Objective 1: To understand why we need food

Materials

Picture: We All Need Food

Fact Sheet: Food Gives Us...

Concept: We all Need Food

Content

The food chain starts with plants and the smallest of animal life and moves up to larger and larger animals and people. As the word "chain" implies, all forms of life depend on each other and all are connected in their need for nutrients. We must all have nutrients to live.

Activities

• Ask if children can think of any animal that does not need food.
• Pass out or hold up the picture We All Need Food and ask students to write or call out the foods eaten by the people and animals in the picture. They can also colour the picture.
• Discuss how the animals and people in the picture We All Need Food eat different foods and need different nutrients, but all share the need for nutrients that keep them healthy.
• Discuss the concept of the food chain with the children - i.e. that all plants and animals, including people, are connected. Plants provide the food for many animals; animals, in turn, provide food for other animals; many animals eat both plants and animals. This can be thought of as a cycle, as well as a chain, because sometimes animals provide fertilizer that gives nutrients to plants.
• The food chain can be represented by having the children draw a small picture of a plant, fish, small animal, larger animal or person and attach it to their clothing, or hold it in one hand. The children can then form a chain (linking arms or hands) with the plants, fish and small animals at one end and, moving up the food chain, those species that depend on these for food at the other end, moving up the food chain. To show the interdependence, the children can join hands (or arms) and form a circle to represent the connection that all species have with one another. An important concept is that if one of the links is broken, it affects the entire chain or circle. All are important and all depend on one another. This is the concept of a system. Another system (the food supply system) is introduced in the next lesson.

Concept: Food gives us the energy and nutrients we need to keep our bodies functioning, to grow and develop and to move, work, play, think and learn

Content

Tell the students that there are special things called nutrients in food. Nutrients are contained in the foods we eat and include vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, fats and water. These nutrients keep our bodies functioning, breathing and thinking, keep our blood circulating, give us energy and are the building blocks that help us to develop, move, work, play, think and learn. Several important nutrients are explained in more detail in the fact sheet Food Gives Us... The concepts can be introduced and discussed in the detail appropriate for the grade level. More advanced nutrition concepts are provided in the Internediate and Secondary Levels.

Activities

• Pass out or hold up the fact sheet Food Gives Us.... Hold up food samples, or pictures of local foods, and discuss their functions in the body. For example, to illustrate protein state what it does in the body (from the fact sheet), hold up a small handful of beans (or some other local food rich in protein) and explain that beans are rich sources of protein.
• Alternative activities can be developed into games. For instance, hold up a food or picture of a food or call out the name of a local food and ask which nutrients (from the fact sheet) are found in that food. An example would be to hold up, or draw, wheat and ask what wheat gives us (carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins and minerals).

Concept: Too little or too much food is not healthy

Content

To be healthy, we must have enough food and the right kinds of foods. Not enough food, not enough different kinds of food, and even too much food can make us unhealthy. How much is just enough food? People need different kinds and amounts of food. We need more food if we are in a stage of growth, such as infants, children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are. We need more food if we work and play hard. And we may need more food if we are sick.

If we eat too much food we can be unhealthy as well. Too much food causes our body to store too much fat, and can contribute to risk of disease such as heart problems and diabetes.

Activities

Hold up the picture We All Need Food. Ask the children to imagine what would happen if the different living things in the picture ate each other's food supply for a day. For instance, what if the chicken ate the mother's food for a day; or what if the child ate the chicken's food supply for a day? Explain that everyone in the family also has different needs for food. We need more food when we are and working hard, when we are growing, or when we are sick. Pregnant women and mothers nursing babies also need more food. All of the family members must have enough food to be healthy. Each animal and person in the picture has special needs for enough food and for specific nutrients in foods. If there is time available, the children can draw a picture of a meal for each of the animals and people in the picture and talk about the types of foods, and the amounts of the foods, for all family members.

	Objective 2. To know that we need many different foods
	Objective 3. To know who is hungry in the world