Original Unit on Nutrition

     When I decided to create an original unit during my lead teaching, I wanted to go beyond the subjects I am comfortable teaching.  I decided to create a unit around science, a subject I am unfamiliar with and slightly apprehensive about teaching.  After a few conversations with my cooperating teacher, I decided to teach a unit on Nutrition and all the sub-topics that fall under the larger umbrella.  There was a two-week down period between the fourth grade curriculum’s major science units and I planned my health unit during that time.  At the fourth grade level, learning about nutrition is one of the state standards.  I feel that understanding nutrition is important for our children so they can make healthy choices concerning food, food safety and exercise.

     Throughout the unit students learned a variety of aspects concerning nutrition.  They learned the inner workings of the food pyramid and how it breaks down into smaller groupings of food that contain the same nutrient.  Students were able to apply their daily food intake and compare it to healthy and unhealthy diets.  This helped them to recognize the importance of caloric intake and exercise output and how this shapes their weight.  Students were also given the opportunity to read food labels and determine whether the item was healthy or unhealthy based on the nutrition facts found on the back.  Lastly, students discussed and identified foods that were unhealthy, how to pick out aspects of unhealthy or unsafe foods and how to prepare meals with food safety in mind.

     The most important thing I learned while teaching this unit was how much fun science can be if creativity is involved.  I tried my best to incorporate items and situations that students encounter in their daily lives.  I believed this helped them to understand the major concepts in this unit and it also created a fun learning environment in which all students had the opportunity to be successful.  I also learned that it does not take to much effort to go the extra mile to use materials that students are familiar with so that they can activate prior knowledge to assist them in learning new content.  It was a fun and rewarding unit to teach, one in which I’ll keep in my files for future classes.