Snack+Attack

=** Title: Snack Attack! – Investigating Nutritional Makeup and Advertising of Popular Snacks**=

**Authors:** Anne Mlod & Jennifer Ridley and Beth Cuddy & Jessie Brown **Grade Level:** 3 and 4

//For additional free online lessons integrating media literacy and critical thinking into the curriculum, go to [|www.projectlooksharp.org].//


 * Summary: ** An introduction to grade levels 3 and 4 on nutrition and advertising. Students will learn about nutrition and nutrition labels on foods and snacks, as well as begin to analyze advertisements and their targets. They will reflect on their knowledge by creating their own advertisements targeting adults and children separately. This lesson can be a collaboration between two different schools, connecting through Skype sessions between the classes.

**Objectives:**
 * Students will research and present the nutritional components of snack foods
 * Students will reflect on their own snack choices and potential impact on health
 * Students will identify the advertising techniques for selling snack food
 * Students will design and create advertisements that present nutritional information using advertising techniques
 * Students will reflect upon how media influences their snack food choices.

**Lesson Steps:**
 * 1) Introduce students to the elements of the food pyramid.
 * 2) Have students examine the different sections of the food pyramid on the Kids’ Health [|website].
 * 3) Introduce the new version of the food pyramid, the food plate.
 * 4) Ask the students to consider why the pyramid changed into the plate, using the Kids’ Health [|website].
 * 5) Have the students apply their new knowledge with the ‘Blast Off to a Healthy Diet’ [|game].
 * 6) Introduce students to the Figuring Out Food Labels [|website] and have them begin looking at food labels.
 * 7) Taste test! Set up a plate of Oreos and their Who Nu? Counterparts. Ask students to use their five senses to evaluate the two cookies and write down their thoughts. Have them look at the nutritional content of each cookie and reflect on which cookie they would choose based on this knowledge.
 * 8) Begin a discussion centered on why Who Nu? Is still not a healthy choice, and what healthy alternatives there are to cookies.
 * 9) Have the students examine the following questions: - What is advertising? - Why does it exist? - What tools do advertisers use to sell their products?
 * 10) Lead an analyze of the food commercials listed under Materials using these media decoding questions: - Who was this commercial made for? What are the people in the commercial doing? - What do you learn about the snack food from the commercial? - Do you know its nutritional content? The ingredients? - Why would the commercial not share that information?
 * 11) Teach students to understand "tricks" used in advertising by adapting lessons 2 and 4 from the Project Look Sharp Kit: //Critical Thinking & Health: TV Commercial and Nutrition//.
 * 12) Show the Gender Remix [|website] and lead the students in a decoding focusing on: what students noticed just by looking at the screen - why do we advertise - who are the advertisements made for? Then the ads should be Re-mixed and students discuss what they notice about the sound and about the video.
 * 13) Show the videos listed under the Materials section, using these media decoding questions:
 * Who was this commercial made for?
 * What are the people in the commercial doing?
 * What do you learn about the snack food from the commercial?
 * Do you know its nutritional content? The ingredients?
 * Why would the commercial not share that information?
 * 1) Introduce examples of print advertisements and have students come up with a list of advertising tricks that could be used to attract children, and advertising tricks that are used to attract adults to a product.
 * 2) The students will create their own ads by splitting a piece of construction paper in half and using one side to appeal to adults and the other side to appeal to children.
 * 3) Presentations of the advertisements and a discussion on which tricks were used in the posters.
 * 4) Present a healthy snack and have the students reflect on what they learned about snack foods and advertising during this lesson.

**Extension Activity:**
 * 1) Introduce the “Big 6” research process:
 * Step 1: Task Definition - what am I doing?
 * Step 2: Information-Seeking Strategies - what resources can I use, which are the best?
 * Step 3: Location and Access - where do I find the resource, where do I locate information within a resource?
 * Step 4: Use of information - what do I do this information?
 * Step 5: Synthesis - How can I present my information?
 * Step 6: Evaluation – How did I do?
 * 1) Introduce students to the six steps: task definition; information-seeking strategies; location and access; use of information; synthesis and evaluation.
 * 2) Have half of the class select an unhealthy snack and the other half select a healthy snack. Students will formulate questions to ask about their snack food.
 * 3) Guide the students through the research process, introduce note-taking strategies and provide students with guidelines to follow in order to make a commercial about their snack food.
 * 4) Have students work in groups of 3 or 4 to write out a script and film their commercials using a handheld digital camera.
 * 5) Hold a “commercial premiere” to show the commercials to family, friends, and fellow students.

**Materials:** Internet access Computers/laptops Construction paper Oreos Who Nu? cookies

[|Oreo Fudge Cremes commercial]

[|Doritos Super Bowl commercial]

[|Baby carrots commercial]

[|Gogurt commercial]

[|Lays potato chips commercial]

[|Now who is Lays trying to target?]

// This lesson was produced during 2011-2012 as part of a collaboration between Project Look Sharp at Ithaca College and four NY State BOCES School Library Systems. The initiative brought together pairs of secondary science teachers and school librarians to develop models for integrating critical thinking and media literacy into secondary science content. The project was supported by federal LSTA funds awarded to the NY State Library by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. // // To view additional lessons from this series go to: [|www.projectlooksharp.org] //