Name: Amanda Berg
Title: Eating on a Budget
Time Needed: 60 minutes
Subject Area/Topic: Social Studies and Math- Food Justice and Money
Grade Level: 3rd grade
Essential Questions of Unit:
1.What is the relationship between privilege, poverty, and consumption?
2.What are the implications of access to nutritious food for a community?
3.How do we as students become involved in the food justice movement?
Guiding Questions of Lesson:
-What prevents people from eating healthy, nutritious food?
-How does an individual’s income influence their access to food?
-What does it mean to have food insecurity?
-How do people make choices about how to use their resources?
-How can cost of a food item be related to that food’s nutritional value?
Materials:
-chart paper
-markers
-envelope
-imitation money
-flyers from grocery stores with food item and prices
- math notebooks
-writing utensils
MMSD Curriculum Standards Connections:
Social Studies:
Grade 3: Content Focus: Madison and Communities Around the World
Political Science and Citizenship:
3.Give examples of how government does or does not provide for the needs and wants of people, establish order and security and manage conflicts.
Economics:
4.Show how people are both producers and consumers of goods and services.
5.Give examples of how economic resources in the home, school, and community are limited (scarcity) and how people must make choices about how to use these resources
Behavioral Science:
6.Demonstrates an ability to interact within a group while performing various group roles.
Math:
Grade 3 Mathematics:
Number, Operations, & Algebra:
Solves story and number problems
Knows grade level math facts
Reads, writes, compares, and orders numbers
NCSS Standards Connections:
NCSS Standard 7: Production, Distribution, and Consumption
Elementary Education Standards Connections:
Standard 4: Demonstrates pedagogical knowledge in a specific domain
Standard 5: Explains and justifies educational choices
Standard 10: Employs varied instructional strategies
Lesson Objectives:
1.Students will be able to consider what factors limit an individual’s access to nutritious food
2.Students will remember the different food groups learned in science.
3.Students will be able to identify factors that influence an individual’s purchasing decisions.
4.Students will be able to add and subtract monetary amounts.
5.Students will work cooperatively in pairs.
6.Students will use their monetary resources to try and meet the meal requirements with the most nutritious food available to them, using prior knowledge from science to decide which foods are preferable.
7.Students will be able to reflect upon their experience, recognizing that food insecurity is a reality for many people, and means that healthy food is not available to everyone.
Lesson Context:
Lesson Opening:
Procedural Steps:
Lesson Closure:
Special Consideration:
Assessment Strategies:
http://cus.oise.utoronto.ca/Lesson_Plans_Social_Justice_Issues.html
Poverty and Malnutrition for Grade 2
University of Toronto Centre for Urban Schooling
Title: Eating on a Budget
Time Needed: 60 minutes
Subject Area/Topic: Social Studies and Math- Food Justice and Money
Grade Level: 3rd grade
Essential Questions of Unit:
1.What is the relationship between privilege, poverty, and consumption?
2.What are the implications of access to nutritious food for a community?
3.How do we as students become involved in the food justice movement?
Guiding Questions of Lesson:
-What prevents people from eating healthy, nutritious food?
-How does an individual’s income influence their access to food?
-What does it mean to have food insecurity?
-How do people make choices about how to use their resources?
-How can cost of a food item be related to that food’s nutritional value?
Materials:
-chart paper
-markers
-envelope
-imitation money
-flyers from grocery stores with food item and prices
- math notebooks
-writing utensils
MMSD Curriculum Standards Connections:
Social Studies:
Grade 3: Content Focus: Madison and Communities Around the World
Political Science and Citizenship:
3.Give examples of how government does or does not provide for the needs and wants of people, establish order and security and manage conflicts.
Economics:
4.Show how people are both producers and consumers of goods and services.
5.Give examples of how economic resources in the home, school, and community are limited (scarcity) and how people must make choices about how to use these resources
Behavioral Science:
6.Demonstrates an ability to interact within a group while performing various group roles.
Math:
Grade 3 Mathematics:
Number, Operations, & Algebra:
Solves story and number problems
Knows grade level math facts
Reads, writes, compares, and orders numbers
NCSS Standards Connections:
NCSS Standard 7: Production, Distribution, and Consumption
Elementary Education Standards Connections:
Standard 4: Demonstrates pedagogical knowledge in a specific domain
Standard 5: Explains and justifies educational choices
Standard 10: Employs varied instructional strategies
Lesson Objectives:
1.Students will be able to consider what factors limit an individual’s access to nutritious food
2.Students will remember the different food groups learned in science.
3.Students will be able to identify factors that influence an individual’s purchasing decisions.
4.Students will be able to add and subtract monetary amounts.
5.Students will work cooperatively in pairs.
6.Students will use their monetary resources to try and meet the meal requirements with the most nutritious food available to them, using prior knowledge from science to decide which foods are preferable.
7.Students will be able to reflect upon their experience, recognizing that food insecurity is a reality for many people, and means that healthy food is not available to everyone.
Lesson Context:
- This will be the second lesson in our unit on Food Justice. In our first lesson we explored where food comes from by visiting a local grocery store and using technology to track the distance food travels to get from the farm to our table. This lesson introduces students to just one way that access to nutritious food can be inequitable, focusing on income vs. cost of food. After this lesson, we will be exploring the relationships between where people are located and what food is available to them, introducing the idea of a food desert. We will explore current groups that have made efforts to make food more equitable and writing our own food bill of rights. We will ultimately end our unit by researching what actions we as a class can take to work towards fixing this issue in our own community.
Lesson Opening:
- We will begin the lesson by creating a list of all the different reasons that might prevent people from eating what we have defined as healthy, nutritious food. I will really encourage my students to think deeply and expansively about their answers. I will record these answers on chart paper for us to think more about later.
Procedural Steps:
- I will begin the exercise by informing my students that today we are going to be focusing on our role as consumers. We will review briefly the food groups that we are already familiar with, what we have defined as healthy, nutritious food, and how much of our diet should consist of fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and protein. We will also review examples of those foods.
- I will then put my students in pairs and give each pair an envelope with a certain amount of play money in it. I will explain that this is their budget that they have to spend on food, and their budget is based on their income, or the amount of money they make from their job.
- I will then inform them that their task is to “purchase” the foods necessary to make a meal. I will remind them that their goal is to select two items from each food group, satisfying those requirements with the most nutritious, healthy food while still staying within their budget.
- I will remind students to choose two grains, two vegetables, two fruits, two dairy, and two proteins and attempt to meet all the food group requirements with the money they have. I will also give students flyers from grocery stores and a list of foods that fall under each category. Students will also be able to use the computer to look up nutritional information for foods.
- After 25 minutes, we will come back together as a class to share our experiences. I will ask pairs to first just describe what the experience was like for them. Then I will ask groups to explain to the class if they were able to achieve the goal, what foods they chose, and how they decided to use their resources. I will ask groups to identify any challenges they experienced and what they were feeling like throughout the activity.
- After each group has the opportunity to share, I will ask us to also identify the shortcomings of this activity to be sure students understand that this was a mere representation of what many people experience and does not simulate people’s real experiences.
Lesson Closure:
- After very thoroughly debriefing the activity and going around in a circle ensuring all students have had the opportunity to share their feelings and reflections, we will decide if we thought the activity was fair using our class definition of fairness, everyone having what they need. I will also ask students to begin to think about what happens when what we know as healthy and nutritious doesn’t match our access? I will explain to them the idea of food insecurity, which is a lack of access to a sufficient amount of food because of limited funds and tell students that this is a very real problem in our country as many families, even if they have jobs, do not have the ability to purchase whatever kind of food they would like. I will tell students that as we continue on in our unit, we will be discussing the equity and fairness of food and how we can make nutrition accessible for all. Before ending, I will have students go around the circle and each share one thought that they have after this lesson.
Special Consideration:
- Depending on the demographics of students in my classroom, this could potentially be a very sensitive topic. Because I would never want students to either feel guilty or as if their family is insufficient, depending on the group I have and the community and trust level we have established with one another, I might assign each pair a card with a scenario on it to give a little more context to the activity. I would especially make sure to make this adaptation if I thought my class was a group who would take the activity very personally. I also might make sure to individually conference with my students either before or after to prepare them or else debrief with them. This of course would be tailored to the specific children in my classroom.
Assessment Strategies:
- Throughout this lesson, I will primarily be informally assessing students as they participate in their groups. I will also be collecting their math notebooks they were doing all their work in to see that they were accurately adding/subtracting money and to assess their money competency. I will also be listening to students ending reflections to determine where their thinking is at after addressing this difficult topic and assessing their responses when we go around the circle sharing. I will be looking to see if students are able to identify factors that limit an individual’s ability to purchase healthy food and can discuss the causes of and implications of food scarcity in a community.
http://cus.oise.utoronto.ca/Lesson_Plans_Social_Justice_Issues.html
Poverty and Malnutrition for Grade 2
University of Toronto Centre for Urban Schooling