Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how using the Nutrition Facts label helps them make healthy food choices. They will practice reading food labels, looking for calories, ingredients, and daily value percent’s.

Introduction

Understanding and using the Nutrition Facts label is an important step in helping young people fight obesity and prevent health problems later in life. By reading labels, young people will become more aware of what’s in the foods they eat. They will also get the information they need to make healthful food choices and establish good eating habits for life.

Show the youth the FDA’s “The Food Label & You” video. (Teacher to select entire video or any of the individual segments to show.)

Activity: Reading Nutrition Labels

Pass out two to three nutrition facts labels to each young person or group.

Ask the youth to take a few minutes to do the following:

Locate the Nutrition Facts label for your food item(s).

• Find the Serving Size and Servings Per Container. Remember: all of the nutrition information on the label is based on one serving of the food. A package of food often has more than one serving!

• Find the calories. They are the “fuel” our bodies need for our daily activities.

• The calories listed are for one serving. Tell the youth that many people don’t even realize how many servings they are eating.  Remind young people that for the most part calories are good.

• Find the Total Fat grams (g) for one serving. Under Total Fat, find the grams (g) of Saturated Fat. The grams (g) of Saturated Fat are part of the Total Fat grams (g). To keep our hearts healthy, it is important that we are aware of how much Total Fat (especially fats that are not good for our hearts such as Saturated Fats and Trans Fats) we are eating. We want to eat less of these nutrients.

• Find the % of daily value. The percent of daily value shows how the amount of a nutrient fits into a 2,000 calorie diet.  Individual calorie needs will vary based on age, sex, size and activity level. The 5/20 rule says that if a food has 5% of daily value then it is low in that nutrient. If it has 20% of daily value then it is high in that nutrient. This can be good or bad depending if it is a nutrient that you want to have more of, such as calcium, iron, or less of, such as cholesterol or fat.

• Ingredients: This shows the order of ingredients found in the food product from the most to least. This is where you will find if a food product is made from whole grains, has added sugars, and/or other ingredients that may have a positive or negative impact on your overall health.

Call on young people or groups and have them share their findings with the others.

Conclusion

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish so that families can practice reading food labels and discuss good eating habits at home.

Additional Instructor Resources

• How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label
• Hey Kids Check the Label! – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)
• Reading the Food Label video

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how to choose a healthful meal when eating school lunch. Youth will draw their lunch choices on paper trays, then examine the drawings to see if their meal represents the five food groups.

Instructor Notes

School lunches play an important part in meeting a child’s daily nutritional needs. Since most elementary age children need about 1,500 to 2,000 calories each day, the school lunch helps them meet that goal. Often young people will limit their food choices from the school lunch menu due to a lack of food/nutrition knowledge as well as some “selective” eating patterns. It is important to introduce young people at an early age to the concept of balance in eating. By choosing a variety of colorful foods from the five food groups (vegetables, fruits, dairy, grains and protein) they will have a healthful meal.

Activity: Love Your Lunch

This activity explores the current choices young people make at lunch by learning about the five food groups.

• Pass out a lunch tray template to each young person.  Ask the youth to fill in their lunch tray worksheet with their favorite school lunch menu food choices by coloring food items or cutting out pictures of food items from magazines.
• When the youth are finished drawing, review the lunch tray activity and ask young people the following questions:
  • How many young people have less than five colors on their tray?
  • How many have more than five colors?
• Explain that it is important to have many colors on their trays. Why do you think this might be true? It means that their lunch is more likely to include a variety of foods from the five different food groups which makes it a healthful meal.

• Introduce the youth to the five food groups: vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, and protein. Show food models, the resources at ChooseMyPlate.gov or pictures of foods representing each of the five food groups.
  • How many different food groups do you have on your lunch tray?  If time permits, ask if young people want to share the food groups they have included on their lunch tray. Give positive feedback to the healthful five food group choices the youth have listed or drawn.
  • Ask young people what food item they could add or change the next time they go through the lunch line to make it an even healthier meal that includes more of the five food groups.
• Open the Online Interactive Lesson and Activity to review the five food groups. Young people can practice choosing more healthful foods for their bag lunch or school lunch.

Food Gallery
From ChooseMyPlate.gov

• Vegetables
• Grains
• Protein
• Fruit
• Dairy

Conclusion

Conclude the lesson by handing out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue talking about healthful food choices at home.

Health Powered Kids Blog

Back to school means helping kids choose a healthy lunch

Additional Instructor Resources

• ChooseMyPlate.gov
• Build A Healthful Bagged Lunch! – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)
• Build A Healthful School Lunch! – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand the importance of hand-washing. Youth will learn how to wash their hands and color a worksheet with the  proper hand-washing steps.

Introduction

Germs are everywhere, but we can take action to reduce them and lower our chances of getting sick! Washing your hands is the easiest way to reduce the risk of spreading germs that cause infections. Everyone can benefit from learning good hand-washing techniques. You should wash your hands after using the bathroom, blowing your nose, coughing, sneezing, and before eating.

If you cannot get to a sink, clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Hands get more germs on them than other parts of your body.

When you touch your eyes, nose or mouth, the germs can get inside your body and can make you sick. And when you have germs on your hands, you can spread the germs to other people and make them sick too.

Germs on your hands can also get on food you eat and can make you sick. That’s why it’s important to wash your hands before helping with any food preparation and before meals or snacks.

To help stop the spread of germs you should cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands. Put the used tissue in the waste basket and go wash your hands.

Activity

We know that germs can make us sick. But where are germs and how do they make us sick? What can we do to stop germs from making us sick? Wash our hands!

Today we’re going to learn why we need to wash our hands and how to wash germs away the right way.

Engage the youth in a discussion about the right steps to good hand-washing. Refer them to the “Simple Steps for Squeaky Clean Hands” handout. Read through steps one through six and show good hand-washing if a sink is available. The youth can color the worksheet as well.

Ask young people, how long should we wash our hands to be sure to get the germs off?

You should wash your hands for as long as it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song. And be sure to wet your hands with clean running water (warm or cold)… and use soap!

Depending on the age of the youth, you might want to post hand-washing tips near the sink in the bathroom.

Conclusion

Conclude the lesson by handing out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes these tips, so that families can continue developing healthy hand-washing habits at home.

 Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Practicing good hand-washing techniques will help keep germs away

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people choose healthy snacks. The youth will color a worksheet and decide which foods are healthful choices.

Introduction

Introduce the lesson by discussing the following questions with young people:

Why do we eat snacks?

• Stop our stomachs from being hungry

When do we eat snacks?  

• Between mealtimes

How do we know if a snack is healthful?

• When we think of “Power-Up” snack choices we should think of how they might fit into the five food groups (vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy and protein). Snacks that keep our bodies strong and healthy can be tied to the five food groups.

Show food models or pictures as you explain the food groups. You may want to reference the MyPlate graphic as a guide. For example – baby carrots (vegetable), berries (fruit), pita bread (grains), string cheese (dairy), and hard-boiled egg (protein). As for potato chips and cheese balls, they maybe started out as a healthy vegetable or grain, but through processing, more than half of a serving becomes extra calories from added fats and sugars. Processing often adds extra salt to the food item too.

Ask the youth to share some examples of healthful snack choices versus unhealthful snack choices. Reinforce that we need to feed our bodies with healthful “Power-Up” snacks from the five food groups instead of snacks that won’t help to keep our bodies healthy and strong.

Open the Online Interactive Lesson and Activity. This helps you review the benefits of healthy snacking and gives examples of many snack foods from the five food groups. Young people can choose snacks from the food groups to build their own creative snack idea.

Activity: Healthful Snacks Coloring Sheet

Hand out the Healthful Snacks Worksheet. Give the young people a few minutes to color (or circle if time is limited) the healthful snacks on the worksheet. Take a couple of minutes to explain why the individual items are considered either healthful or unhealthful.

Conclusion

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing healthy snacking at home.

Health Powered Kids Blog(s)

Healthy snacking: Moving beyond milk and cookies

Snacking made easy!

Additional Instructor Resources

www.choosemyplate.gov
Sneaky Sugars Handout – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)
What Kind of Sugar is in Your Food? Handout – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)
Are You a Smart Snacker? Handout – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps raise awareness and promote safety about food allergies. The youth will practice packing an imaginary picnic lunch, paying attention to their friends’ dietary restrictions. They will think of treats that everyone can enjoy at special events.

Instructor Notes

This lesson is about raising awareness and promoting safety about food allergies. If there is a child in your group with food allergies, we suggest you talk to the parent and the child before the lesson to review what will be covered and make sure they are comfortable with it. We encourage you to invite the parent to attend the lesson and be involved.

Before facilitating this lesson, you may want to review the following information about food allergies. These facts can be shared with young people during your discussions.

• Any food can cause an allergic reaction but most are caused by eight foods:
  • peanuts
  • tree nuts (such as walnuts, pistachios, pecans, almonds and cashews)
  • milk (all dairy)
  • eggs
  • wheat
  • soy
  • fish (such as salmon, tuna)
  • shellfish (shrimp, crab, lobster).
• Anyone could develop a food allergy or sensitivity to any food at any time.  Even if you have eaten the food several times before.
• Symptoms of an allergic reaction may range from minor, such as itching and hives, to anaphylaxis, a whole-body reaction that can include stomach pain or cramping, trouble breathing, confusion, cough, trouble swallowing, fainting, nausea, vomiting and more.
• If a person is having a food allergy reaction, they need help right away. Depending on the symptoms, they may need an antihistamine (such as Benadryl®), epinephrine (given through an auto-injector such as an EpiPen®, EpiPen Jr® or TwinJect®), or both.
• 911 needs to be called any time a dose of epinephrine is used or when you are worried about someone’s safety.
• Kids with food allergies often have anxiety about food. They may feel left out at meals or parties, or get teased or bullied because they are different, yet it’s actually fairly common to have a food allergy.  One in 13 kids under the age of six has a food allergy.
• Some people are so sensitive that even the smell of the food can trigger a reaction. When this is the case in the school setting, make the classroom a safe zone where no one can bring the known allergen. (For example, a “Peanut Free Zone”.)

Introduction

1. Ask young people what they know about food allergies. Share some of the facts listed above including the most common food allergens (nuts, wheat gluten, eggs and fish) and that people can develop food allergies at any point in their lives.
2. Before doing the lesson activities, have a brief discussion about what it might feel like to have a food allergy. What do you think it would feel like if you couldn’t eat something that everyone else is eating?

Activity: Be the Chef!

Be the Chef! Create a safe and fun picnic for all.

Let’s pack the picnic.  Explain that everyone is going to pack a lunch for an imaginary picnic with your friends. Some of the friends have food allergies. Tell the youth that the most commons foods your guests will be allergic to are the following: peanuts, tree nuts (such as walnuts, pistachios, pecans, almonds and cashews), milk, eggs, wheat, soy, fish (such as salmon, tuna), or shellfish (shrimp, crab, lobster).

To pack a safe and fun picnic for all the friends, they will want to select items for their picnic basket that are the safest for friends with food allergies.

List of foods for picnic basket:

Green light: Carrot sticks, Apples, Red pepper slices, Oranges, Bananas, Pears, Grapes, Strawberries, Pickles

Yellow light: Cookies, Hard candies, Chocolate, Crackers, Bean dip, Rice cakes, Guacamole, Beef jerky

Red light: Peanut butter sandwiches, Hard boiled eggs, Cheese sticks, Bagels with cream cheese, Chocolate chip-walnut cookies

Instructor note – Items in the yellow light category will have ingredient lists on the label and need to be read carefully to see if they are safe. They may have been made in a factory where other allergens are handled and therefore they shouldn’t be considered completely safe.

Afterwards, talk about the activity. Ask how easy or hard it was. How did they feel about the choices? How did they feel about packing something they knew would be safe for their friends? Share with them that even if they don’t have allergies themselves, their message to their friends who do can be: I care about you; I don’t want you to get sick.

Activity: Allergy-free Holidays and Special Events

Young people like to celebrate holidays and special events.  If a holiday, birthday or a special event is coming up on the school calendar, review these tips with the youth and then brainstorm ways your group could include the ideas to create a successful, allergy-free fun event.

1. Hold the chocolate.  Add some chocolate-free, peanut-free treats to your bowl. Nearly all chocolate treats on the market are made on equipment shared with peanuts and tree nuts (and are unsafe for those with milk allergy). Take a look at the chocolate-free options – such as Dum Dums® suckers, DOTS® and Smarties®. (Remember to always read labels and check with parents before giving any food to children with food allergies.)
2. Mix it up! Change the focus to non-food treats, such as holiday-themed pencils, notepads, stickers, goofy erasers or fun rings.
3. Wash your hands! If young people with food allergies come in contact with food from sticky fingerprints, it can make them sick, too. Washing hands after you eat is a great way to prevent unsafe foods from getting on shared tables, desks, school supplies, and toys or games.
4. If your parents bake something to bring in to share, ask them to supply the recipe along with any packaged ingredients they used to make the recipe.

Conclusion

Remind the youth that many young people have food allergies, so thinking of those friends or family members when you give out special treats shows that you care about them and don’t want them to be sick.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing ways care for friends and family members with food allergies.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog(s)

What you need to know about food allergies

Food Allergy Awareness for the School Year

Additional Instructor Resources

Food Allergies and How to Manage Them

Check out Anaphylaxis101.com for additional resources for teachers, parents and young people.

Visit FoodAllergy.org for more resources and consider posting this child-friendly poster in the classroom.

Lesson Overview

Tobacco companies use messaging, advertisements and now different flavors in their tobacco products to try and gain new consumers that could potentially be life-long users. By knowing the dangers, risk factors, and marketing strategies associated with cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and the relatively new e-cigarettes young people will be aware of and able to discuss reasons not to use any type of tobacco product.

*Note: This lesson can take up to several hours (each activity below can be done separately in less time).

Introduction

What happens when you use tobacco:

• It causes your heart rate and blood pressure to increase, and your major blood vessels to become smaller, making your heart work harder.
• It slows your ability to heal.
• It reduces the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream, making you short of breath.
• It decreases your taste and smell.
• It causes your blood to clot faster. Smokers have a higher chance of heart attack, stroke and circulatory problems.

Other facts:

• Tobacco makes your teeth turn yellow or brownish in color.
• Smoking makes your skin wrinkle more.
• Your breath, hair, clothing and household furnishings all smell like smoke if you smoke or live with a smoker.
• Secondhand smoke can have harmful effects on the health of your entire family.
• Seventy-five percent of smokers have at least one parent who smokes.
• Restaurants and public places don’t allow smoking.
• Your furniture, curtains, and carpeting smell like smoke if you smoke in your home, which you don’t notice. (This smell is caused by thirdhand smoke.)
• Cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer. Many others are known to be toxic.

The human body was not designed to smoke.

Adding Up the Cost – Financial Facts

Smoking one pack each day, at $7.50 per pack costs:

• $7.50 a day
• $52.50 a week
• $210 a month
• $2,730 a year
• $13,650 in 5 years
• $27,300 in 10 years
• $68,250 in 25 years.

Nationally, the total health care cost of smoking is estimated at more than $167 billion every year.

 E-cigarettes

What is an E-cigarette?

• An e-cigarette is a device used in place of smoking tobacco. It is also known as an electronic cigarette, e-cig or water vapor cigarette.
• An e-cigarette is a small tube that is often made to look like a cigarette. However, they do come in many varieties.
• All major tobacco companies own and make e-cigarettes.

How Do You Use An E-Cigarette?

• Nicotine liquid or nicotine-free liquid (often called “juice”) is put in the e-cigarette.
• Each time you take a puff, the liquid moves past a small metal coil.
• The coil heats up and warms the liquid causing it to come out as steam that looks like cigarette smoke.
• You breathe in and out the steam, which is usually called “vaping.”

Is The Steam Just Water?

• The steam you breathe in and out is not just water. It is vaporized chemicals found in the liquid, along with any chemical changes from the heated metal.

Are E-cigarettes Safe?

• E-cigarettes are not regulated (controlled). They are also not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• The chemicals used in the liquid do not have to be safe or listed on the label.
• Private testing has found many harmful chemicals in the liquid including:
  • lead
  • arsenic (found in rat poison)
  • formaldehyde (used to preserve dead tissue)
  • glycol (used in antifreeze).

Testing has also found chemicals known to cause cancer in humans.

• The chemical glycerin (used in soap and beauty products) has also been found in the liquid. At this time, there is no information on how breathing in glycerin will affect your body.
• It is very common for there to be more or less nicotine that what is listed on the label. It is possible for nicotine-free liquid to still have nicotine in it.
• The nicotine in e-cigarettes is usually not filtered the same way it is in FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapies (such as patches and gum). This allows harmful chemicals from tobacco to be in e-cigarettes.
• E-cigarettes have become popular, very quickly. This means there hasn’t been time to get results on long-term studies on the safety or health effects of e-cigarettes.

Activity: Tobacco Quiz

1. Begin with the interactive quiz about tobacco. Have youth take the quiz individually or work together as a large group and display the quiz on a large screen.

Activity: What’s Actually in a Cigarette?

1. Tobacco is just one of many ingredients in cigarettes. They actually contain over 7,000 chemicals – including at least 69 that are known to cause cancer. Distribute the “Toxic Chemicals in Cigarette Smoke” handout to show youth some of the most prevalent examples.
2. Have youth work in teams to find images from magazines or the Internet of products that contain some of the same ingredients that are found in cigarettes.
3. Give each group a poster board and ask them to create a poster that raises awareness of the chemicals found in cigarettes. They may want to title it something like “That’s What’s In a Cigarette?” or put the names of the chemicals at the top and the images below that. Encourage them to be creative and also try to get the message across that there are lots of unhealthy and even dangerous ingredients in cigarettes.
4. See if you can find a place to display the posters where others will be able to see them and learn from them.

Activity: Why Use Tobacco?

1. We know a lot about how bad cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes and juices are for our bodies. But we also know that lots of people still choose to use these products. So why is that? Lead a conversation with young people about why they think some people choose to use tobacco. You can use these and other questions as prompts:
2. Why do you think some people start using tobacco?
   • What’s appealing about it?
   • What do they think will happen because it?
   • What do you think they know about it before they start?
   • How old do you think most people are when they start?
3. Why do you think people continue using tobacco once they have started?
   • Do most people want to stop?
   • Why or why not?
   • If they do want to stop, why don’t they?

Take notes on a flip chart or white board about the different reasons people give. See if you can agree as a group on at least three reasons people choose to use.

Activity: An Honest Tobacco Advertisement

1. Now that young people have learned about many of the ingredients in tobacco products and what these products can do to the body, it’s their turn to make an ad…a truthful one. Show some sample advertisements for cigarettes from magazines, the Internet or other sources. Talk about the meaning of the ads with the youth – or have them talk about it in small groups.

Here are some questions to use as a guide:

• How is this company trying to get you to buy or want their cigarettes?
• Who is the intended audience for this ad? How do you know who the intended audience is?
• Do you think that having or not having the cigarettes will make a difference in your life?
• Do you know anything about cigarettes that the advertisement is not telling you?
• Do you think this ad would make someone want to use their product?

2. Have young people discuss what a truth-telling ad for cigarettes would look like.

3. Decide what format to use – print or video or audio – and have the youth work in teams to create their own honest ads.

4. Share the ads with one another and with others if there is a place to display them.

Conclusion

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing the negative effects and consequences of using tobacco and e-cigarettes.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Blowing smoke: understanding the effects of tobacco and e-cigarettes

Additional Instructor Resources

• Allina Health Videos– Smoking Cessation and Staying Quit
• stillaproblem.com
• surgeongeneral.gov
• clearwaymn.org
• betobaccofree.gov
• cdc.gov
• heart.org – Tips for Friends and Family of Quitters
• Electronic Cigarettes Infographic