Choose My Plate from the United States Dept. of Agriculture

Details

Activity Description

 

This site from the United States Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) promotes dietary guidelines using a healthy eating index and food plans. They have several interactive tools to create a personalized eating plan based on various age and stage of life conditions. There is also a food tracker to help students track their food intake vs. their physical activity. There have audio and video podcasts on a variety of health related topics. Mix reading levels and assign topics to mixed groups so all students can participate.

Preparation

1. Explore the site.
2. Use the Food Tracker so you can see how it works.
3. Go through the various tools in the Super Tracker to utilize them in lesson planning for other health lessons or print the Example Document, Personal Food Tracker or send it to your students digitally.

How-To

1. Lead class discussion on eating and good health.
2. Open the Example Web site (link above). Explore various topics and discuss how they relate to good health.
3. Go over what you ate today and how to use the Food Tracker. Hand out the Example Document, Personal Food Tracker.
4. Assign students as pairs to write down what they ate and use the Food Tracker .

Teacher Tips

• Go through the SuperTracker and Other Tools.
• The Portion Distortion interactive quiz is wonderful to share with the class and then assign the daily food intake and calorie charts.

More Ways

The site can be used in class discussions on many health topics. Mix reading levels so all students can participate.

Program Areas

• ABE: Adult Basic Education

Levels

• Low
• Intermediate
• High
• All Levels

Documents

• Personal Food Tracker - Personal Food Tracker

Subjects

• Reading
  • Consumer Skills
  • Health

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