Lesson Plan Title : What's in There

Age Range: Grade 9 through Grade 12 (High School)

Overview and Purpose: Healthy eating starts with awareness. In this lesson students learn how to read the ingredient label on foods.

Objective: The student will be able to read the ingredient labels on food.

Resources:

Several ingredient labels from foods that have the first two ingredients listed that might be different than one would suspect.

Activities:

Talk with students about the ingredients found in their favorite foods. What do they think is the main ingredient? Ask them if they know how to read the ingredient label. Explain that the ingredients are listed in order of quantity.

Have the students work together in small groups to list what they think the first two ingredients are in the foods you have labels for. Have them share their thoughts with the class. Pass out the labels out and have students share what the first few ingredients are.

Discuss with students about how healthy living is connected to knowing what is in their food.

Wrap Up:

Make a list of common ingredients: sugar, oil, fat, etc. For homework, have students research other names for these ingredients. Put a piece of chart paper up on the board for each ingredient and have the students list all the other names they found.