Healthy Food Healthy Bodies ContextBackground Abbotsford Primary School

Healthy Food; Healthy Bodies

Context/Background • Abbotsford Primary School • Prep - 1 Students • Bilingual school (Chinese) • Large number of EAL students • Extremely mixed abilities – around 7 students are travelling way above the expected level and around 5 struggle to communicate even basic needs • Integrated Studies Focus • Improving Healthy Eating Habits • Main focus: Citizenship • Minor foci: collaboration and communication Purpose: To deepen awareness of healthy and unhealthy food and the effect of it on our bodies. To expose students to how they can make choices in their communities about the food that they eat.

What is the task? We designed a unit on healthy food that aimed to educate students about why food is healthy or unhealthy, expose students to lots of healthy foods, involve the community and integrate ICT. Here are the main activities/tasks we completed: Cooking Incursions Parents came and prepared healthy meals with the students. They shared how the food related to their family culture. For example, one vegan family shared their beliefs and which they could and could not eat. The families discussed why their ingredients were healthy. Shopping Excursion Students visited Woolworths to buy ingredients for a healthy lunch. They worked in teams to create a shopping list and to make some choices at the supermarket. This task also aimed to support numeracy. Students had a budget of $15. They carried calculators around the shop to make sure that they did not go over budget. Healthy Eating Posters Students used Pic Collage to display their learning about healthy food. They were taught about how to use the camera on Pic Collage, how to type, change backgrounds and choose fonts. They had a rubric to guide them and they had to chose roles for different team members.

How Was The Community Included? Parent Community The parent community was involved through the cooking incursions. A letter was sent out at the beginning of term inviting parents to cook a healthy food with our class. We had 8 different families participate making meals such as fruit salad, quinoa salad, dhal and noodles with vegetables. There was also a display board in the area where parents wait showcasing our learning on healthy food. When students created healthy food posters, they were displayed outside so that parents could see them. Business Community We engaged with our local Woolworths to arrange a shopping excursion. Students learned about the different sections of the supermarket and where they could find healthy fresh food. The groups made their own choices about what food they would buy and then prepared it back at school.

Cooking Incursions Members of our school parent community came and cooked with us.

Shopping Excursion Students visited the Woolworths where most of our community does their shopping.

Shopping Excursion

Healthy Eating Posters Our posters were displayed in places where our parents and wider school community could see.

Assessment Approaches 1) Sorting activity 2) Posters 3) Rubrics for posters 3) Student reflections 4) Parent reflections

Deep Learning Pedagogical Practices Learning Partnerships - Interactive activities with hands-on materials e. g. sugar experiment - Explicit teaching of skills such as using Pic Collage and calculators - Collaborative learning tasks that encourage students to learn from one another - Authentic learning opportunities e. g. visiting the supermarket and incursions by parents - Literacy and Bilingual teachers - Parents of students in class - Woolworths Leveraging Digital Learning Environments - Pic Collage posters - Educational videos - Literacy classroom - Chinese classroom - Cooking room - Supermarket

New Pedagogies Learning Design Rubric

Assessment Examples -Pic Collage Posters - Sorting Activities - Conferencing With Students - Student Reflections - Parent Reflections

Student A is unable to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy foods and does not seem to understand the concept. Student A thinks bananas are healthy because they are “so good” and radishes are unhealthy because “I tasted it and its not good”.

Student B has a limited understanding of healthy and unhealthy foods. Student B places some examples of healthy food on the healthy side but also some foods which are fried and very oily. Student B places raspberries on the unhealthy side and when asked why, responds “I don’t know”.

Student C seems to have some understanding of healthy and unhealthy food. Student C says prawns with salad “look healthy” and celery “helps you grow”. Student C knows that chips are unhealthy but cannot explain why. Student C says chips have “got different stuff – not healthy stuff”.

Student D seems to have some understanding of healthy and unhealthy food. Student D says that chips “do not look healthy” but cannot explain why pizza is unhealthy. Student D says meat is healthy because it “is good for you”.

Student E can sort healthy and unhealthy food and can give vague reasons why the food is healthy or unhealthy. Student E says “I know most fruit and veg are healthy” and “most biscuits aren’t good for you”.

Student F can sort healthy and unhealthy food and can give vague reasons why the food is healthy or unhealthy. Student F says “Celery is a veggie and veggies are healthy”.

Impact – Academic Outcomes Students Pre-Assessment Post-Assessment Student A (lower) - Cannot sort healthy and unhealthy foods - Does not understand “healthy” - Can sort some healthy and unhealthy food - Gives one good example why a food is healthy. Other examples are vague. Student B (lower) - Cannot sort healthy and unhealthy foods - Has a limited understanding of “healthy” - Identifies raw ingredients as healthy but anything mixed/cooked as unhealthy - Describes food as unhealthy because of sugar Student C (middle) - Can sort some healthy and unhealthy foods - Gives very vague reasons why foods are healthy -Can sort most food into healthy and unhealthy - Gives vague reasons why food is healthy or unhealthy e. g. “milk is good for your body” Student D (middle) - Can sort most foods into healthy and unhealthy - Gives very vague reasons why foods are healthy - Can sort foods into healthy and unhealthy - Knows certain foods are not good for you because of added sugar Student E (upper) - Can sort foods into healthy and unhealthy - Gives very vague reasons why foods are healthy - Can sort foods into healthy and unhealthy - Gives specific reasons why food is healthy or unhealthy e. g. carrots have beta-carotene and Up and Go has a lot of sugar Student F (upper) - Can sort foods into healthy and unhealthy - Gives very vague reasons why foods are healthy - Can sort foods into healthy and unhealthy - Gives specific reasons why food is healthy e. g. milk makes your bones strong

Impact – The 6 Cs (Broader Life Skills) Citizenship - We explored a global issue – the proliferation of sugar in everyday foods and the consequences of consuming large amounts of sugar. - Learners were exposed to the differences of others when parents discussed how their culture (e. g. veganism or Buddhism) affects what they eat. - With guidance, learners designed a solution to the problem of unhealthy lunch boxes. They created their own shopping lists filled with healthy food, bought these items and prepared their own healthy lunches. -This task was an open-ended, real-world challenge. Collaboration - Students collaborated when they created their poster, decided on their shopping lists and went shopping. - Before students started their poster they had to decide on roles. A list was provided to them with role descriptions. - Certain group members did more work than others. - Overall the groups managed to complete their work with minimal complaints of other group members. - Many groups made a concerted effort to use the opinions of everyone to complete the tasks.

Impact – The 6 Cs (Broader Life Skills) Communication -Learners had to make decisions about visual communication when they created their posters. For example, they had to decide what backgrounds, fonts and pictures would be appropriate to convey their message. Learners were aware that they needed to do these things because they were explicitly mentioned in the rubric. - Learner’s spoke about their posters in front of the class.

Impact - Other Awareness During lunch time sessions students started to ask questions about the healthiness of their own lunch. They became more aware of what was everyday food and sometimes food. Acceptance of Difference Students met different families who eat different food because of their different cultures. Financial Skills Students learned about budgets. For the first time many of them were responsible for looking after money while walking through the shop. They practised calculator skills when they added all their products.

Learner’s Voice What was your favourite thing we did as part of the unit? “I am very happy with the way we learned about food. My favourite activity was the sugar activity when we saw how much sugar is in different food. ” “I liked the excursion to the supermarket. ” “The way we learned made me feel good and helped me learn more. I really like the sugar experiment” How have you changed the way you think about food? “I pack strawberries in my lunch box. ” “I used to eat five candies per day. Now I only eat one per week. ” “I used to think things with fruit did not have any sugar. ” “I like trying new food. ”

Teacher’s Voice I think that the unit on health was a good topic for students to learn and practise. It is vital to build up their skills to choose healthy foods. It was fantastic that we had the trip to Woolworths because the kids practised how to manage their money and make good choices. The group work allowed students to develop their teamwork skills and friendships. The result is that all my children know sugar is not good for you and they have started to bring healthier foods into school. Ngoc Nguyen, year 1 -2 teacher I think we tackled a very important topic that is very relevant to our students. I think certain aspects of the project were very successful. For example, involving the parents in the learning. Ultimately they need to be on board with our message if we are to see any long lasting change. I think the experiment about sugar was also very effective. The unit has impacted the way I think about food and eat and I hope that the unit also positively affects our students’ thinking. Jade Hugo, prep-1 teacher

Parent’s Voice How did you find your experience of coming to school and cooking for the class? “I really enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the students’ learning” “It was a chance to get to know more about the children and the way they eat. ” “I enjoyed being part of the classroom for my child. I should have thought more about what I cooked and cooked something healthy that I know the kids would like rather than something super healthy and then they feel that they don’t like healthy food. ” Since we started our unit on healthy eating, have you noticed a change in your child’s views on food? “She mentions sugar a lot more often, referring to how often you should eat treats. ” “My child is more aware of food and wants to eat more fruit. ” “Yes, my child is more aware and I can convince her to try more things”

Parent’s Voice Are there any aspects of our unit that you think have been successful? “All of them! You’ve done a great job of ensuring the children experience many positive aspects of healthy eating and empowered them to make good choices. ” “Shopping excursion. My child was very proud of what she bought and ate (lettuce, carrot and cheese sandwich) which she otherwise would be unlikely to do. ” What are your recommendations for us to make our unit even better? “Keep having this food program and using parents to support it. ” “Some ideas would be to do blind tastings of food. It would be funny for the class to see the reactions and kids might like foods they would otherwise have not tried. There is a great video on the effects of sugar on kids – teeth extractions etc. Playing snippets of that video when looking at sugar could be good. Once you see it, you don’t forget. ”

Final Comment This unit is definitely a step in the right direction for our junior team. We are endeavoring to move from an integrated model with the teacher as main source of knowledge to an inquiry model where students and our wider community have a greater say in the learning that occurs at school. We will use this unit as a starting point to decide what changes we need to make to ensure that the learning is deep and encapsulates the values required for 21 st learning.

Credits/Permissions Healthy Food; Healthy Bodies - A project by Prep/1 Developed and Written by Jade Hugo, Prep/1 Teacher Abbotsford Primary School, Melbourne, Victoria. [Permission has been granted for all photos, videos, student work and comments in this presentation]