Deliciously Edible Plant Parts (Page 1 of 2) LESSON 1 HANDOUT 1

Deliciously Edible Plant Parts (Page 1 of 2) LESSON 1 HANDOUT 1 Fruits and vegetables are the deliciously edible parts of a plant! Identify! Look at the images below and see if you can identify each fruit or vegetable. Can you identify what part of the plant it comes from? What other fruits or vegetables can you think of that come from the same part of a plant? Explain! Each plant part has an important job. Explain and write down the function of each plant part, then try quizzing your friends! Taste! Use your senses to write down your observations in your Garden Journals from the Plant Part Tasting Station activity. Describe the flavor (for example, sweet, salty, sour, bitter), the texture (for example, crunchy, soft, crisp), and the appearance (color, shape, size). chickpeas zucchini leaf lettuce broccoli celery strawberries carrots tomatoes green beans 1. 2. 3. Plant Part: Function: 63

LESSON 1 HANDOUT 1 Deliciously Edible Plant Parts (Page 2 of 2) 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 64

Fruits and Veggies on MyPlate LESSON 1 HANDOUT 2 Edible plant parts are found in more than two of the five MyPlate food groups we need each day for good health. Do you know which ones? (Circle them below). Fruit Vegetable Grain Protein Foods Dairy Group Group Group Group Group Look at the school lunch menu below and fill in the table by answering the following questions: 1) What is the original ingredient? For each menu item, list the major ingredient from which it was made. Pizza is a combination food made up of foods from three food groups. Provide answers for each food in the pizza, as well as for the rest of the meal. 2) What food group does it belong to? 3) Did it come from a plant? Answer yes or no. 4) Which edible plant part is it? Lunch Menu Original Ingredient Food Group Does It Come From Edible Plant Part Item a Plant? (yes/no) WHOLE-WHEAT CHEESE PIZZA a. Crust (example) b. Tomato Sauce c. Cheese Wheat Flour Grain Group Yes Seed BAKED SWEET POTATO FRIES BOWL OF BROCCOLI APPLESAUCE FAT-FREE MILK 5) What fruits and vegetables are on this menu? List them: 65

LESSON 2 HANDOUT 1 The Farm to Plate Game! Playing Cards 66

Dark-Green Leafy Vegetable Taster (Page 1 of 2) LESSON 2 HANDOUT 2 The Vegetable Food Group has five vegetable subgroups. One of these subgroups is called the Dark-Green Vegetable Subgroup. Vegetables in this group all provide the same kinds of nutrients; that s why they are grouped together. To eat smart and play hard, we need to eat dark-green vegetables every week. Which have you tried? Circle: spinach green leaf lettuce bok choy kale broccoli Spinach Fun Facts Fuel up with spinach to eat smart and play hard. It s packed with vitamin A, which helps keep your eyes and skin healthy. It also contains other nutrients your body needs, such as vitamin C, folate, and the mineral potassium. Fresh spinach is a tasty way to make your salad or sandwich a little greener. Thawed frozen spinach is great mixed with tomato sauce for pasta or as a topping on pizza. California, Arizona, Texas, and New Jersey grow the most spinach in the United States! Recipes with Florentine in their name contain spinach, such as Eggs Florentine. 67

LESSON 2 HANDOUT 2 Dark-Green Leafy Vegetable Taster (Page 2 of 2) Taste 1) Write down and draw the leafy greens you will taste below. 2) Before you taste, write down your observations about each sample. 3) Taste and chew each sample slowly using all your senses. Write down what you taste. You may want to use some of these adjectives to help you: crunchy, sweet, salty, peppery, fresh, earthy, crisp, soft. Remember your class s Tasting Etiquette Guidelines! 1. Dark-green leafy vegetable: Observation (color, texture, size, shape): Taste: Dressing ( ) Taste: Dressing ( ) Taste: Dressing ( ) Taste: Reflect and Create 2. Dark-green leafy vegetable: Observation (color, texture, size, shape): Taste: Dressing ( ) Taste: Dressing ( ) Taste: Dressing ( ) Taste: (Answer the following questions in your Garden Journals.) 1) Have you ever eaten any of the dark-green leafy vegetables you just tried at home? 2) What dark-green leafy vegetables have you eaten at school? 3) How could you add dark-green leafy vegetables to your lunch? To your dinner? To a snack? 68

Nutrient Knowledge Flashcards (Page 1 of 3) LESSON 3 HANDOUT 1 What is a nutrient? Nutrients are the substances in food that help us grow, play hard, and stay healthy. Eating a variety of vegetables not only keeps meals interesting, but also helps the body get the nutrients it needs to be healthy. That s because different veggies have different amounts of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein. Eating from all five of the MyPlate vegetable subgroups each week helps us get the variety we need: Dark Green Vegetables, Red and Orange Vegetables, Beans and Peas, Starchy Vegetables, and Other Vegetables. Cut out, fold, then tape or glue edges of flashcards together. Use them to test your knowledge about nutrients in fruits and veggies. Then quiz your friends and family! Helps my body form red blood cells Helps my body heal cuts and scratches Helps protect my eyes and skin Found in dark-green veggies (especially spinach), asparagus, Brussels sprouts, beans and peas, and oranges Keeps my teeth and gums healthy FOLD Found in fruits and veggies like oranges, grapefruits, kiwi, tomatoes, strawberries, bell peppers, potatoes, and broccoli Found in dark-green veggies (like spinach and kale), red and orange fruits and vegetables (like carrots, cantaloupe, sweet potato, and tomatoes) (Vitamin) FOLATE (Also known as Folic Acid ) (Vitamin) Vitamin C (Vitamin) Vitamin A 69

LESSON 3 HANDOUT 1 Nutrient Knowledge Flashcards (Page 2 of 3) Carbohydrate (Mineral) Iron FOLD Keeps my muscles and nervous system working right Helps my body keep a normal heartbeat and blood pressure normal Found in fruits and veggies like bananas, dried apricots, cantaloupe, orange juice, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, white beans, kidney beans, tomato sauce, and spinach My body uses it to carry oxygen from my lungs to the rest of my body Vitamin C helps my body absorb (take in) more of it Found in dried fruits (like raisins), beans and peas, and dark-green leafy vegetables (like spinach) Gives me energy to run, jump, dance, and even blink my eyes Found in all fruits and veggies (Mineral) Potassium 70

Nutrient Knowledge Flashcards (Page 3 of 3) LESSON 3 HANDOUT 1 Fats Protein FOLD A type of carbohydrate that my body cannot digest, but has many overall health benefits May lower my risk of heart disease and diabetes Keeps food moving through digestive tract, and helps me feel full after eating Found in most fruits and vegetables. Juicing and peeling lowers the amount of it in fruits and veggies. My body uses this to build healthy muscle, skin, bone, and tissue Also used for energy Found in beans and peas Provides energy and helps my body absorb (take in) certain vitamins Liquid forms, like oils from avocados and olives, are heart healthy and provide some vitamins. Solid forms (at room temperature), like butter and stick margarine, may be added when foods are prepared. Eating too much solid fat is not good for my heart. Fiber 71

LESSON 3 HANDOUT 2 Case of the Missing Subgroup (Page 1 of 2) The school lunch menu for the week has just been posted. But it s missing a vegetable subgroup! You now know how important it is to make sure you and your friends eat vegetables from all of the subgroups each week. Can you help complete and improve the menu? Using the list of vegetables in each subgroup, write the name of the subgroup each vegetable belongs to on the space provided. Study the menu, and answer the following questions: How often is each vegetable subgroup on the menu? Dark Green: Red and Orange: Beans and Peas: Starchy: Other: Which subgroup is missing? What change could you make so that kids could get all the subgroups during the week? Tip! Remember, most people don t eat enough red, orange, and dark-green vegetables, and beans and peas so try to include these in meals and snacks as often as you can. n Dark-Grelee s b a t e Veg 72 Red and Orange s Vegetable Beans and Peas Starchy s Vegetable Other s Vegetable

Case of the Missing Subgroup (Page 2 of 2) LESSON 3 HANDOUT 2 WEEK 1 SCHOOL LUNCH MENU MONDAY: Roast Pork Steamed Brown Rice Glazed Sweet Potatoes TUESDAY: Ground Beef & Macaroni Whole-Wheat Roll Steamed Fresh Zucchini WEDNESDAY: Chicken Salad Whole-Wheat Bread Cauliflower THURSDAY: Baked Cajun Fish Cornbread Baked Beans FRIDAY: Cheese and Tomato Pizza with Whole-Grain Crust Fresh Grapes Fat-free Milk Banana Apple Crisp Fat-free Milk Corn Fresh Strawberries Fat-free Milk Iceberg Lettuce Salad Italian Dressing Apricot Halves Fat-free Milk Green Peas Baby Carrots with Low-fat Dip Peach Slices Fat-free Milk VEGETABLE SUBGROUP GUIDE (not a full list): Dark-Green Vegetables: bok choy broccoli collard, turnip, or mustard greens dark-green leaf lettuce kale romaine lettuce spinach Red & Orange Vegetables: acorn squash butternut squash carrots red and orange bell peppers sweet potatoes tomatoes Beans & Peas: black beans black-eyed peas (mature, dry) chickpeas (garbanzo beans) kidney beans lentils navy beans pinto beans split peas Starchy Vegetables: corn green peas plantains potatoes water chestnuts Other: asparagus avocado beets Brussels sprouts cabbage cauliflower celery cucumbers green beans green bell peppers iceberg (head) lettuce zucchini DO FRUITS HAVE SUBGROUPS? Fruits do not have subgroups, but it s important to eat different kinds of fruits during the week. Melons, citrus fruits, berries, apples, peaches, and bananas are just a few of the many delicious choices. 73

LESSON 3 HANDOUT 3 A Lot Can Happen When You ve now learned that different vegetables have different nutrients. Eating a variety of vegetables from each of the five subgroups can help you grow, play hard, and stay healthy! Now it s your chance to turn all that you have learned into a comic strip, titled A Lot Can Happen When Mention at least one vegetable from one of the five vegetable subgroups in your comic. Tell how eating a colorful variety of vegetables helps you play hard. Be creative! Use the questions below to help you get your visual story started: What do you wish could happen to you in a day? What is an obstacle you d like to overcome? What is one of your biggest goals? A Lot Can Happen When 74

A-Maze-ing Light LESSON 4 HANDOUT 1 What do plants need to grow? Do they seek out what they need? Conduct an experiment to find out! You will build a maze for a bean plant to see what happens when a plant has minimal sunlight. Sample 1 1. Hypothesize: Write down your predictions to the following questions in your Garden Journal. What do you think plants need to grow? Do you think plants change their growth to follow the sun? What would happen to a plant if sunlight were blocked? 2. Design your maze: It does not need to be complicated to make the experiment successful. Study the mazes to the left. Then use cardboard to create your walls. Make sure there is a hole leading from the outside of the box to the inside. Water your plant before you place it in your maze. Cover the maze and position the box so that sunlight will shine into the box through the hole. Sample 2 3. Hypothesize: What do you think will happen to the plant next week? In 2 weeks? Draw a prediction growth picture in your journal mapping the growth pattern you think your plant will take. 4. Measure: Check in on your maze every day. If the top of the soil is dry to the touch, add a little water. Measure and record the growth of your plant. Keep this data in your Garden Journal. Hole 5. The results: At the end of the experiment, do a final measurement of the growth of your plant. Write down the results. How do the results compare to your hypothesis? Why do you think it grew the way it did? What can you conclude based on this experiment? Sample 3 6. Graph, chart, or map your experiment results. Then have an A-Maze-ing Plant display! Decorate and color the outside of your mazes. 75

LESSON 4 HANDOUT 2 Fuel Up With Veggies...Zoom to the Finish! (Page 1 of 2) Know how you can really get your engine going? Make half your plate fruits and veggies. They ll help you be your best at school and at play. Are you fueling up with enough dark-green, red, and orange veggies, and beans and peas during the week? Take the challenge to track your meals for three days to find out if, and how fast, you can zoom across the finish line! Challenge Instructions: 1) TRACK: For 3 days, write down everything you eat and drink (at meals, snacks, or in between) in your Garden Journals. Circle all the veggies. (See example on right.) 2) EVALUATE: Make a list of each new vegetable you tried. Then, sort the vegetables you ate into the five vegetable subgroups: Dark-Green, Red and Orange, Beans and Peas, Starchy, and Other. 3) ZOOM AROUND THE TRACK: Use the track on the next page. For each vegetable portion you eat, move one space on the track. You cannot count the same vegetable twice. (For example, If you eat broccoli on Day 1 for lunch and dinner, you can only count it once. But if you eat it also on Day 2, you can move another space.) Write down the name of the vegetable in each space you move through. Give yourself a Turbo Boost! For each NEW vegetable you eat, you earn one extra space! Write it into the empty space. You may not cross the finish line until you have eaten at least one veggie from EACH of the following subgroups: Dark-Green, Red and Orange, Beans and Peas. Circle them clearly on the track. Tip! The more variety you eat, the faster you ll move around the track! 76

Fuel Up With Veggies...Zoom to the Finish! (Page 2 of 2) LESSON 4 HANDOUT 2 Veggie Challenge Race 77