Substitute Teacher Lesson Plan: Nutrition Education — "10 Tips" Series

Objective

Students will learn practical, everyday tips for building a healthy plate, including balancing calories, eating more fruits and vegetables, choosing whole grains over refined grains, switching to low-fat dairy, and drinking water instead of sugary drinks.

Materials

• Printed copies (or one shared copy) of the "10 Tips Nutrition Education Series" resource — specifically the "Choose MyPlate," "Add More Vegetables," "Focus on Fruits," "Make Half Your Grains Whole," and "Got Your Dairy Today?" tip sheets
• Chalkboard/whiteboard or chart paper and markers
• Paper and pencils for students (for the exit ticket)

Warm-up (~5 min)

1. Ask students: "What foods did you eat today or yesterday? Call out a few examples." Write 4–5 responses on the board.
2. Tell students that today they will learn "10 Tips" for building a healthy plate, using tips from the MyPlate nutrition series.
3. Briefly explain: "These tips come from a real nutrition guide used to help people make healthy food choices."

Main Activity (~25 min)

1. Read aloud "10 tips to a great plate" (MyPlate sheet) — Go through the numbered tips one at a time (balance calories, enjoy food but eat less, avoid oversized portions, foods to eat more often, make half your plate fruits and vegetables, switch to fat-free/low-fat milk, make half your grains whole grains, foods to eat less often, compare sodium in foods, drink water instead of sugary drinks). Read each tip's short explanation aloud.
2. Pause and discuss after tips #5, #7, and #10 — ask students to repeat back in their own words what the tip means (e.g., "What does it mean to make half your plate fruits and vegetables?").
3. Small group or partner activity: Divide students into 4 groups. Assign each group one of the following tip sheets:
4. "Add More Vegetables"
5. "Focus on Fruits"
6. "Make Half Your Grains Whole"
7. "Got Your Dairy Today?"
8. Have each group read through their assigned sheet's tips together (a few minutes) and pick their favorite tip from the sheet — one they think is easiest to try at home.
9. Each group shares their chosen tip aloud with the class (one sentence: "Our tip is ___ and it means ___"). Write each group's tip on the board.

Wrap-up / Exit Ticket (~10 min)

1. Ask students to take out paper and pencil.
2. Have them write down:
3. One tip from today they will try this week (can be from any of the tip sheets covered)
4. Why they chose that tip (one sentence)
5. Collect the exit tickets, or have a few volunteers share their answers aloud with the class.

If Time Remains

Ask students to look again at the MyPlate "10 tips to a great plate" sheet and pick one food from the warm-up list (foods they said they ate) and decide which category it fits into (fruit, vegetable, grain, dairy, or a food to "eat less often"). Discuss a few examples as a class.