DRAFT 1 Grade Level: Kindergarten Subject Area: English Language Arts Title: The Healthy Alpha-Garden Setting: Classroom Instructional Time: 30-45 minutes Grade Level Expectation (s): R.WS. 00.03 Understand the alphabetic principle, that sounds and words are expressed by the letters of the alphabet. 3 MNN Behavioral Outcome (USDA Guidance on Apple Sheet): Eat fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk products every day. SNAP-Ed Core Nutrition Messages: (Page 5 of Maximizing the Message): 1. Want your kids to reach for a healthy snack? Make sure fruits and veggies are in reach. 2. When they home hungry, have fruits and veggies ready to eat. 3. Let your kids be produce pickers. Help them pick fruits and veggies at the store. Goal: Reinforce letter/sound correspondence by planting an alphabet garden and pairing letters with the appropriate sound and fruit or vegetable word. (Example: B says /b/, bean) Learning Objectives: (no more than 3 per lesson), measurable and observable, SMART The students will identify letters. The students will identify beginning sounds in the names of fruits and vegetables. The students will select fruits and vegetables as healthy snack options and be able to identifying the beginning letter/sound of each. Background (Registered Dietitians and Horticultural Specialists.) Vegetables provide many important nutrients such as carbohydrates, Vitamins A, C and E, folate potassium and dietary fiber. Many are naturally low in fat and calories. Eating a variety of vegetables is important as no single vegetable can provide every nutrient needed for healthy growth and maintenance. It is also important to focus on fruits. Fruits, like vegetables, vary in the nutrients they provide. Fruits provide Vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber and phytonutrients like beta carotene, a carotenoid that forms Vitamin A in our bodies. Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables is part of a healthy eating strategy that can help reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. Vitamin C helps to heal wounds potassium helps maintain a healthy blood pressure, while Vitamin A helps keep skin and eyes healthy. Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant. Folate helps prevent birth defects and helps in the formation of red blood cells. Fiber helps reduce constipation, assists in lowering total blood cholesterol and heart disease risk. Fruits and vegetables help fill you up and are lower in
calories per cup than higher calorie foods. No matter how you spell it, fruit and vegetables are A-OK! Source: The complete Food and Nutrition Guide. Duyff. 2006. Vocabulary Fruit: A fruit is the part of a plant that contains the seeds. Oranges, apples, and nuts are fruits that can be eaten. Vegetable: A vegetable is a plant whose roots, leaves, or other parts are used as food. Carrots, spinach, potatoes, lettuce, and beans are vegetables Advanced Preparation Send home parent note (See sample under Teacher Resources) requesting pie plates and radish seeds. Also, include the Snap-Ed Core Nutrition Message for families of Elementary School Age Children. Send home snack calendar giving parents an assigned letter and day to send a fruit or vegetable snack. (Example: A Day: Send apples. B Day: Send broccoli, etc.) Collect 25 clear, plastic 2-liter soda bottles. Clean and dry them thoroughly. Cut off the top leaving about 8-10 inches of the bottle to make a clear planter. Use a nail to poke holes into the bottom for drainage. Photocopy and cut out label cards. Collect seeds for all 24 letters to be planted. See the list of recommended seeds in Teacher Resources. Supplies One letter/label card per student. 25 cleaned clear plastic 2-liter bottles (if gardening in the classroom) or outside school garden space Planting media (if gardening in the classroom) 24 pie tins or other receptacle to catch water from each soda bottle. Eating the Alphabet, Lois Ehlert, Harcourt Publishing, 1989. Food for taste testing Grow Your Kids memory cards MyPyramid for Kids poster (free at http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/mypyramid/mypyramidgraphics.html) Procedures Step 1: Ask How could you eat the alphabet? Ask students which foods would be healthy snacks for us to eat. (Which ones help us grow and maintain healthy bodies?) Refer to MyPyramid for Kids.
Step 2: Read the book Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert. Step 3: Name the letter, make its sound, and give the food for each page. For example, say Letter A says /a/, apricot. Point out where the foods lie in MyPyramid for Kids for the first few letters. Step 4: Discuss how students might eat the alphabet in a healthy way. Refer to MyPyramid for Kids, pointing out that a healthy way for them to eat the alphabet would be to eat fat and sugary foods sparingly while eating lots of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, and low-fat meat or beans. Can they name a healthy snack for each food group and identify the letter that each food begins with and it s sound? Step 5: Explain that the class is going to plant a Healthy Alphabet Garden. Can they name some healthy plants to grow for each letter of the alphabet? Step 6: Provide each student with a label/letter card that will serve as a label. Instruct each student to show his/her letter card to the class and say, for example, A says /a/ and give any word beginning with that sound. If time allows, have students color their label. Step 8: Show students a finished garden. Demonstrate how to add soil to the 2-liter bottle. Have students put planting media into pop bottles, plant seeds, attach their label, and water their garden. Step 9: Taste test fruits/veggies that were planted in the Healthy Alphabet Garden. Say the name of fruit/veggie, and the letter it begins with. Make the sound. (Example: Say Apple begins with the letter A. A says /a/. Assessment 1. Utilize site-based assessment tool, such as MLPP. (MI Literacy Progressive Profile?) 2. Show letter cards to students, ask him/her to name the letter and produce its sound. Say a word that begins with that sound. Teacher Resources Sample Letter Date: Dear Families, This week we will work on an English Language Arts lesson that focuses on letters and their corresponding sound while studying healthy snacks. This lesson incorporates building blocks for phonics with building blocks to a healthy life. The lesson will include planting a Healthy
Alphabet Garden right in our classroom! In order to complete this lesson a few supplies are needed from home. Please review the list below and if you are able to donate any items, let me know. Also, please contact me if you are interested in helping us plant our Healthy Alphabet Garden. You can help reinforce this lesson by taking your child to the grocery store and having them name fruits and vegetables in the produce section, emphasizing the beginning letter and sound. Thank you for your support in building your child s English language skills while laying the foundation for healthy living. Sincerely, Instructions for Soda Bottle Planters Label/Letter Cards A AH APPLE B BE BEAN List of Easy to Grow Plants for Each Letter A apple, apricot, avocado, arugula, acorn squash B- bean, beet, broccoli, butternut squash, basil C- carrot, cantaloupe, cauliflower, cucumber, chives, cilantro, collard, cabbage, corn, chili pepper D- daikon, dill E- eggplant, endive F- fennel, fig G- grape tomato, garlic, ginger, greenbean H- herbs, horseradish, honeydew I- iceberg lettuce J- jalapeño
K- kale, kohlrabi L- lemon, lettuce, lime, leek, lentil M- melon, mustard, mint N- nectarine O- orange, onions, oregano, oats, okra P- pear, parsnip, parsley, peach, pepper, pea, pineapple (from top cutting), potato, pumpkin, plum Q- quince, R- radish, rutabaga, rosemary S- summer quash, strawberry, spinach, sage T- tomato, turnip, thyme U- ugli fruit V- violet W- watermelon X- ximenia fruit, xigua Y- yam Z- zucchini Literature: The ABCs of Fruits and Vegetables and Beyond, Steve Charney and David Goldbeck, Ceres Press, 2007 The Vegetable Alphabet Book, Jerry Pallota. Charlesbridge Publishing, 1992 The Vegetables We Eat, Gail Gibbons, A Holiday House Book, 2007 Websites http://www.kidsgardening.com http://www.kidsregen.org Interactive Technology Opportunities Collaborating Classrooms: Contact Dr. Norm Lownds lownds@msnu.edu