Preschool–Kindergarten

	Objectives Students will identify healthy foods and unhealthy foods. Students will sort and classify a variety of foods into the appropriate food groups.
	Materials Needed The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle Chart paper and marker or chalkboard and chalk Place Setting graphic organizer Food pictures Nutrition puzzles Best-Buy Scissors Lakeshore Glue Sticks
	Introduction Read aloud The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Have students identify which foods in the book are healthy and which are not. Chart their responses on chart paper or on a chalkboard.
	Procedure Give each student copies of the Place Setting graphic organizer, a set of food pictures, scissors and glue. Using the graphic organizer and food pictures, model an example of each food choice and the food group it belongs in. Instruct students to cut apart the pictures and sort them into the appropriate food group on their graphic organizers. (You may wish to precut the food pictures for younger students.) Invite students to explain their choices. Ask students why they put foods in certain food groups. Have students select one food from each group and glue it onto their plate. Reinforce correct responses and redirect mistakes as students share. (For example, students may place the peanut butter picture in the vegetables group, but the best choice would be protein.)
	Independent Practice Make several copies of each nutrition puzzle and cut out the pieces. Explain to students that each puzzle shows a type of food and where it comes from. Prompt students to select three puzzle pieces that belong together. (Depending on the age/ability of your students, you can keep the pieces for each puzzle together or separate them.) When students have put their puzzles together, review each picture and reinforce the relationship of the pictures to one another. (For example, say, “A cow makes milk, and milk is used to make ice cream!”) Reinforce nutrition concepts by asking students which of the puzzle foods are healthy (milk) and which are not (ice cream).
	the preschool–kindergarten lesson plan. (Includes all printable materials.)

more great lesson plans
Familiar Storytelling (Aligned to Common Core) Parts of a Plant Bubble Observations It’s Time for… Eating Right: Healthy Choices Butterfly Life Cycle Reading and Responding: The Five Senses (Aligned to Common Core) Counting Flowers Waste or Save? Water Lesson What’s the Weather? Getting to Know Each Other Shape Study (Aligned to Common Core) Colorful Discoveries Counting Clovers: Number Matching Dr. Seuss Graphing Fun Umbrella Color Patterns The Wonder of Word Meanings (Aligned to Common Core) Who Works In Our Community? Chinese New Year Celebration Valentine Add & Solve Counting Hearts (Aligned to Common Core) 100th Day Activity Beginning Sounds Hunt Story Sequencing Alphabet Name Game What’s My Shape Alphabet Water Painting Pilgrim Patterns Ten Little Turkeys: A Counting Lesson Autumn Owls Beginning Addition Counting Leaves Match-Ups Bear-y Fun Button Sorting Winter Bear Warm-Up Alphabet Mitten Match Teddy Bear Parade Beginning Sound Presents Gingerbread Graphing more	Money Mania (Aligned to Common Core) Rolling for Number Sense: Even and Odd Numbers Introduction to Idioms Our Wonderful Water Cycle Playing with Push and Pull Float Your Boat Bundles of Tens: Place Value Lesson (Aligned to Common Core) Jelly Bean Fractions Hooray for Earth Day! Action-Packed Action Words “Pot of Coins” Money Counting Lesson Mystery Coins Bundles of Beans: A Place Value Lesson Bushels of Sight-Word Fun Graph Your Heart Out Compound Word Hearts Reading for Details (Aligned to Common Core) Fact Family Trees What Makes a Shadow? What’s Next? Sequencing Story Rhyme Time: Word Families Lesson First Day, Last Day Friendly Letter First Day Friendship Building Parts of a Whole Get to 10: Equation Fun The Heart of a Story: Characters, Setting and Events (Aligned to Common Core) Story Elements Lesson Comparing Living Things Comparing & Contrasting: Thanksgiving Then and Now Pumpkin Seed Count and Compare Fall Skip-Counting Fun Wild About Word Problems (Aligned to Common Core) Peppermint Parts: A Fraction Lesson My Gift to the World Writing New Year’s Resolution Fun in the Snow Snowman Stories more	Reading Reflections (Aligned to Common Core) Writing a Persuasive Brochure Vocabulary: Using Context Clues Multiplication Mania Teaching Tangrams Equivalent Fraction Activities Literal vs. Nonliteral Meanings (Aligned to Common Core) Rainy Day Writing Water Drop Experiment Earth Day Every Day Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Comparing and Ordering Fractions (Aligned to Common Core) Building Vocabulary: Prefixes Number Sense Bingo What Is Equal? Menu Math Drawing Conclusions: Detecting Character Traits Making Sense of Multiplication (Aligned to Common Core) Chinese Tangrams Black History Hall of Fame Candy Coordinate Graphs Vocabulary: Animal Alliteration Point-Of-View Study (Aligned to Common Core) Creating Our Classroom Community My Awesome, Amazing, Very Good, Super-Great Day Story The Sea and Me: A Measurement Lesson Gumdrop Geometry Poems for Peace Amazing Ocean Animals Character Building: Bullying Autumn Tree Sentence Building Cause & Effect: Why Did the Pilgrims Come to the New World? Pumpkin Measurement Summarizing a Story Reading Strategies: Asking Questions My Winter Acrostic Place Value Practice more