Nutrition Education Resources

Little D's Nutrition Expedition: Activity 4 - Princess Peapod's Vegetable Group

Grade Level: 2nd Grade/Primary Elementary

Materials and Advance Prep

• Preview Suggested Instructional Strategy
• Decide whether to teach the activity on one or two days. Steps 1-7 take about 30-35 minutes. Steps 8-14 take about 25-30 minutes.
• Locate one set of Royal Food Family Trading Cards duplicated in Activity 1. Or, duplicate a set using Royal Food Family Trading Cards (PDF) blackline master.
• Little D, the Five-Food-Group Dragon mini-poster (PDF) - 1 per student.
• Print The Visit to the Vegetable Patch (PDF) story
• Duplicate Visit to the Vegetable Patch (PDF) handout - 1 per student. (NOTE: Student version is slightly altered from the teacher version.)
• On the board, print: "Pound, pound, pound. The sign went in the ground."
• On the board, copy the following:
Adjective List


Yellow Flat Bumpy Green

Small Brown Pointy Red

Long Orange Round

• Duplicate Dragon Scales (PDF) blackline master - 1 scale to cut out per student. Optional: Use green paper.

  The Food Group Wall Dragon Activity begins in Activity 1.

• Make a sample scale naming your favorite Vegetable Group food
• Print and cut apart the Vegetable Cards
• Glow-in-the-dark paint or stickers.
• Print the Vegetable Cards on dark-colored paper and fill in the lettering with the glow-in-the-dark paint. Or create your own cards using stickers for the following vegetables: carrots, green beans, peas, spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes.
• Green poster board for Food Group Wall Dragon
• 7 1/2" circle template for the Food Group Wall Dragon. Cut a circle out of the poster board. Print "Vegetable Group" near the top of the circle.
• Markers or crayons, scissors and tape
• Little D's Interactive Nutrition Games in Games

Suggested Instructional Strategy

1. Quickly review of the foods in the Milk and Meat Groups. Using the Sir Milkford the Scholar and King Henry the Egg cards from the Royal Food Family Trading Cards, ask:

• What food group does Sir Milkford the Scholar stand for? Milk Group
• What are foods that belong in the Milk Group? Milk, cheese, yogurt, frozen yogurt, pudding
• Point to a part of your body that stays strong and healthy from the calcium in Milk Group foods. Bones and teeth
• What food group does King Henry the Egg stand for? Meat Group
• What are foods that belong in the Meat Group? Meat, chicken, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, peanut butter
• Point to a part of your body that stays strong and healthy from the protein in Meat Group foods. Muscles
• What else do you need to do to keep your muscles strong? Exercise and participate in active play

2. Distribute the Little D, the Five Food Group Dragon mini-poster. Tell students that they're going to learn about the Vegetable Group.

• Which person in the Royal Food Family stands for the Vegetable Group? Princess Peapod
• Why is she a good character to represent the Vegetable Group? Because a peapod is a vegetable
• What foods from the Vegetable Group are on the Little D poster? Peapod, carrot, tomato, potato, corn, broccoli

3. Explain that today we'll hear the story of how Princess Peapod taught Little D about the Vegetable Group. Say:

• As usual, I'm going to ask you to listen and watch to help me tell this story. Whenever you hear the name of a vegetable, make a "V" with your fingers and hold it up for me to see.
• Whenever you see me pound my desk, say, "Pound, pound, pound. The sign went in the ground."

Point out and have students practice the sentence on the chalkboard.

Review guidelines regarding how much movement is appropriate during the story.

4. Read aloud The Visit to the Vegetable Patch story. (NOTE: This story is read twice. The first time, students listen and respond verbally or with motions. The second time, they read the story with you.)

5. Review the story. Ask:

• What was the problem with the Vegetable Patch? Someone had taken all the signs identifying the vegetables out of the ground.
• Did anything surprise Little D about the Vegetable Patch? He was surprised to learn that some vegetables grow underground.
• How did Princess Peapod teach Little D the names of the vegetables? She described their color, size and shape.

6. Point out the Adjective List on the chalkboard. Ask:

• What do we call words that describe nouns? Adjectives
• Where have you heard these adjectives used in the story? Princess Peapod used them to describe the vegetables in the Vegetable Patch.

Have students read the adjectives aloud. Ask:

• Which adjectives describe the color of a vegetable? Yellow, green, red, brown, orange
• Which adjectives describe the shape of a vegetable? Flat, pointy, round, bumpy
• Which adjectives describe the size of a vegetable? Small, long

7. Distribute The Visit to the Vegetable Patch handout. Explain that the class will re-read the story. This time:

• Whenever we read the name of a vegetable, underline it.
• Whenever we read an adjective describing a vegetable, circle it.

Re-read the story to the class or have students take turns reading and identifying vegetables and adjectives.

If you teach this activity on two days, stop here on Day 1. On Day 2, quickly review Steps 1-7 before continuing instruction.

8. Ask:

• Why do you think foods in the Vegetable Group are important to eat? Accept all reasonable answers

9. Explain that to learn how the Vegetable Group keeps them healthy, you are going to make the classroom dark like Little D's cave. Ask them to put their heads on their desks, close their eyes, and count to 50 together. Dim the lights. Ask students to use their eyes to see in the dark to find the Vegetable Group Food Cards in the room.

10. Ask students to open their eyes. Have them raise their hands when they can see you. Tell them that you have placed six special cards with the names of vegetables around the room. Ask students to stay seated and look around the room to see how many cards they can find.

With the lights still off, call on students to read the vegetable on any card they see and retrieve the card. When all cards are retrieved, turn on the lights.

11. Teach the health benefit of the Vegetable Group.

• All vegetables help our bodies stay healthy.
• Foods in the Vegetable Group are a good source Vitamin A. Vitamin A helps us to see in the dark. Another phrase for seeing in the dark is "night vision."

Ask:

• What do you think it would be like if you couldn't see in the dark?
• What things in your house might you want to be able to see when it's dark?
• What things outside might you want to see when it's dark?
• How would your life change if you didn't have good night vision?

Help students conclude that to be healthy and perform their best, they need to be able to see in the dark as well as in the light.

Check for Understanding

12. Conducting the following assessment:

• I'm going to say several things about vegetables. If what I say is true, point to your eyes.

• Carrots belong to the Vegetable Group. (True)
• Vegetables help build strong muscles. (False)
• Milk is a vegetable. (False)
• Potatoes are vegetables. (True)
• Vegetables help build strong bones and teeth. (False)
• Lettuce and tomatoes are vegetables. (True)
• Eggs are vegetables. (False)
• Vegetables help you see in the dark. (True)
• Cheese is a vegetable. (False)
• Corn is a vegetable. (True)

13. Distribute dragon scales for students to cut out, initial, and write the name of a favorite Vegetable Group food. Tell the students it's okay to choose a vegetable you haven't talked about in class. Remind them to check with you and/or use their dictionaries if they do not know how to spell the names of the vegetables.

14. Attach the green circle to the Wall Dragon. Tell the students your favorite vegetable and tape your scale to the circle. Have students identify their favorite vegetable as they tape their scales to the circle.

15. Collect Little D, the Five Food Group Dragon mini-posters to use in Activity 5.

16. Allow students to continue playing Quintricious!™ to reinforce the names of the Five Food Groups and the foods in each group.

All of Little D's games are found on NutritionExplorations.org in Kids.

Going Further

Mini Moves
Reinforce the importance of exercise by including 60-second breaks for movement during the school day. Bring some lively tunes and a cassette or CD player to class. As you are switching subjects, give the class a movement break by playing the music and letting the students stand up and dance.

Planting Vegetables
Begin by asking:

• Where does your family get their vegetables? Answers may include: grocery store, vegetable market, farmers' market, and grow at home.
• What vegetables does your family grow? Accept all reasonable answers.

Purchase seeds for two or three vegetables to grow in the classroom or your school garden. Select at least one vegetable that grows below the surface (such as radishes) and one vegetable that grows above the ground (such as tomatoes or cucumbers).

Nutrition Expedition Programs © 2005

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