Classroom Activities

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The website materials are intended as an adjunct to work in class about food and health. Some suggestions for related classroom activities include:
 

Teeth and Dental Health

1. Looking at, describing, identifying different types of teeth - each child uses a small mirror and sense of touch to examine their own teeth. Could eat a piece of food (e.g. slice of apple) so that pupils can think about the functions their different teeth perform. This activity is suggested in 'my tooth survey'.

2. Toothbrush test - pupils try out different toothpastes and / or the effectiveness of water alone. They could design a 'fair test' investigation to compare different brands or different times of brushing. To avoid hygiene issues, pupils use a 'pretend' set of dirty teeth, made using waxed card (e.g. inside of a milk carton) that has wax crayon (the 'dirt') on it. Old toothbrushes should be used!

3. Pupils design a poster or leaflet advertising the benefits of looking after your teeth / going to the dentist.

4. Pupils design and make the box for a new toothpaste, having looked at different existing brands. The toothpaste box design could be aimed at encouraging children to clean their teeth.
 

Food and dietary health

1. Pupils could design, make and eat real foods, such as healthy sandwiches, real (squeezed) fruit juices, real fruit yoghurts, baked potatoes with fillings (depending on equipment and resources available). Such activities would present plenty of opportunities for developing design-and-make skills as well as promoting healthy choices. Check for food allergies.

2. Taste test on different fresh fruits and / or vegetables suitable for eating raw (e.g. carrots, green pepper, tomatoes, cucumber). Such activities would promote healthy choices and develop observational and recording/ communicating skills. Check for food allergies.

3. Food sort. Pupils use photos or food packaging and sort common foods into groups e.g. foods for energy; foods for growth; fresh fruit and vegetables. Labels on packaging may help pupils to make sorting decisions.

4. Pupils bring in clean, empty packaging from cereals, bread, pizza, yoghurt etc. and look at the food information. A comparison chart of e.g. fat content, or sugar content, or vitamins etc. could be made. Pupils could also discuss whether it is easy to read/ interpret the information on the packets and design a better, clearer way of labelling foods.

5. Comparing products. One type of product is chosen (e.g. breakfast cereal, crisps, snack bars) and packaging from different brands / types is used to make comparisons. Food information could be used to create a chart of 'best' and 'worst' e.g. in terms of vitamins, sugar content, fat content etc. This would help children to make healthier choices even when they want to eat crisps, for example.

6. Pupils look at a popular TV advertisement for a food aimed at children (e.g cheese strings, coco pops, fruit shoot drinks etc.) and discuss the persuasive language used. What do they think of the advert? Would they buy the product? Is the advert truthful about the healthy or unhealthy nature of the product? Pupils could go on to create a persuasive advert aimed at getting children to eat e.g. fruit.
 

Diseases and Health

1. Pupils could find out more about 'good' and 'bad' bacteria, using a range of sources such as children's encyclopaedias, kids' health internet sites, recent newspaper articles, adverts in magazines for 'bio' yoghurts etc.

2. Pupils could discuss a disease they've probably all had - a cold. What happened to them? How long did it take for them to feel better? How can they make sure they don't pass on their cold to someone else? They could make a 'cold diary' to show how the cold develops - and how their bodies fight back.

3. Soap test - pupils design a 'fair test' investigation to try out different ways of washing their hands e.g. cold water; warm water; soap and water etc. They could use paint or marker pen as 'pretend' dirt / bacteria to see how well the different washing methods clean their hands.

4. Pupils design and make posters to put up in the school toilets, to encourage other (younger) pupils to wash their hands.
 

Independent project

'Find out more' on the website encourages pupils to raise their own food and health questions and to consider how they might go about answering them.