In the crazy, chaotic world of 2nd grade we started talking about nutrition and health this week. Specifically, my goal is to get these kids AWARE of the sugar they eat every day. They can all rattle off the five food groups and name over thirty types of fruits and vegetables. That, however, does not necessarily encourage kids to eat them. I'm not sure if my approach will, either, but my theory is that knowledge is power.
Using this theory, we learned how to read seed packets for information in the Seed/Plant unit we finished last week. This week I'm teaching the little nippers how to read nutrition labels (among many other things). None of the had ever read one before, no shock, but this totally falls under "reading for information" in the most useful and everyday sense of the word. We learned what is on a label and why they all use the same format. Then I turned their attention to some empty packages I'd collected in the past week. Their eyes bugged out as they studied the labels on various and common beverages. At lunch they talked about how much sugar was in a Tru Moo chocolate milk. They didn't know the large bottle of Gatorade sold at the ballpark is really supposed to be 2.5 servings, and they were astonished to find out a juice box has almost as much sugar in it as a pint of chocolate milk.
We've done some number-crunching to learn there is a about 4 grams of sugar in a teaspoon. Today I'm making this entire exercise visual as I fill ziplock baggies with sugar and weigh it on a metric scale. They will SEE how much sugar they drink...and eat, since their homework is to bring in the package from a favorite food today.
This might be effective...last night Mr. G was busily digging in our pantry reading labels. He was happy to learn some foods he loves have almost no sugar. He was annoyed with others.
I'll keep you posted, reader.