1. Construct a 3-D food train using shoe boxes, including an engine, grain car, vegetable car, fruit car, dairy car, meat/meat alternative and a fats, oils and sweets car. Visit http://www.MyPyramid.gov for information on the food groups.
2. Introduce the food groups and the food train. Explain that breakfast is one meal that helps us fill our food train. It provides energy for work and play. Explain that a healthy breakfast includes foods from at least three food groups. Show a few examples using food cards or pictures. Have children practice placing each food in the correct food train car and counting how many cars are filled.
3. Make a simple chart for children to record their daily breakfast choices, with the days of the week on the vertical axis and the six food groups on the horizontal axis. Send the chart home with children along with an informational letter to parents. In the letter, explain that a good breakfast includes foods from at least three food groups. Ask parents to help their child check off the food groups represented in their child's breakfast.
4. Have children assemble their own "Breakfast Train" with their name on the engine and the appropriate cars for the foods they ate for breakfast attached.
5. Involve children in making Pumpkin Pancakes http://www.preparedpantry.com/pumpkinpancakes.htm or another healthful breakfast choice. Discuss where the ingredients would fit in the food train.

1^st to 3^rd Grade

Learner Outcome: Students will be able to list two reasons why breakfast is important.

1. Discuss the importance of breakfast with students See Power Up With Breakfast.
2. Have students bring a "bag" breakfast to class or if your school has a breakfast program, plan to meet in the cafeteria.
3. Ask students to write a story about how they feel after they eat breakfast.
4. Discuss telling time to the nearest hour and how to calculate the passage of time in hours.
5. Have students keep their own record of the times they eat meals and snacks. Ask them to count the time that lapses between feedings. What is the greatest number of hours between meals and snacks?

3^rd to 6^th Grade

Learner Outcome: List two reasons why eating breakfast is important and explain how healthy breakfasts help students do well in sports and other physical activities.

1. Lead a discussion about the importance of breakfast. See Power Up With Breakfast.
2. Explain that you want students to share the information they have learned with others. Divide class into groups. Ask each group to think of commercials they like or slogans they remember. Have each group write down at least five slogans or commercials.
3. Briefly discuss the purpose of advertising. Ask kids to name a few of the things they like about the slogans and ads they listed.
4. Using this information, ask each group to work on a campaign to persuade other people to eat a healthy breakfast. Assign each group one of the following formats: posters, cafeteria placemats, murals and banners. Arrange for resulting projects to be used by the school to promote breakfast.

Optional Activity: Have each group identify the different breakfast items available from a local fast food restaurant or convenience store. Ask them to develop a breakfast menu which could be purchased at the restaurant/store which contains no more than 30% of the total calories from fat. Note: There are 9 calories is a gram of fat.

% calories from fat = (total fat grams in meal x 9) ¸ (total calories in meal) x 100