10 Minute Nutrition Lesson Plans featuring MyPlate - developed lesson plans for four different grade levels – elementary to high school - to teach the MyPlate Nutrition concept, using science and math principles to illustrate the MyPlate icon food group sections. Taught the fraction-based math lesson to a fifth grade class - MyPlateHealthy Eating through Fractions

1. Nutrition Education: Math-Based Lesson Plan
Lesson Title: 10 Minute Nutrition Lesson – Healthy Eating through Fractions
Grade Group: Late Elementary Grades 5-6
Topic: Using fractions to illustrate the MyPlate icon food group sections
Curriculum Standard: 6A2a:
Compare and order whole numbers, fractions and decimals using concrete
materials, drawings and mathematical symbols.
Lesson Background
The purpose of this lesson plan is to teach students about MyPlate and the corresponding food groups using
fractions. MyPlate is a federal government initiative to promote healthy eating using a plate icon that features
the main food groups - protein, grains, fruits and vegetables, and dairy - in approximate portion sizes to
simplify the concept of eating nutritious foods in correct portion sizes. For this lesson, students will learn how
the food group sections on the MyPlate are related to fractions.
Lesson Objectives
1. Students will be able to identify the correct fraction for each food group.
2. Students will be able to identify the foods that correlate with each food group.
Classroom Activity
Lesson Description
The teacher will begin the lesson about the types of foods required by our bodies and group those foods into
the five food categories – grains, protein, fruits and vegetables, and dairy. The teacher will then discuss the
MyPlate icon and how the food group sections can be interpreted as fractions. The class will then complete an
exercise using the school lunch menu, dividing each lunch into quarter fraction sections.
Lesson
In order to be healthy and strong, we need to eat good, nutritious foods. What kinds of foods do we need to
eat? Teacher asks students for answers. We need grains, fruits and vegetables, protein, and dairy every day.
Let’s make a list of some of the foods in each food group.
Teacher asks students for answers and writes them on the board in columns as a list. Obtain at least 5 items
for each food group, but at least three for the dairy.
Grains – whole wheat bread, pasta, noodles, crackers, pita bread, rice, couscous
Protein – chicken, beef, fish, cheese, tofu, nuts
Fruits – oranges, apples, pears, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, mangoes
Vegetables – spinach, string beans, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage, onions
Dairy – milk, yogurt, cheese, butter,
We need to eat a lot of different foods so that our bodies are strong and our minds are sharp. That way we
can do well in school and play sports or do other activities.
Now that we’ve named some foods for each food group, how do we know how much to eat of each food
group? Teacher asks students for answers.
The easiest way to know how much food to eat is to use fractions! Let’s take a look at MyPlate. Teacher
distributes the MyPlate handout. This plate was created to help you know how much of each food group to
eat at each meal. And they used fractions to do it.
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2. They divided the plate into four sections. Each section is a certain fraction. Once you know the fraction of each
section on the plate, it is easy to know how much to eat at each meal.
Let’s look at each section:
Fruits – in terms of fractions, how much does the fruit portion take up on the plate? ¼. Vegetables - how
much do vegetables comprise? ¼. Grains – how big of a section do grains have? Approximately ¼. Protein –
how much room does protein take up on the plate? Approximately ¼ . So each section comprises
approximately ¼ of the plate. The dairy is by itself so we don’t count it on the plate.
Now, we see that fruits and vegetables each take up ¼ of the plate. So how much do they take up together? ½.
That’s a lot. We need a lot of fruits and vegetables because they give us energy, vitamins, minerals and water.
They’re also low in calories so they are a healthy choice. So each meal you eat should contain a plate that is
half full of fruits and vegetables.
So now we know that when we eat, our plates should be ½ fruits and vegetables, ¼ protein and ¼ grains.
Remember that 4 quarters (¼s) equal one whole. And with my plate, that means you are getting complete
nutrition for your body, so make sure plate has 4 ¼s that add up to a whole lot of nutrition!
Now let’s put these fractions into action.
Activity
Let’s look at the lunch menu. Teacher distributes 1) current elementary lunch menu to students. One week will
be used for the activity; 2) 5 copies of Black and White MyPlate worksheets.
The teacher instructs the students to fit each lunch meal into a MyPlate so they can observe how the lunch
meal is also divided into quarters. See example below.
Chilled Pears -
1/4 Skim Milk
Bun – 1/4
Seasoned Peas &
Carrots 1/4 Cheeseburger - 1/4
Closing
Now that we’ve observed that the school lunch menu matches the fraction composition we discussed, you will
be able to observe if your meals outside school matches these fractions.
Cafeteria Connection
The students will make the meal they buy match the MyPlate icon. Their ability to do so can be discussed the
following day and once a week until they become comfortable with the food group portions.
Home Activity
The students can be asked to match the meals they eat at home to the MyPlate and report back to the class
what food groups, if any, were missing or if the food group portions were too big or too small.
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