Unit
Year levels
3–6
Food and Sport
About this unit
Curriculum Links
and practise strategies to
• Identify
promote health, safety and wellbeing
Athletes control their food intake and are very aware of the many
nutrients and minerals in different foods. Students need a variety
of nutrients for growing bodies, quick mental work and a busy,
active day.
•
Strength and speed, two of the elements of the Olympic motto,
illustrate why we need to know how to make good food choices.
Health and Physical Education
•
(Yrs 3–4, ACPPS036; Yrs 5–6 ACPPS054).
Discuss and interpret health information
and messages in the media and on the
Internet (Yrs 3–4, ACPPS039).
Recognise how media and important
people in the community influence
personal attitudes, beliefs, decisions
and behaviours (Yrs 5–6, ACPPS057).
Cross-curriculum priorities
• Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia.
ic Games is
The motto of the Olymp
In Latin,
er’.
ong
Str
,
her
Hig
r,
‘Swifte
s.
tiu
For
,
that’s Citius, Altius
These lessons focus on understanding the different grouping
of foods. Research conducted by the National Health and Medical
Research Council (NHMRC) indicates that children age 8–12
generally do not eat as many or as varied vegetables and fruits
as they should.* These two lessons aim to supplement students’
experiences in the kitchen and in the garden.
This unit is designed to be used in conjunction with studies,
perhaps related to a sports day or to athletic events such as the
Olympic, Paralympic, Commonwealth Games – even popular
sports finals. It can also tie into studies of countries and cultures,
geography and languages.
Garden and kitchen classes
The unit also includes suggestions for kitchen classes and for
outdoor activities. It can be supplemented by ‘Cook your Way
Around the World’, the resource of country–cuisine activity ideas
(see p 31).
* The NHMRC publication Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents in Australia (NHMRC, 2003) indicates
that children age 8–11 in Australia on average eat only 33–37% of the recommended daily intake of fresh fruit (when
excluding juice) and 71–73% of the daily recommendation for vegetables. ‘Experimenting with other cuisines, and
incorporating new and traditional foods will encourage variety in the diet, help meet nutrient requirements, and
provide some protection against non-communicable chronic diseases later in life.’ Dietary Guidelines for Children and
Adolescents in Australia p 62.
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation © 2013
Food and Sport | Lesson 1
Focus on Foods
Year levels 3–6
Curriculum Links
Health and Physical
Education
•
•
•
Identify and practise strategies
to promote health, safety and
wellbeing (Yrs 3–4, ACPPS036;
Yrs 5–6 ACPPS054).
Discuss and interpret health
information and messages
in the media and on the
Internet (Yrs 3–4, ACPPS039).
Recognise how media and
important people in the
community influence
personal attitudes, beliefs,
decisions and behaviours
(Yrs 5–6, ACPPS057).
Resources
• A copy of a book relating to
•
food choices, such as one of the
examples given below
Paper, pens and coloured
pencils for drawing
Location
The classroom
Duration:
45 minutes
Getting started
on your students, you might start this lesson by reading a story
• Depending
or a poem about different kinds of foods. Some examples include:
||I
Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato, by Lauren Child. (When the names
are fun, the food becomes interesting.)
||Bread
and Jam for Frances, by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian
Hoban. (Frances only wants bread and jam, but when that’s all she gets,
it soon gets dull.)
Foods and fuels
students to tell you about some of the different foods they have
• Ask
cooked recently.
or recipes used this term in kitchen classes may help prompt
• Menus
students’ memories.
might ask students to close their eyes and visualise a ‘mental picture’
• You
of the harvest table in the kitchen.
• Jot down all the suggestions on the board.
students to focus on produce from the garden and dishes cooked in
• Ptherompt
kitchen classes. This should keep their focus on whole foods and fresh
foods (as opposed to packaged products or fast food).
hen you have a few items, ask the class to divide their list of foods into the
• W
four groups below. (You can do this by using coloured markers or sticky notes
to categorise them, or by asking students to write out each item under the
relevant category as decided by the class.)
1. Colourful fresh vegetables (Red tomatoes, leafy green salads, dark
green spinach, purple plums or orange pumpkin soup. Fake colours
don’t count!)
2. Grains and cereals (A grain is the seed of a grass, such as oats, wheat,
barley, buckwheat, rice, rye, spelt and teff. A cereal is the ‘processed’
grain, like flour, which can be turned into bread, pasta and noodles.)
3. Dishes with meat, fish, poultry or eggs (Don’t forget to include
frittatas, egg slices.)
4. Foods containing cheese or milk (Such as yoghurt, cheese sauce,
béchamel sauce.)
also need water to help your body take in all the goodness in these foods
• You
and stop you from drying out!
students know how these foods ‘fuel’ our bodies? Discuss how cheese and
• Do
milk foods make strong bones and teeth, meat and egg dishes are good for
building muscle, colourful fresh vegetables keep our hair and skin looking
good and our bodies working properly, grains and cereals give us energy.
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation © 2013
Food and Sport | Lesson 1
p2
Heading
Taking it further
choose or are assigned one of these groupings. They make a collage
• Students
or collection of images in their workbooks, with a variety of pasted images of
these foods.
students could make a four-page book and place one collage
• Alternatively,
per page, covering all four groups in their booklet.
Extension/Variations
finishers and keen cooks can be provided with a familiar recipe with
• Fast
ingredients from more than one of these four groups. They analyse the
ingredients list of the recipe and write each ingredient under one of the four
group names (you will probably need a category labelled ‘Other’ for salt,
pepper, spices, oil etc). A great recipe to do this with would be a lasagne or a
pasta with sauce, as they include cereals, oil and vegetables of different sorts.
are recipes ready for you to print on the Shared Table at
• There
kitchengardenfoundation.org.au. Log in, visit the Resource Library and
search for recipes such as Linguine with basil pesto or Winter greens
& ricotta lasagna.
Summer sweetcorn salad
Serves:
24 tastes in
the classroom
or 6 serves
at home
Season: summer
Type: salads
Difficulty: easy
r, lettuce, mint, sweetcorn
Fresh from the garden: coriande
Garden Foundation
m Officer, Stephanie Alexander Kitchen
Recipe Source: Bev Laing, Curriculu
not many cobs of it. You add
have young, fresh corn – perhaps
This recipe is perfect for when you
really light, fresh summer salad.
lettuce and some herbs to make a
Ingredients:
Equipment:
chargrill pan
pastry brush
tongs
large plate
2 clean tea towels
chopping board
small sharp knife
measuring cups
small bowl
fork
medium serving bowl
salad spinner
4 cobs sweetcorn
1 tablespoon olive oil
small handful fresh mint
1 sprig fresh coriander
onion
small handful fresh chives or 1 spring
1 clove garlic
¼ cup buttermilk
sea salt and black pepper, to taste
cob
1–2 tight heads of lettuce, such as
Name
My recipe
What to do:
varieties
)
1–2 radishes, for garnish (optional
Colourful vegetables
Grains and cereals
heat.
• Place the chargrill pan over medium–high
bin.
corn and put them in the compost
• Remove the husks and silks from thecorn
cob with olive oil.
• Using the pastry brush, brush each pan and cook, turning them regularly
chargrill
• Place the corn cobs on theofhot
softened.
the corn kernels are blackened and
•
Meat, fish, eggs
and poultry
with the tongs, until many
total.
This will take about 20 minutes in
the
the cobs from the chargrill pan using
When the corn is cooked, remove
heat.
plate to cool slightly. Turn off the
tongs. Place the corn cobs on the
For the dressing:
and pat them dry on a tea towel.
• Wash the mint, coriander and chives,chopping
board to prevent it from slipping.
• Place a damp tea towel under your a spring onion, remove the tops and
using
are
you
(If
finely.
herbs
• Chop the
garlic clove.
the
Crush
finely.)
it
the roots, wash and chop
clove of
it in the small bowl. Add the crushed
• Measure the buttermilk and ifputusing.
pinch
Grind in some pepper and add a
garlic and the spring onion,
of salt.
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden
Foundation © 2011
n © 2011
Other:
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation © 2013
cheese or milk
Food and Sport | Lesson 2
Foods for Speed
Year levels 3–6
Curriculum Links
Health and Physical
Education
•
•
•
Identify and practise strategies
to promote health, safety and
wellbeing (Yrs 3–4, ACPPS036;
Yrs 5–6 ACPPS054).
Discuss and interpret health
information and messages
in the media and on the
Internet (Yrs 3–4, ACPPS039).
Recognise how media and
important people in the
community influence
personal attitudes, beliefs,
decisions and behaviours
(Yrs 5–6, ACPPS057).
Cross-curriculum priorities
•
Asia and Australia’s
engagement with Asia.
Resources
• A copy of Aesop’s fable
The Tortoise and the Hare
(optional)
Location
The classroom
Duration:
15–30 minutes,
depending on whether or
not you do the extension
Are you jumping jumps or down in the dumps?
• Ask: Are there times when you get tired?
times during the day when you get tired by running or playing. What
• Discuss
does it feel like? (Knees weak, puffy breath, no energy.)
how food provides the fuel that works your muscles. The same
• Discuss
fuel also provides energy to your heart and lungs, so that you are alive and
breathing.
• What you eat affects the amount of energy you have.
Brain food
the class: Do you think your brain needs food? Do you think you could do
• Ask
a quiz quickly if you were tired and hungry?
iscuss how the words we sometimes use to describe someone who thinks
• Dquickly
often contain images of running: ‘She is quick off the mark’, ‘He is
quick on his feet’ or ‘He can think on his feet’. The image is of someone with
plenty of energy to run and also to think.
||When
we use images like this we are linking body health and brain health.
They are very closely related!
how brain food gives our body energy but it also can have long-term
• Discuss
effects to build up the brain itself.
Reading recipes
• Discuss the way that some foods contain quick energy and some slow energy.
foods give you a jolt of jumping juice but some of them can
• Quick-energy
leave you feeling flat afterwards.
||Fruit
gives you effective energy and is the best way to get a quick boost.
Foods like sweets and drinks with lots of sugar in them (including some
juice drinks) give you a quick burst of energy but then leave you feeling
more tired than before.
foods give you energy gradually, over a long time. They are great
• Slow-release
for breakfast or when you expect to have a long gap between meals. You don’t
get hungry or tired because they are slow to digest. These foods include items
like oats and oatmeal porridge, nuts and seeds, beans and rice.
Finishing off
• Read or tell a version of Aesop’s classic fable The Tortoise and the Hare.
students: When do you need to be swift like the hare? When do you
• Ask
want long, slow-release energy (traditional “brain food”) to keep you going
like the tortoise?
• How might this affect your food choices?
Extension/Variation
permits, a worksheet on the next page covers how breakfasts around
• Ifthetime
world vary enormously but usually include slow-release foods as well as
quick-energy foods.
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation © 2013
Food and Sport | Student Resource
The World Wakes Up
What do you eat for breakfast? Is it different on special days, such as weekends?
Do you eat more on days when you have a sporting event or game?
What I eat for breakfast on a normal school day:
What I eat on a special occasion day:
What does the world eat for breakfast?
Breakfast foods can be very different in different countries.
In most places of the world, people combine quick energy foods with slow release foods.
Even within one country, breakfast traditions vary a lot.
Here are some suggestions for dishes. You might like to find some recipes for them and
try them in your kitchen class. What types of foods do they contain? Are they slow for a
tortoise or quick for a hare – or both?
Australia and USA
Banana or mango smoothie with yoghurt, honey and maybe a spoonful of oats.
Canada
Buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup and sausages.
China (Central and Eastern)
Congee: rice porridge with spring onions, dried fish, hard-boiled egg and soy sauce.
China (Northern)
Steamed buns with pork or vegetable stuffing, soy milk or tea.
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation © 2013
Food and Sport | Student Resource
p2
Colombia
Hot chocolate and arepas (corn bread), and hearty meat and bean tamales, wrapped
in maize dough and cooked on a banana leaf.
Nigeria
Porridge made with corn and evaporated milk.
Scotland
Oatmeal porridge made with water or milk – sometimes with a pinch of salt,
sometimes with brown sugar.
Singapore
Fried rice with egg, pork, fishcake and tofu.
Can you find breakfast dishes from other countries? What are they?
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation © 2013
Food and Sport | Lesson 3
Foods for Strength
Year levels 3–6
Curriculum Links
Health and Physical
Education
•
•
•
Identify and practise strategies
to promote health, safety and
wellbeing (Yrs 3–4, ACPPS036;
Yrs 5–6 ACPPS054).
Discuss and interpret health
information and messages
in the media and on the
Internet (Yrs 3–4, ACPPS039).
Recognise how media and
important people in the
community influence
personal attitudes, beliefs,
decisions and behaviours
(Yrs 5–6, ACPPS057).
Resources
• Paper and coloured
pencils for drawing
Location
The classroom
Duration:
45 minutes
Foods for strength
• Ask the students to describe or draw a very, very, very strong person.
might draw or describe someone with bulging muscles, big strong legs
• They
and thick arms. (Some students might know about Popeye.)
parts of our body make us strong? (The answer here could be many
• Which
things – muscles, bones, strong heart and lungs, big size, good health ...)
healthy means you have healthy muscles (muscles that are not
• Being
necessarily huge, but working well). You have strong bones, a good heart and
lungs. You don’t get sick very often.
Strength is not just weightlifting. Strong muscles also mean you can
• Discuss:
walk up the stairs carrying your bag. You can dig in the garden. You can walk
a long way, climb hills, play a whole game of footy or netball.
‘What are some things we can do when we are strong?’ (If you need to
• Ask:
prompt students, give them locations, such as in the classroom, in the garden,
in the kitchen, on the playground, at the beach ... etc.)
Statements of strength
Do students think that mental strength is a part of being strong?
• Discuss:
In what sorts of ways can we be strong mentally as well as physically?
(e.g. having a positive outlook, being capable of solitary reflection, being
emotionally resilient and keeping things in perspective.)
on time, you might get students to complete this statement in
• Depending
their workbooks: When I am strong, I can ...
students to include mental as well as physical strength in these
• Prompt
‘Strong Statements’.
• Students might decorate or add images to their statements, if time permits.
finish, students might look at the Olympic motto ‘Swifter, Higher,
• To
Stronger’ and the famous quotation, ‘A healthy mind in a healthy body’
(mens sana in corpore sano), then make their own motto about how they
want to be strong.
Extensions/Variations
and garden extension ideas are on the next page. Of course, before
• Kitchen
undertaking the garden speed test, you probably want to have a large pile of
mulch or similar that needs moving, anyway, and not all students can do this
at once. Set one group to the task and ask them to report on their experience
to the others at the end of the garden class.
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation © 2013
Food and Sport | Student Resource
Food for Strength and Speed
Food for Strength
Nutritious Nosh
Design a menu that includes all four of the different type of foods discussed in class:
• Colourful fresh vegetables
• Grains and cereals
• Dishes with meat, fish, poultry or eggs
• Foods containing cheese or milk.
Don’t forget that there may be more than one type of food in one recipe.
How many colours are on your plate? (More than three colours can indicate
a good variety of foods.)
Try some traditional pairings such as pasta and tomatoes, cheese and
egg – can you increase the variety on your plate? Don’t forget raw foods and
dishes like cut vegetables and dip.
Food for Speed
Wheely-lympics
Time yourself or count the number of buckets you can carry or wheelbarrow loads
you can push in ten minutes.
Remember to lift safely. How can you use your legs to help you lift
heavy buckets or a wheelbarrow?
You will need a stopwatch or timer and someone in your group to monitor
your progress and cheer you on!
Questions:
Is it harder at the beginning or at the end of your ten minutes?
How do you feel?
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation © 2013