Fast Food Activities

PreK-K

Outcome:

Students will be able to categorize fast-food meals using MyPyramid. This lesson addresses Illinois State Goals 4 & 24.

1. Read Frank & Ernest by Alexandra Day or Little Nino's Pizzeria by Karen Barbour. Ask children to share their experience, knowledge and ideas on eating out. Construct an "eating out" web to record what children already know about eating out and what they would like to learn. Use this web as a basis for planning and recording progress.

2. Using pictures of typical fast-foods, ask students to sort the pictures of their favorite meal into MyPyramid groups. Ask children what food groups are missing (usually dairy and fruit). Let children freely explore ways to solve this problem (order milk instead of soda, bring fresh fruit from home).

3. Take a field trip to a fast-food restaurant. Allow children to model their solutions and explore their interests about fast-food restaurants.

4. Obtain a large appliance box. Encourage children to "build" a fast-food restaurant with a drive up window. Supply them with appropriate props (cash registers, plastic food models, sacks, clean styrofoam containers, play money, cups). Encourage creative play.

5. Send home parent newsletter "Navigating in a Fast Food World" (Located on "Just for Parents" page on this site)- include a note, explaining what the children learned about fast-food meals.

Grades 1-2

Outcome: Children will be able to compare their planned menu with the MYPyramid and modify it so that all MyPyramid groups are represented. This lesson addresses Illinois State Goals 3, 9, 16 & 22.

1. Ask what a triangle looks like. What about a pyramid? Show students pictures of South American or Egyptian pyramids. Read A Quetzalcóatl Tale by Marilyn Parke and Sharon Panik. Discuss how the pyramid was used in the story (to store the "Food of Gods" - corn).

2. Ask students to build a pyramid out of building blocks. Let them discover, through trial and error, what the best building method is. Discuss ancient construction methods.

3. Inform students that a pyramid can also help us make food choices every day. Using blocks to represent the minimum number of servings from each Pyramid Group, demonstrate how the MyPyramid is built. What happens if one or more MyPyramid group is missing.

4. Ask students to plan a fast-food restaurant, draw or write a menu, and compare their menu with MyPyramid. How can they modify their menu to include foods from all the major food groups in MyPyramid? See lesson six in Food Time (294 CG) by Scholastic, Inc. for related ideas.

5. Partner with your food service director to print "Navigating in a Fast-Food World" on menu backs for parents.

Grades 3-6

Outcome: Students will be able to identify two ways they can make more healthful fast-food choices. This lesson addresses Illinois State Goals 3, 5, 10, 11 & 24.

Following are several activities which may be assigned to groups of students. Activities can be simplified for younger students. Students can display their projects in the cafeteria or at a school health fair, besides presenting them in class.

1. Students can poll their peers to find out how many times a week kids in their class eat fast foods, where they eat fast foods and what fast foods are selected most often. Ask them to create graphs or charts to illustrate their findings.

2. Students investigate and identify factors in their current lifestyle that account for the increase in fast food meals. The school library or the Internet could be used as resources to gather information. The group can design a poster to illustrate their findings.

3. Students investigate the nutritional value of fast-foods. Do typical fast food meals provide one-third of daily nutrient recommendations for fat, calories, protein, calcium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium and iron? Illustrate using bar graphs.

4. Students plan and assemble an informative display that shows how typical fast food meals can be modified to reduce fat content. Students can use the Fast Food Facts web site to search for lower-fat fast food items. The address is http://www.foodfacts.info/.