Food Presentation for 1st and 2nd Grade
On September 15th Diane McCurdy visited Mrs. Roach’s 1st and 2nd grade class. Mrs. McCurdy is from the University of Illinois Extension Office and periodically comes to Lostant School to talk to the students about food, animals and many other natural resources. This visit was to go over types of food and the food groups.
First Mrs. McCurdy went over the 5 food groups: Fruits, vegetables, proteins, grains and dairy. She also went over how many servings you should have in one day: 3 dairy, 3 fruit, 4-5 vegetables, 2 protein and 5-6 grains. The students then were shown pictures of food and had to guess which group they belonged to. Once they completed the game they were split into groups to do a project of putting together a correct plate. Each student in the group would take a turn picking a food item for their group until the plate was full with all the food groups.
Next Mrs. McCurdy talked about how food is produced and that all the food groups need soil to start. She then asked the group why soil was needed for foods like meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables and grains. The class went over how soil was needed for each one.
Finally the last project for the group was to build an edible project that involved all the food groups. The students each made a mini pizza with a whole wheat bun crust, tomato sauce, cheese and turkey pepperoni. The students were asked which group each ingredient belonged to as they added them to the pizza. To round out the snack to include all the food groups, slices of apples were also passed to the students.
The students each were sent home with an informational packet that described the information they went over in class. The packet included the “My Plate” picture, a list of foods from each group and even some kid friendly fruit and vegetable ideas.