Arianna's Nutrition Expedition™

Activity 5 - Arianna Travels the Orient Express

Grade Level: 4th Grade/Upper Elementary
Estimated Time: 50 minutes
Rating:

Materials and Advance Prep

• Preview the Suggested Instructional Strategy
• Review of the Recommended Number of Servings; page 5 Nutrition Backgrounder (PDF).
• Duplicate Arianna's Letter (PDF) - 1 set per small group (Step 4). Cut the sections apart and mix up the pieces of each set.
• Overhead projector and blank transparencies
• Classifying Foods transparency prepared for Activity 4
• Duplicate Arianna's Bar Graph (PDF) worksheet - 1 per student
• Print Arianna's Bar Graph transparency master and make a transparency using your photocopy machine
• Sheet of notebook paper - 1 per student
• Students' Nutrition Journals (made in Activity 1)
• Students' Folders (from Activity 1)
• Review the Interactive Nutrition Game, Quintricious!™
• Optional: Globe or world map
• On the board or on an overhead transparency, draw this chart:
  

  	Grain Group	Vegetable Group	Fruit Group	Milk Group	Meat Group
  Breakfast
  Mid-morning Snack
  Lunch
  Afternoon Snack
  Dinner
  Recommended Number of Servings

Background
A term presented in this lesson:
Rickshaw (RIK shaw): A light, two-wheeled, hooded vehicle drawn by one or more persons.

Suggested Instructional Strategy
1. Begin by asking:

• How many of you have traveled to another city, state or country?
• How many of you have ridden on an airplane? A bus? A train? A ship?
• Has anyone eaten a meal while traveling by plane, bus, train, or ship?
• Imagine you were taking a long trip - a trip where you were on a train, bus or ship for more than a day.
• You'd still need to eat the recommended number of servings from each of the Five Food Groups.
• How many servings would you need each day from the Grain Group? Six
• How many servings would you need each day from the Vegetable Group? Five
• How many servings would you need each day from the Fruit Group? Three
• How many servings would you need each day from the Milk Group? Three
• How many servings would you need each day from the Meat Group? Two

2. Tell students that Arianna took a ride on a famous train - the Orient Express - and wrote a letter to Marcus about her adventure. Unfortunately, there must have been a problem with the mail because the letter is in pieces. Read the first segment of the letter out loud.

Optional: Using a globe or world map, have students locate Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Point out that the train Arianna rode runs through the part of Malaysia that is located on the Malay Peninsula. Another part of Malaysia is found on the northern part of the island of Borneo.

3. Review the parts of a friendly letter and direct students' attention to chronological text cues that will help them sequence the letter correctly. Ask:

• What are the parts of a friendly letter? Date, greeting, body, closing, and signature
• How can you find the beginning of a letter? Look for the greeting (Dear...)
• How can you find the ending of a letter? Look for the closing (Your friend, From, Sincerely, etc.) and signature
• What is the main part of the letter called? Body
• When will Arianna be writing this letter? During meals
• How do you suspect Arianna's letter will be sequenced? In chronological order from meal to meal

4. Form groups of three or four. Explain that students will work together to sequence the rest of Arianna's letter correctly. Pass out a set Arianna's Letter parts to each group. Allow a few minutes to sequence the letter based on the text clues and Arianna's descriptive information about her adventure.

5. Have students them take turns reading the letter aloud in correct sequence. Continue the discussion with questions such as:

• What was Arianna's latest adventure? Taking a train trip on the Orient Express
• What are some of the foods she ate? Accept all reasonable answers.
• Did Arianna manage to eat the recommended number of servings from each of the Five Food Groups? This should not be entirely clear to students at this point.
• How can we figure out whether Arianna ate enough foods from each food group? Make a chart or graph; use the Classifying Foods overhead transparency as a reference.

6. Tell students you want them to analyze Arianna's letter to determine whether she ate enough from each food group. Using the Classifying Foods transparency, review the recommended number of servings:
Grain Group, 6; Vegetable Group, 5; Fruit Group, 3; Milk Group, 3; Meat Group, 2

Ask:

• Why is it important to eat this many servings from each of the Five Food Groups each day? The recommended number of servings helps ensure that you get enough of the nutrients needed from each food group in order to grow, feel good and perform at your best.

7. Project the Arianna's Bar Graph transparency. Distribute Arianna's Bar Graph handout. Ask:

• What did Arianna eat for breakfast? What food group is each food in? Scrambled egg (Meat Group); Swiss cheese (Milk Group; Tomatoes (Vegetable Group); Roll (Grain Group); Mandarin orange (Fruit Group); Milk (Milk Group)

Write students' responses in the "What Arianna Ate" section of the transparency. Ask students to fill in the corresponding section of their handouts.

8. Ask students to look at the "How Arianna's Choices Stack Up" bar graph at the bottom of the handout. Ask:

• How many servings from the Grain Group did Arianna eat at breakfast? 1
• From the Vegetable Group? 1
• From the Fruit Group? 1
• From the Milk Group? 1
• From the Meat Group? 1

As students answer, fill in the appropriate boxes of the bar graph on the transparency. Ask students to fill in the corresponding section of their handouts.

9. Have students re-read the rest of the letter in their groups and list each food item in the appropriate area on the top chart. Also have them indicate each serving on the bar graph.

10. When students are done, review their bar graphs. Ask:

• Did Arianna get enough servings from the Grain Group? No. She needs six and only got five.
• What did she eat from the Grain Group? Roll, Thai noodles, rice, rice cakes, bread
• Did Arianna get enough servings from the Vegetable Group? No. She needs five servings and only got three.
• What did she eat from the Vegetable Group? Tomatoes, eggplant, squash
• Did Arianna get enough servings from the Fruit Group? Yes
• What did she eat from the Fruit Group? Mandarin oranges, pineapple, papaya
• Did Arianna get enough servings from the Milk Group? No. She needs three and only got two.
• What did she eat from the Milk Group? Swiss cheese, milk
• Did Arianna get enough servings from the Meat Group? Yes
• What did she eat from the Meat Group? Scrambled eggs, beef slices
• Did Arianna eat any foods from the "Others" category? Yes
• What did she eat from the "Others" category? Shortbread cookies
• Did Arianna get enough servings from the "Others" category? There are no recommended servings from the "Others" category.

11. Brainstorm additional foods that Arianna could eat to get the recommended servings from each food group.

12. Tell students their next task is to imagine the next day on Arianna's train trip. They will choose her menu and create a chart showing all of the foods Arianna will eat, making sure that she eats the recommended number of servings from all Five Food Groups.

On a sheet of notebook paper, have students copy the chart you drew on the board or transparency.

13. Have each student begin by writing the recommended number of servings from each food group in the bottom row of the chart. 6-5-3-3-2
Then have students think of three food group foods for Arianna to eat for breakfast. Ask students to write the names of the foods in the breakfast row, listing each food in its appropriate food group column. For example, yogurt, a banana, and a slice of toast would look like this:

14. After a minute or so, ask students to pass their charts to the right. Writing on this new chart, ask students to select a mid-morning snack for Arianna that contains at least two food groups. Remind students that they need to ensure Arianna eats the recommended number of servings in each food group, so they should think carefully about what foods they select.

15. Direct students to pass their charts to the right every minute or so. On subsequent charts, have students write a lunch (with all Five Food Groups), an afternoon snack (with at least two food group foods), and a dinner (with all Five Food Groups) for Arianna. When the activity is finished, each student will have a completed chart (though probably not the one he or she started).

Check for Understanding
16. Have students review the completed sheet they have in hand and make any additions or deletions so that Arianna achieves the 6-5-3-3-2 goal, and save their work in their folders for Activity 8.

17. Ask students to take out their Nutrition Journals. Provide students with one or more writing prompts such as:

• Think about a meal you've eaten on a trip. List the foods served. Describe your reaction to each item.
• Arianna has been trying lots of new foods on her Orient Express trip. How do you react to unfamiliar foods? Do you try them? Do you refuse them? Why?
• If you were packing a cooler to take on a car trip, what foods would you definitely include? What foods would you never pack?

18. Allow students to continue playing Quintricious!™ and Nutrition Mixer™ to reinforce the concepts taught in this unit.

All of Arianna's games are found on NutritionExplorations.org in Kids.

Going Further
6-5-3-3-2 Rap
Have students work in teams to create a rap, poem or song about the importance of eating the recommended number of servings from each food group. Raps should include reference to the specific serving numbers, as well as the health benefits and/or nutrients each food group provides.

Balloon Basket Relay
Before beginning this activity, have a few students blow up 19 balloons - to represent the total number of servings students need daily from the Five Food Groups.

• Place five empty wastebaskets, baskets and/or other containers at the front of the room. Label each container with the name of one of the Five Food Groups.
• Use a marker to write the name of a food group on each balloon. Designate the appropriate number of balloons to represent the recommended number of servings of that food group (e.g., Milk Group will be written on three balloons, Meat Group will be on two balloons, etc.).
• Have all students stand, and then distribute the balloons evenly throughout the room. When you say "go," students must work silently and cooperatively to move the balloons into their appropriate baskets.
• The balloons must be moved in the air, with students keeping them afloat by gently tapping them from beneath, until all food group containers have the correct balloons in them.
• Play the game with a timer, challenging the class to work as a team to move the balloons as quickly and efficiently as possible each time you play.

How Big is a Serving?
Conduct a "Serving Size Lab" to help students develop an eye for appropriate-sized servings. As children explore food group stations, they record their findings in their Nutrition Journals. Click here for complete activity.

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