Cultural Diversity and the Food Pyramid Whitney Connelly and Maria Dixon Ed200 Curriculum Project Spring ‘06 Trinity College

Introduction Geared toward a primarily Puerto Rican 2 nd Grade Class Similar to our own classroom experiences M.D. Fox Elementary School

Objectives Students will learn how to interact and compromise in decision making in a group setting, encouraging interpersonal relationships. Students will learn about the food pyramid to recognize ethnic foods as part of the food pyramid, and to regard these food as an important part of American nutrition. Students will be encouraged to think more critically about everyday food choices through a series of intrapersonal evaluation and create a graph interpreting their daily food choices. The students will enhance their logical-mathematical skills through a series of lessons and activities applying currency counting.

Justification To fulfill the Health and Safety Education Standard One in the CT Framework, students will establish and maintain healthy eating patterns and a physically active life. According to the CT Framework standards on Health and Nutrition Education, students will plan, select, and prepare a nutritious meal based on the U.S. dietary guidelines. To fulfill the economic standards in the CT Framework, students will demonstrate that various economic systems coexist, and that economic decisions are made by individuals and/or governments, influenced by markets, cultural traditions, individuals and governments in the allocation of goods and services. We choose to focus on the Food Pyramid because it is a meaningful part of everyday life and the children are at a critical age to think more deeply about it.

Weekly Log Day 1 Homework: Daily Food Log Day 2 Concluding Math lesson: Counting Money STAD Group will complete worksheet Individual Quiz Day 3 Brainstorm about what foods the kids eat Present Food Pyramid to Students with culturally diverse foods replacing the characteristically “white” foods Fill in graph based on Friday night’s homework Homework: List all of their favorite foods they eat at home and come in with a few picked out and ready to draw Day 4 Students will choose three items from the lists and draw them Students will be asked to come to the front of the room and place their foods into the right food group on a large blank pyramid The class will then as a whole chose their favorite food from each section and pick a price No Homework Day 5 Students will discuss the ingredients of a pretend sandwich in their STAD groups Individually, the students will illustrate and label their sandwich No Homework Day 6 In their STAD groups, the kids will decide what they want to spend their allotted money on in the pretend marketplace They will come to the stands of food and count out the correct money and purchase the food

Tuesday Students will use intrapersonal reflection to brainstorm a list of foods they typically eat We will then present them with a food pyramid consistent with typical Puerto Rican cuisine Students will then apply their understanding of the food pyramid to their own food logs which they kept over the weekend They will fill in a graph of each food group according to the amount of servings they ate from each category

Evaluation On the sixth day, students will participate in a market. They will have to fill out a worksheet detailing the items they buy. Each student will have to buy one item from each food group, and will have to add up the price of their purchases.