bones and teeth. Our skeleton—the framework of bones inside our body—helps us stand up and protects important organs like our brain, lungs, and heart.

Try this for fun! Sing the song "Dry Bones," starting at the toes and working up to the head—for example: "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 and other grains are often ground into flour to make bread, tortillas, crackers, and noodles. Grains give our bodies the energy we need to move and play.

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

"Sometimes" Foods: Some foods don't belong to any of the five food groups—like candy, jelly, cream cheese, soda, butter, sugar, honey, and fruit punch. These foods have extra sugar or saturated fat but 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, respectively) but aren't the healthiest choices because they're high in saturated fat or added sugar. All of these are called "sometimes foods" because we should only eat them once in a while.

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

8. Use the Food Group Friends Profile Cards to introduce Farrah Fruit, Reggie Veggie, Jane Grain, Dean Protein, and Mary Dairy. Show each character and explain how their bodies are made up of foods from their food group—this helps students 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 (spaghetti and bow-tie), whole-grain cereal, brown rice, popcorn, graham crackers
• Dean Protein — chicken, ham, egg, beans, peanuts
• Mary Dairy — yogurt, milk, cheese, fortified soy alternatives (like soy yogurt and soy milk)

Display all five Profile Cards on the board or flip chart. Give each student a Food Card, and have them take turns "giving" their card to the Food Group Friend made of the same kind of food. Afterward, review as a class which group each food belongs to.

For example: beans could go to Dean Protein, since his hair is made of beans—beans belong to the Protein Foods Group. But beans could also go to Reggie Veggie, since his nose is a bean shape too—showing that beans actually belong to both the Protein Foods Group and the Vegetable Group!