The "Foods and Nutrition" assignment was created for CI 4900, Student Teaching, during the spring 2008 semester. It was created under the advisement of Dr. Jane Norwood as a Student Teaching course requirement. The "Unit" was implemented at Elizabeth Lane Elementary School in Ms. Leona Ingram's Fourth Grade Classroom.

The "Unit" was a three week-lesson unit based on the Fourth Grade Science and Nutrition Curriculum for the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, and Arianna's Nutrition Exploration. It was important to teach because of the Fourth Grade Curriculum, and it allows students to know how to stay healthy by eating from the five food groups and staying active in their communities. Allowing students to have the knowledge of staying healthy will hopefully keep them from becoming one of America’s greatest childhood concerns within the population: obese.

The Unit is appropriate for Fourth-Graders, and was adapted from my previous Health Unit with Second-Graders. It is appropriate because of their desire to choose what they eat, and plan meals accordingly.

The "Foods and Nutrition Unit" was created to allow students to experience different ways of learning through a series of Science lessons through different hands-on projects, experiments, and experiences. Students learned a variety of useful skills such as reading a food label, recognizing the five food groups, being able to identify foods from each group, and learning the nutrients good for their bodies (Health, Competency Goal 4) that they will be able to take with them for years to come.

Alignment

The following NCDPI Elementary Education Standards were met by:

NCDPI Standard 1, Indicator 4 was met through the use of daily discussions. Each day, I had students talk about Nutrition and how it affected them. Students listened to one another, spoke reasonably about what they knew, read about Nutrition from their Science textbook and Arianna's Nutrition Expedition and wrote journals daily of what they ate.

NCDPI Standard 3,Indicator 1 was met by having a basic knowledge of health and the human biology. Teaching students about nutrition requires a basic knowledge of what nutrients affect which body function, and what foods students need.

NCDPI Standard 4, Indicator 11 was met by showing students a basic knowledge of self-discipline. Students need to eat right in order, to remain healthy.

NCDPI Standard 5, Indicator 1 was met by laying down a good foundation of good health and helping students understand the benefits of a healthy lifestyle through multiple discussions, a Healthy Benefits Collage, and labatory experiences.

NCDPI Standard 5, Indicator 2 was met by being alert to major health issues in children; related to nutrition. My goal was to encourage students that both exercising daily and eating healthily could be fun. Students learned that by doing a little more of what they enjoyed everyday, they could remain healthy and prevent major health concerns such as Childhood Diabetes and Obesity.

NCDPI Standard 7, Indicator 2 was met by aligning and implementing the lessons to the curriculum and North Carolina Standard Course of Study.

NCDPI Standard 7, Indicator 3 was met by promoting new learning by using the student's prior knowledge of the pre-assessment; and applied the student's prior knowledge to the lessons I had planned and critiqued them to fit the needs of the students I was teaching.

NCDPI Standard 7, Indicator 6 was met by developing and using a variety of formal and alternative assessment strategies throughout the Unit. I analyzed different assesmment formats from having individual, peer, team, and collaborative assessments. Each assessment I performed was different than the previous one; and unique to fit the needs of each individual child. I made sure that each of my assessments would assess the data I would need to analyze and make sure every child was learning the necessary curriculum. I assessed each child through pre-asessments and post-assessment quizzes, collaborative projects with a Menu, a Powers of Persusasion advertisement, and group Calenthinsics Exercise and How BIG is a Serving Lab.

NCDPI Standard 11, Indicator 3 was met by enhancing the science lesson with social studies. The science background allowed the Serving lab to make a connection between science discovery and innovation with different tools and techniques.

NCDPI Standard 13 was met by working alone to create opportunities for student development and practice of skills that contribute to good health through the various projects and assessments within this Unit.

NCDPI Standard 14, Indicator 4 was met by having students bring in a family recipe that they chose and valuing the family roles in educating each student about diversity.