Nutrition Education Resources

Little D's Nutrition Expedition: Activity 5 - Queen Anna Banana's Fruit Group

Grade Level: 2nd Grade/Primary Elementary

Materials and Advance Prep

• Preview the Suggested Instructional Strategy
• "Queen Anna Banana Trading Card (PDF)
• Little D, the Five-Food-Group Dragon (PDF) mini-poster - 1 per student
• Duplicate Queen Anna Banana's Fruit Rhymes (PDF) worksheet - 1 per student
• Banana, or some other easy-to-peel fruit
• Write the following poem starters on the board:
• One grape, two grapes, three grapes, four...
• Cherries, cherries, very small...
• Watermelon, oh so red...
• Duplicate Dragon Scales (PDF) blackline master - 1 scale per student to cut out Optional: Use red or pink paper.

  The Food Group Wall Dragon Activity begins in Activity 1.

• Make a sample scale naming your favorite Fruit Group food
• Red 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 "Fruit Group" at top of the circle.
• Markers or crayons, scissors and tape
• Little D's Interactive Nutrition Games in Games

Suggested Instructional Strategy

1. Re-introduce Queen Anna Banana using her trading card. Explain that the Queen likes to talk in rhymes. Have Queen Anna Banana say:

• I'm Queen Anna Banana.
  What I like to do,
  Is talk in rhymes.
  How about you?

2. Have Queen Anna Banana recite nursery rhymes. Gesture to the class to fill in the last word of each rhyme:

• Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
  How I wonder what you _____. are
• Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
  Humpty Dumpty had a great _____. fall
• Little Miss Muffet
  Sat on a _____. tuffet

3. Continue speaking for Queen Anna Banana:

• I will teach Little D
  A thing or two
  About the Fruit Group.
  But first, a review....
  Do you students
  Know the scoop
  About the Milk and Meat
  And Vegetable Groups?

4. Review the Milk Group with Queen Anna Banana:

• Let's review:
  For healthy bones
  And healthy teeth,
  Tell me a food
  That you can eat.

Call on several students. End the Milk Group review by saying:

• Milk Group foods
  Are good for you.
  Now give a smile
  To a friend or two.

5. Review the Meat Group with Queen Anna Banana:

• Let's review some more:
  With Meat Group foods,
  You can't go wrong.
  They make your muscles
  Big and strong.
  What's one Meat Group food?

Call on several students. End the Meat Group review by saying:

• Meat Group foods
  Are good for you.
  Show a muscle
  To a friend or two.

6. Complete the review by discussing the Vegetable Group with Queen Anna Banana:

• Let's finish the review:
  To see in the dark,
  With an eagle eye,
  What's a Vegetable Group food
  That you can try?

Call on several students. End the review of the Vegetable Group by saying:

• Vegetable Group foods
  Are good for you.
  Wink your eye
  At a friend or two.

7. Introduce the Fruit Group by having Queen Anna Banana say:

• I must teach
  Our Little D
  About the Fruit Group
  And you will see,
  I've painted pictures
  Of different fruits.
  If I say so myself,
  They're awfully cute.

8. Distribute the Little D, the Five-Food-Group Dragon mini-poster, ask:

• What food group does Queen Anna Banana stand for? Fruit Group
• Why is she a good character to represent the Fruit Group? Because a banana is a fruit
• What Fruit Group foods are on this poster? Banana, orange, watermelon, apples, grapes, strawberries

9. Explain:
There are many, many kinds of fruits.

• Queen Anna Banana was supposed to teach Little D about the Fruit Group, so she painted pictures of several fruits.
• Instead of writing the name of each fruit on the picture, she used a word that rhymes with the name instead.
• We've got to help Little D figure out the correct name of each fruit.

Distribute the Queen Anna Banana's Fruit Rhymes worksheet and give the following directions:

• First, let's read the names of the six fruits in the Word Bank.
• Next, let's look at square #1 and read the clue for a word that rhymes with the fruit pictured in this square.
• What's the clue word? Fairy
• What's the fruit pictured in this square? Cherry
• Print (or write) "cherry" under the drawing.

10. Depending on your students' ability to identify rhyming words, have students complete this worksheet alone, with a partner or as a large group. Review answers when students are done.

11. Before finishing the worksheet, ask:

• What's different about the picture of Little D at the top of the page? He now has a square for the Fruit Group on his chest.
• What color do you think this new square is? Why? Red. Because red stands for the Fruit Group.
• Why do you think the Fruit Group square on his chest indicates? He has learned about the foods in the Fruit Group.

Teach the health benefit of Fruit Group foods:

• There are many different foods in the Fruit Group.
• They taste different. They look different.
• One thing that is the same about Fruit Group foods is that they help our bodies stay healthy.
• Fruit Group foods are a good source of vitamin C, which helps heal cuts and bruises.

12. To illustrate why it's important for cuts and bruises to heal, hold up a banana. Ask the students what they think the banana's skin does. Peel the banana halfway. Point out that the skin protects the soft fruit inside. Pull the peel back up and ask the students what they think would happen to the soft fruit inside if the banana's skin had cuts and bruises on it.

13. Ask students to run a hand over their arm and look at their skin. Ask:

• What do you think your skin does? It protects the muscles, bones, nerves, and organs inside the body.
• What happens when you get a cut? A scab forms over the wound.
• What does the scab do? It protects the skin while it is healing underneath.
• What do you think might happen if your skin wasn't able to heal cuts? You might get bacteria in your body. You might get infections. It's very important that your skin can heal cuts and bruises.
• Foods in what food group help heal cuts and heal bruises? Fruit Group

14. Tell students they're going to make up a rhyme like Queen Anna Banana. Read the poem starters on the board. Then lead a pre-writing activity by asking students for words that rhyme with the last word in the poem starter and list on the board. Ask students to dictate a sentence that rhymes with the poem starter. Write at least two poems that come from each starter.

Have the students read the poems out loud, either in unison or individually.

Check for Understanding

15. Ask students to close their eyes and think of five different foods in the Fruit Group and raise their hands when they are ready. Select eight or 10 students to share one fruit.
Then say:

• Think of a place on your body where you cut yourself, a scab formed, and it's now healed. Point to that place.
• What food group helps heal cuts? Fruit Group

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

17. Attach the circle to the Wall Dragon. Tell the students the name of your favorite fruit and tape your scale to the circle. Have the students identify their favorite fruits as they tape their scales to the fruit circle.

18. Collect Little D, the Five Food Group Dragon mini-posters for Activity 6.

19. Allow students to continue playing Little D's interactive nutrition games to reinforce the Five Food Groups and the foods in them.

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

Going Further

Jumping Beans
Obtain jump ropes to use during recess. Point out that many athletes jump rope to make their hearts and legs strong, and to improve their timing, rhythm, endurance, and coordination. Encourage students to talk about activities they do where strong legs, timing, endurance, and coordination are important. Bring out the Queen Anna Banana Trading Card. Explain that Queen Anna Banana is going to teach students her favorite jump rope rhyme.

• Apples, peaches, pears, plums, Tell me when your birthday comes!

Before and After
Use fruits to give students practice with "before" and "after." Give them a taste of "before and after" fruit pairs. You can use any of the following: grapes and raisins, plums and prunes, bananas and banana chips, or any other combination of fresh and dried fruits. You can also use fruit and fruit juice pairs.

Nutrition Expedition Programs © 2005

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