Nutrition: What is Healthy Eating?

Visual Art LES

February 17, 2016

EDEA 332- Art Curriculum and Instruction
By: Group 8 - Nathalie Burkulian, Sarah Gahia, Marie-Eve Lapierre and Kristy Lavoie
McGill University
Winter 2016

Overview of Unit:
Nutrition: What is Healthy Eating?

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Overall Unit Rationale:
The purpose of this unit is for students to learn about nutrition and healthy foods through an artistic
lense. Children are very creative, especially at this cycle hence it is important to allow them to broaden
their imagination through art. These lessons aim to help students appreciate nutrition whilst
incorporating a variety of arts and crafts activities. Students will invent and interpret nutrition as a form
of art. Nutrition education is important and can benefit students both in and out of the classroom.
Students will become aware of what foods goes into their bodies and they will make better decisions
when deciding what to eat.
Students will visually interpret their idea on balanced nutrition. Students, in conjunction with other
courses, will learn the importance of nutrition and healthy, balanced eating. The idea behind this visual
arts LES is to have students show and experience what they know about nutrition in a different context
than traditional learning; especially for young students, being able to have and to create visual
representations of what they are learning can help with the learning process as well as peek the interest
of students, especially when it comes to visual and kinesthetic learners.
Lesson Titles:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

A Nutrition Self-Portrait. 2
Edible Art Sculpture.... 6
Stamp Salad...10
Eating a Rainbow.14
Your Ideal Healthy Plate.18

Sample Rubric/ Evaluation Strategies: See end of LES

Resource Page: Appendix at the end of LES

Lesson #1
Title of Unit: Nutrition: What is Healthy Eating?
Title of Lesson: A Nutrition Self-Portrait
Cycle/Grade Level: Cycle 1, Kindergarten

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Visual Arts Competencies:
1. To produce individual works in the visual arts
Key Features:
To finalize his/her production
To organize the elements he/she has chosen
To use transforming gestures and elements of visual arts language
To use personal ideas inspired by the stimulus for creation
To share his/her creative experience
3. To appreciate works of art, traditional artistic objects, media images, personal productions and those
of classmates
Key Features:
To make a critical or aesthetic judgment
To make connections between what he/she has felt and examined
To examine a work of art, traditional artistic object, media images, personal or
media visual arts production for elements of content
To share his/her appreciation experience
Cross-Curricular Competencies:
1. To use information
Key Features:
To gather information
To put information to use
3. To exercise critical judgment
Key Features:
To form an opinion
To express his/her judgment
4. To use creativity
Key Features:
To become familiar with all the elements of a situation
To imagine ways of proceeding
To begin the procedure

Broad Areas of Learning: Health and Well-Being

Focus of Development: Awareness of the consequences for health and well-being of his/her
personal choices. As knowing about nutrition is an essential part of students life and abilities to live

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long and healthy lives (without proper nutrition, students have been shown to be less focused and have
less energy).
Rationale:
This lesson works into our nutrition LES as it represents what students believe what balanced nutrition
and healthy eating is.
Logistics:
Materials:

Blank head template (Appendix A)

Glue sticks
Different circulars or pictures of different foods
Scissors

Set up: Prior to the start of the lesson, it would be easier for the students to have some of the foods
already somewhat prepared. For this, some if the food images should be separated from the circulars
and placed into categories: fruits and vegetables, dairy products, breads and starches, meat and
legumes, and junk food. Intact circulars should be available if the students want to find some extra
images that are not in the existing piles. The materials should be set up with the templates in front of
students, and the images and glue at arms reach.
Cleanup time: Cleanup will be fairly easy as this lesson does not require many materials. Students
works should be collected, glue should be put away, and any extra images should be either recycled or
stored for another project.

Specific Objectives:
Students will be able to cut different food images and glue them onto their portrait template. Students
will already have prior knowledge of cutting and gluing, as well as some knowledge of that healthy
eating habits are (this will be reviewed prior to the start of the art lesson). By the end of this lesson,
students will have a clear understanding of nutrition, as well as what they (as individuals) believe
healthy eating and balanced nutrition is. They will also learn about juxtaposition and layering of images
to create realism (their face) out of abstract (food images put together).
Introduction/Motivation:

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To make the students excited about this project, we would start by giving the students some of the
circulars/magazines/images of food, and asking the students whats for lunch/dinner? The students
should have some time to get familiar with all of the different foods in the circulars, and talk to their
peers about what they like to eat. While they are still exploring, we would ask some open-ended
questions about their eating habits and knowledge of nutrition (such as: What do you like to eat?
What do you think is important to eat every day? Why? Are there foods that should only be eaten
once in awhile? What are they? Why cant we eat them every day? We would have a short discussion
with the students about the importance of balanced nutrition, and then introduce our Food Face (our
finished template of the self portrait). The students, with the help of Food Face will be introduced to
the nutrition self-portrait lesson, as well as how to go about creating it. It will be explained that they
have a blank head template, and need to fill it with different images of food that they believe they
should eat in order to create an image of themselves. They can create it however they want: they can
put all images beside each other, they can put an image on top of another to show only a little bit of that
food. They can make their portrait smile, or frown, or have open or closed eyes (or wink!) They can be
as creative as they want to be in order to create their food self portrait.
Activity:
The students will start by choosing their images and placing them on their template in order to see
where they want their images to go. Once they are satisfied with the placement of the images, they can
start gluing them down on the template to create the self-portrait. While the students are working, We
would ask the students some questions about the foods that they are using (ex: Why did you decide to
use only bread for your hair?) and about their technique (ex: I like how you used a blueberry glued on
top of a kiwi to make eyes! What made you think of making your eyes this way?)

Conclusion:
Once students are finished, We would invite the students to share their portrait and to talk about how
they made it, and what foods they decided to build it with and why. This will tell us if the students
understood the lesson on healthy eating as well as see what technique(s) the student decided they were

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most comfortable with. Once we had all of the portraits, we would hand them up in the classroom
(gallery style) and have a discussion about the similarities and differences in everyones self portrait.

Extension:
You can do so much with this lesson. If a student finishes early, why not extend the self portrait to
include the students body? The students can build upon their collage and create a three dimensional
version of their self portrait by layering images in order to create depth. As this lesson is a sort of
assessment for what students know about balanced nutrition, building upon this lesson, but taking it
further, by having students create actual food sculptures (with real ingredients) can be another step to
take in this LES.

Lesson #2
Title of Unit: Nutrition: What is Healthy Eating?
Title of Lesson: Edible Art Sculpture
Cycle/Grade Level: Cycle 1, Kindergarten
Visual Arts Competencies:

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1. To produce individual works in the visual arts
Key Features:
To finalize his/her production
To organize the elements he/she has chosen
To use transforming gestures and elements of visual arts language
To use personal ideas inspired by the stimulus for creation
To share his/her creative experience
2. To produce media works in the visual arts
Key Features:
To use creative ideas inspired by a stimulus for creation of
media works
To organize the elements that he/she has chosen,
depending on the message and the intended viewer
To finalize his/her media creation
To share his/her experience of media creation
3. To appreciate works of art, traditional artistic objects, media images, personal productions and those
of classmates
Key Features:
To make a critical or aesthetic judgment
To make connections between what he/she has felt and examined
To examine a work of art, traditional artistic object, media images, personal or
media visual arts production for elements of content
Cross-Curricular Competencies:
1. To use information
Key Features:
To gather information
To put information to use
4. To use creativity
Key Features:
To become familiar with all the elements of a situation
To imagine ways of proceeding
To begin the procedure
7. To construct his/her identity
Key Features:
To be open to his/her surroundings
To make good use of his/her personal resources

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Broad Areas of Learning: Health and Well-Being
Focus of Development: Awareness of the consequences for health and well-being of his/her
personal choices. Students will have a discussion on appreciation of others work, project, and ideas.
They will create their own edible food sculpture and brainstorm of what different edible sculptures can
look like.
Rationale:
This lesson works into our nutrition LES as it lets students manipulate the food that they eat, and create
an artwork using these objects all while thinking about colours and textures.
Logistics:
Materials:

Students (20)
Paper / crayons (for brainstorm)
Fruits/Vegetables (pre-cut for this age group)
Skewers/Toothpicks
Plates
Clean up materials (soap, water, etc)
Blender, juice and cups for smoothies

Specific Objectives:
The students will create a sculpture using either fruits or vegetables (or both).
Students will focus on colour and texture of different foods in correspondence with what they are
building.
Prior Knowledge:
-

sculpture
vegetables and fruits
colour and texture
creative process

Icebreaker:
Before entering the class, teacher will make sure that the students thoroughly washed their hands, for
the activity. The teacher will start the class by showing them the fruit and veggie hokey pokey (by the
learning station). To do this, the teacher will have the fruits and veggies out, and students will actually
perform the dance using the Smart board.

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Here is the link to the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YxD2tsvCWQ&feature=share
Introduction:
The teacher will begin the class by showing students what the different fruits and vegetables are,
describe them, and talk about texture and colour. He teacher will then move on by asking students what
they can make with them. Students will likely say soups, desserts, etc. The teacher will then show
different examples of edible art sculptures, and ask the students again what they can make with their
fruits and veggies. The teacher will then give crayons and paper, and have the students draw out
different options of things that they can build themselves using fruits and vegetables.
Development:
The students will then be shown how to use toothpicks and skewers in order to hold different fruits and
veggies together. The food will already be cut, so students will simply need to start building. They will
be encouraged to focus on textures and colours for their sculptures. They will also be told to build
something that is bigger than their hand. The teacher will then let them work freely, while circulating
and helping them attach pieces together. When they are close to finishing, the teacher will collect the
extra skewers and toothpicks to make cleanup more manageable.
Conclusion:
As a wrap up activity, students will take pictures of their art (they will ask the teacher to take pictures).
They will then bring all of the food back to the teacher who will throw it into a blender to make
smoothies (as to not waste).
Note; students need to be made aware beforehand that their art will be consumed and that they cannot
bring it home, they will receive their picture. Also, students will be told that they cannot touch their
faces, the floor, that they cannot drop their food (if they do it needs to be washed). This needs to be
clear, and teacher must follow through).
Assessment:

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While sipping on their smoothies, students will discuss with the teacher about their process, what they
liked about different work made by the other students, and what they liked/disliked about the class.
The teacher will observe and record answers.

Lesson #3
Title of Unit: Nutrition: What is Healthy Eating?
Title of Lesson: Stamp Salad
Cycle/Grade Level: Kindergarten/Cycle 1
Visual Arts Competencies:
1. To produce individual works in the visual arts
Key Features:
To finalize his/her production

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To organize the elements he/she has chosen

To use transforming gestures and elements of visual arts language
To use personal ideas inspired by the stimulus for creation
To share his/her creative experience

3. To appreciate works of art, traditional artistic objects, media images, personal productions and those
of classmates
Key Features:
To make a critical or aesthetic judgment
To make connections between what he/she has felt and examined
To examine a work of art, traditional artistic object, media images, personal or
media visual arts production for elements of content
To share his/her appreciation experience
Cross-Curricular Competencies:
1. To use information
Key Features:
To gather information
To put information to use
4. To use creativity
Key Features:
To become familiar with all the elements of a situation
To imagine ways of proceeding
To begin the procedure
5. To adopt effective work methods
Key Features:
To analyze the task to be performed
To begin the process
To perform the task
7. To construct his/her identity
Key Features:
To be open to his/her surroundings
To make good use of his/her personal resources
Broad Areas of Learning: Health and Well-Being

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Focus of Development: This lesson touches upon the broad areas of learning of Health and
Well-Being. It assures to show students the various fruits and vegetables, which essentially are an
important staple to be healthy individuals.
Essential Knowledge: Some prior knowledge of colors and shapes might be useful for this activity.
This will help when the teacher will address and discuss how fruits and vegetables differ from one
another (shape, color, texture).
Rationale: The primary aim of this lesson is to teach students about the various kinds of fruits and
vegetables. Fruits and vegetables differ from one another from their color to how they are shaped and
even their texture! In this lesson not only will students learn about the various fruits and vegetables, but
they will also learn to print-make using them. They will create stamps using the different fruits and
vegetables provided to students in their salad bowl.
Logistics:
Materials:
1. Pre-cut Fruits/Vegetables (apples, broccoli, peppers, potato, cauliflower, mushrooms, carrots
and etc)
2. Paint or ink
3. Sponges/Paintbrushes
4. Paper/Construction Paper/Cardboard
5. Colours/Markers
6. Sparkles
7. Pipe cleaners
Set up: Prior to starting the lesson the teacher will have all the materials ready for the students. The
teacher will have already pre-cut the fruits and vegetables for the printmaking. Depending on the
teachers preference, she can have students do the activity on a bigger size paper, or on an 8x11 inch
paper. The paper will be set up on each students desk.
Clean-up time: The clean up time might be around 15 minutes since your dealing with paint or ink. To
make the children more engaged while the cleaning process, the teacher can set up a timer and motivate
students that they will be given a sticker or a treat if the cleaning is done before the timer goes off. The

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teacher will need to go around and pick up all the used sponges, and the food stamps. Students will be
asked to hand in their work and clean up (wash their hands). The teacher will hang the artworks for it to
dry.

Specific Objectives
Introduction/ Motivation: (10 minutes)
For the first part of the activity, the teacher will display either plastic fruits or some uncut fruits and
vegetables to start a discussion with the students. The students will be shown different fruits and
vegetables. The teacher, while holding the fruit or vegetable will ask students questions such as; Do
you know what this is called?, What is the color of this fruit?, What is the shape of this vegetable?
How does the fruit or vegetable feel? Asking students about how the fruits and vegetables feel when
they touch the outer part skin will help students to understand the texture of the produce. The point of
the discussion is to have the students thinking about how one fruit/vegetable differs from another, from
its different texture, color and shape. The texture and shape will be important for the stamp activity. The
texture of the produce will affect which one is better to stamp with and stamping the produce will make
lots of different shapes.
Activity: (35 minutes)
The students will be printmaking using the produce. The teacher will begin by first explaining the
procedure to students. The teacher will demonstrate with the cut up pieces of the produce, and will
show the students to first choose your produce then use a sponge to apply print or ink (this will make
sure students do not add too much paint), and lastly make several stamp with it on the paper. The
teacher will continue to show them with two or three more fruits/vegetables to show them the different
stamps they make.
The teacher can either give the students the handout (Appendix B) or have the students complete the
activity on a larger size paper. They will use their chosen produce to make creative prints on their
individual bowl. Students will be asked to share with their peers as a way to not waste a lot of produce.
Lastly, when they are done creating stamps students can decorate their artworks. They can decorate
their bowl or anywhere around it with colors, markers, sparkles, and pipe cleaners.

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Conclusion: (15 minutes)
To conclude the activity, the teacher will go back to discussing about the activity to the students She
will ask students to talk about what they included in their salad bowl and what was their favorite part of
the activity.
Extension:
To extend this lesson, the teacher can have each students make a recipe card to accompany their Stamp
Salad. The recipe card will include the fruits and vegetables they used and what color they are. If they
used paint then they can write the color of the paint used and the fruit or vegetable used as an
ingredient.

Lesson #4
Title of Unit: Nutrition: What is Healthy Eating?
Title of Lesson: Eating a Rainbow
Cycle/Grade Level: Kindergarten
Visual Arts Competencies:
1. To produce individual works in the visual arts
Key Features:
To finalize his/her production
To organize the elements he/she has chosen
To use transforming gestures and elements of visual arts
language

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3. To appreciate works of art, traditional artistic objects, media images, personal productions and those
of classmates
Key Features:
To make a critical or aesthetic judgment
To make connections between what he/she has felt and
examined
To examine a work of art, traditional artistic object, media
images, personal or media visual arts production for elements of content
Cross-Curricular Competencies:
1. To uses information
Key Feature:
To gather information
4. To use creativity
Key Features:

To become familiar with all the elements of a situation

To imagine ways of proceeding
To begin the procedure
To adopt a flexible mode of operation

5. To adopt effective work methods

Key Features:
To analyze the task to be performed
To begin the process
To perform the task
Broad Areas of Learning: Health and Well-Being
Focus of Development: Awareness of the consequences for health and well-being of his/her
personal choices.
Essential Knowledge:
Tearing, notching, cutting, spreading glues on a surface (paper and cardboard)
Putting together volumes (paper, cardboard and objects)

Language of Visual Arts:

Shape: rounded shapes, angular shapes
Colours of pigments: primary colours
Spatial organization: repetition

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Rationale: The overall idea behind this lesson is for students to create a rainbow of food and have them
sort out the foods by their colours as they glue them on the right colours of the rainbow. This will be a
large-scale collective rainbow. The rainbow surface will be a thick large cardboard. The teacher will
prepare the outline of the rainbow and have students place the foods they drew, colored or cut-out in the
right colour section of the rainbow. Students will differentiate, learn, and sort-out a variety of foods
based on the primary colours of the foods. Students will understand the importance of having a
colourful meal for a healthy growth and development. This lesson fits right before the end of the LES
because students will have enough knowledge to be able to sort through the different coloured foods
our bodies needs to stay healthy. The students will also learn the importance of working collaboratively
because the rainbow will only be complete when all students participate in the lesson. Once the rainbow
is full of colourful foods, it will be displayed proudly in the classroom.
Logistics:
Materials:

Youtube song, scissors

Glue
Markers/ colouring pencils/ crayons
Blank food pictures (Appendix C)
Food magazines (circulaires)
Large thick white cardboard.

Set up:Before the lesson begins, the teacher will have printed the food pictures beforehand. He/She will
also have the Youtube song loaded so it will be ready once the lesson begins. The students will have
their markers/colouring pencils/crayons and scissors ready on their desks, and the teacher will pass
around the food pictures and circulaires after having explained everything.
Clean-up time: Ten minutes before class ends, the students will be asked to put their tools away. Cleanup shouldnt take longer than ten minutes. The students will be asked to glue their foods on the right
colour section of the cardboard rainbow. The remaining food templates will be place in the classroom
and the students could colour them during free-time. Once all the students placed their foods, the
rainbow will be displayed on a wall in the classroom.

Specific Objectives:

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Introduction/ Motivation (10 minutes):
To start the lesson in a fun and engaging way, the teacher will ask students if they ever wanted to eat a
rainbow. As this is a kindergarten class, the students will find that amusing thus being captivated by the
lesson from the start. The teacher will then show students a food rainbow song found on Youtube.
Rainbow Food Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6RIx26UUck
Once the song is over, the teacher will explain the lesson of the day. Eating a rainbow means eating
colourful foods to maintain a healthy body and growth. The class will then have a small discussion
about what they saw in the video and what the primary colours of foods are. The teacher will also show
the following pictures as an example for the outcome:

Activity (25-30 minutes):

The teacher will ask the students to take out their markers/scissors/glues and place them on the desk.
The teacher will explain the expectations of the lesson. He/she will then begin by distributing the blank
food pictures for them to colour and cut-out. The teacher can also distribute food magazines
(circulaires) for the students to look through and cut-out any colourful healthy food. After colouring
and cutting the food pictures, they can begin to sort them out by the different colours of food. Upon
sorting out their foods, the students can come in the front of the class and glue them in the right colour
sections of the rainbow. The teacher will label each colour section of the rainbow with a piece of
construction paper to make it easy for the students to place their foods in the right colour.
Conclusion:

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Once the activity is over, the students will have the opportunity to share their thoughts about the food
rainbow with a small group of their classmates. In the end there will be a class discussion where only
students who would like to volunteer will get to present their thoughts to the whole class. The teacher
will display the large food rainbow on a wall in the classroom.
Extension:
The lesson can continue throughout the school year as students can place any healthy food they colour
or draw during their free time on the large food rainbow. Students will be encouraged to bring empty
yogurt containers, granola wrappers or even empty milk cartons and glue them on the rainbow too. This
will be a great way to refresh students knowledge about healthy eating. The students who finish their
colouring and cutting earlier, will be provided more food templates to colour and cut.
In the next lesson, students will get to make their own healthy meal plate! (Lesson #5 in LES).

Lesson #5
Title of Unit: Nutrition: What is Healthy Eating?
Title of Lesson: Your Ideal Healthy Plate
Cycle/Grade Level: Kindergarten - Cycle 1 (grades 1 to 2)
Visual Arts Competencies:
1. To produce individual works in the visual arts
Key Features:
To finalize his/her production
To organize the elements he/she has chosen
To use transforming gestures and elements of visual arts
language
To use personal ideas inspired by the stimulus for creation

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3. To appreciate works of art, traditional artistic objects, media images, personal productions and those
of classmates
Key Features:
To make a critical or aesthetic judgment
To make connections between what he/she has felt and
examined
To examine a work of art, traditional artistic object, media
images, personal or media visual arts production for elements of content
To share his/her appreciation experience
Cross-Curricular Competencies:
1. To uses information
Key Feature:
To gather information
To recognize various information sources
3. To exercise critical judgment
Key Features:
To express his/her judgment
4. To use creativity
Key Features:

To become familiar with all the elements of a situation

To imagine ways of proceeding
To begin the procedure
To adopt a flexible mode of operation

5. To adopt effective work methods

Key Features:
To analyze the task to be performed
To begin the process
To perform the task
7. To construct his/her identity
Key Features:
To be open to his/her surroundings
To make good use of his/her personal resources

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Broad Areas of Learning:
This LES touches on health and well-being education. Knowing about nutrition is an essential part of
students life and abilities to live long and healthy lives.
Rationale:
This lesson works into our nutrition LES as it represents what students believe what balanced nutrition
and healthy eating is. As this is a conclusion to our LES, students will have learned about nutrition. The
rational in this particular lesson is to have students use the information that they have learned
throughout the previous lessons with their own preferences and build their own view of healthy
nutrition. The reason why salt dough is used in this lesson is for budgetary purposes; as it is not all
schools that have access to a large art budget, some teachers may not have the funds to purchase clay or
other sculpting materials. Salt dough is a great cost-effective alternative. Salt dough is also technically
edible (although not very tasty as it is only salt, flour and water), which ties in perfectly into our theme
of nutrition.
*As this lesson includes baking, this lesson may take more than 1 day to finish. I would suggest
having the first part of the lesson (the molding) done on a day where there is enough time
allocated for all students to finish. The products can then be baked and decorated on another day.
Logistics:
Materials:

Sturdy paper plates

Salt dough
Paint (acrylic)
Paint brushes
Water (in containers for paint brushes)
Markers (different colours)
Oven with baking sheets (to be used by the teacher to bake the dough)
White liquid glue
Examples of other lessons and artworks previously done in this LES
Pictures (can be found off google images) of different foods
Cookie cutters / shape cutters (if needed)
Handout (round plate stencil with separation for different foods)(Appendix D Lesson 5)

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Boxes (at least 25cm x 25 cm) (plan at least 1 box per 4-5 students)
Set up: (15-20 minutes)(Dough can be prepared up to 5 days in advance)
Prior to the start of the lesson, the teacher must prepare the dough (recipe found on Learning 4 Kids
Website) (Learning4Kids, 2014). The teacher should prepare enough dough per student (the recipe
yields 2 cups of dough, and the average student should use 1-2 cups for their sculpture. The teacher
should make 1 recipe per student, plus 2-3 more recipes for modeling as well as for students who may
need more. This recipe keeps well in an airtight container for at most 5 days, so it can be prepared
ahead of time. Leftovers can be used for an extended activity, or for a different lesson). The teacher
should place examples of other nutrition art lessons around the room, as well as have images of
different foods on the Smartboard.
The teacher should have all materials for the first part of the lesson ready and on hand (dough, plates)
and have paints, brushes, markers and glue ready to be used. The teacher should separate the dough into
little balls (approximately 1 cup of dough per student) and set the balls of dough, along with the paper
plates and the handout, down on a table that is readily available for students to pick up materials. The
paint, brushes, markers and glue should also be on this table. The materials should be set up in this
order on the table: handout, plates, dough, markers, paints and brushes, and glue (the boxes can be kept
under the table for the moment). The students will be the ones responsible for their own materials (they
will be picking up their materials from the table and returning materials if no longer needed). The
teacher should make sure that an oven is readily available, and should preheat to 180C (if the teacher
plans to bake the dough the same day).
Clean-up time: (10-20 minutes)
The teacher should end the first part of the lesson (the modeling) approximately 5-10 minutes before
the end of class in order to ensure that students can clean up the dough. The students should place their
dough creations on their plate. While students are doing this, the teacher should pass around 1 box per
group of students, the students should write their names on the rim of the plate, as well as on their box.
Once all of their materials are tagged, they should take their box and place them under the materials
table in order to minimize accidents. When the teacher is baking the sculptures, he/she should use only
1 baking sheet per group, in order to avoid mixing up the creations.

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For the second part of the lesson (the decorating) the teacher should ensure that the class ends at least
10 minutes prior to the end of the lesson in order to wash brushes and containers, and to clean their
areas. Students should place their finished sculptures in the boxes and in the same area as the previous
day.

Specific Objectives
Students will have prior knowledge of:
The meaning of healthy, food, and nutrition
Creating sculptures from soft dough (although some may not have touched salt dough
before, students should all be familiar with playdough, which has a similar texture and is
similarly malleable.
Acrylic paint and how to paint with acrylic paint
The colour wheel
Students will be able to:

Create food shapes from the dough

Paint food in realistic colours
Work in a team
Understand the importance of colours

Introduction/ Motivation: (15-20 minutes)

The students would be invited to look around the room to see if they can spot the artwork that they have
created that has to do with nutrition. Once a student finds an artwork, the student will be invited to talk
about it: what it is, what it is made with, if it is a healthy artwork. The class will have a short
discussion of what they believe is a healthy plate/meal. The students will be given some dough to
touch and experiment with (2 minutes). The students will then be asked to pay attention to the teacher,
who will model the activity. The teacher will start with looking at how big the plate is, and deciding
what she wants to put on it, asking the students what they think. The teacher can probe the students
with questions such as I think I would like to make a breakfast plate. I think I would like to add a
banana to my plate. Do you think that would work on a healthy plate?(wait for student agreement, then
molds a banana from the dough, explaining to students that the dough is a little grainy, but forms the

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same way as plasticine ) now, should I add a chocolate bar? (waits for student prompt). The teacher
should then show the students the handout ( Appendix D) and explain that the students will each be
creating at least 1 piece of food that fits into the categories on the handout: fruits and veggies, protein,
whole grains and dairy. The class will have a short discussion to remind everyone what kind of foods fit
into these categories.
Activity: (60+ minutes)
Students will be asked to get into groups of 4-5, and to make their own plates, according to what they
think is a good healthy plate. They will mold the dough into their food items (the items can be whole
(uncut) or it can be molded to be cut, processed. Students should be advised to pay attention to the
shape of their food, but not to worry about if it really looks like food at this time as they will be
painting/colouring their items once they are baked. Before the students start, 1 representative from the
group should pick up a handout from the materials table. On the handout, the group should sketch what
they want to add as their food on their plate. After the sketch is finalized and approved by the teacher, a
representative from the group should pick up 1 plate for the group, as well as 1 ball of dough per group
member. Students should write their names on the rim of the plate. Once students are finished molding
their healthy plates, they should be instructed to ask for a box (the teacher will hand out boxes. Students
should write their names on the box, place all items in the box, and place the box under the materials
table order for the dough to be baked (for older grades, students who finish early could write a journal
entry about their plate and why they chose the food they did. Younger students could draw a picture.
This will help the students remember what they sculpted. Clean up should be done with all students
approximately 5 minutes before the end of class.
(60 minutes) Once the food sculptures are baked, students will be asked to get their plates back (as well
as their journal/drawing for reference of they have one). They will be asked to pay attention to the
teacher who will quickly model how to paint/draw the banana (as students will have had prior
knowledge of working with these material through other lessons in this LES). The students will have
the artworks around the class to refer to, as well as some pictures on the smartboard of different foods,
and their sketch of a healthy plate. Once the students are finished, they should glue their food items
onto the plate. They may also wish to decorate the plate.

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Differentiation:
As this is an activity that is done with young students, the students may not feel comfortable, or may
not yet have the manual dexterity to create realistic looking works. If the student wishes, he/she can use
different cookie / shape cutters in order to create their food items.
Conclusion: (20 minutes)
Once students are finished, they will be asked to share their plate with the class and will tell fellow
students why they decided to use the food items on their ideal plate. The teacher will conclude with a
discussion on the similarities and differences on everyones plate (ex: everyone has fruits and
vegetables, but not everyone has the same fruits and vegetables on his/her plates).
Extension:
As mentioned before, students can write a journal entry or draw a picture of their plates as an extension
of this lesson. Students could also create their own comic strip or artwork depicting a range of foods,
from unhealthy to healthy.
As everyones plates will be different, this could be a great segway into a conversation about different
foods from around the world. The teacher can start a converstation with the students about lunches from
around the world by using this article from buzzfeed: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/what-schoollunches-look-like-in-20-countries-arou#.bmWkzRpk.

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Appendix A:

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Appendix B:

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Appendix C:

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Appendix D:
Names: _____________________________________________

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Resource Page:
Title page image found on: http://www.cliparthut.com/fruits-and-vegetables-clip-art-clipart-ssffT3.html
QEP:
http://www1.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/programmeFormation/primaire/pdf/educprg2001/educprg2001.p
df
Templates for lesson 4 found on:
http://freecoloringpages.co.uk/?q=mix%20of%20vegetables
Template for lesson 3 found on:
http://clipartfreefor.com/files/1/21110_bowl-clip-art.html
Template for lesson 5 found on:
http://www.stylepinner.com/myplate-food-groups-coloringpage/bXlwbGF0ZS1mb29kLWdyb3Vwcy1jb2xvcmluZy1wYWdl/

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