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Lesson plan · Grades K-2 · 30 minutes

Lunch Tray Builder

I can name the five food groups, sort foods into them, and build a lunch with all five.

▶ Open the tool Download the tool
Standard
NHES.S1 NHES-2024
Shape
Explore first
Grouping
Whole class on the carpet, then at tables.
You need
The tool on the big screen. Paper plates or a drawn tray for each child, and crayons.
Tool
curioclass.org/tools/lunch-tray-builder/
  1. Hook4 min
  2. Explore10 min
  3. Make sense6 min
  4. Apply7 min
  5. Exit check3 min

Before class

  • Open Build a lunch.
  • There are no "good" or "bad" foods in this tool. Cookies and chips are "sometimes foods" that don't fill a group.
  • Be mindful of children's food situations. Focus on trying new foods and what helps our bodies, not on what anyone's family eats.

Hook 4 min

  1. "What did you eat for lunch yesterday?" Take a few answers.
  2. "Our bodies need different kinds of food to grow and play. There are five groups. Let's build a lunch and find them all."

Explore 10 min

  1. In Build a lunch, a child picks a food from the shelf. It lands in its group's spot on the tray.
  2. Keep going with different children. When someone asks "What's still empty?", press Is my tray ready? to make the empty spots glow.
  3. Fill all five spots and watch the tray celebrate. Add a cookie: it goes on the napkin.

Make sense 6 min

  1. Name the groups together: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy. Point to each spot on the tray.
  2. Switch to Sort it. The class decides the group for each food, then a child drags it. A wrong spot gives a hint.
  3. "Corn and peas: fruit or vegetable?" (Vegetable.) "Which group helps build strong bones?" (Dairy.)

Apply 7 min

  1. Switch to Fix the tray. Look at pizza day. "Which group is missing?" Add it.
  2. At tables, children draw their own lunch on a paper plate with one food from each group.

Exit check 3 min

Children hold up their plates. Point to a spot and ask the child to name the group. Then ask the class: "Name a food from the grains group." Listen for answers from each group.

Support and stretch

  • Support: use the picture spots on the tray as clues for each group.
  • Support: sort only fruits and vegetables first.
  • Stretch: "Can you name a vegetable that's a root? A leaf? A seed?"
  • Stretch: "What would you add to the picnic tray?"

Short on time

  • Fill one tray in Build a lunch (6 min).
  • One lunch in Fix the tray (4 min).

How each button works is in the teacher notes. From Curio Class, free under CC BY 4.0: change it, print it, share it.