Critical+Thinking+and+Nutrition+–+Media+and+Food+Choices

= Title: Critical Thinking and Nutrition: Media and Food Choices=

**Authors:** Mary Rokhvadze and Michalene Rohloff **Grade Level:** 1

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

**Summary:** Students will examine the role celebrities and cartoon characters play in selling food products to children. They will understand that commercials have an intended audience, message, and purpose. They will identify unhealthy ingredients in food products and compare and contrast good eating habits. Students will then become role models and create a short video advertising good eating habits which will be presented to students in grades K-2.

**Objectives:**
 * Follow an inquiry based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects, and make the real world connection for using this process in own life.
 *  Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning.
 * Connect understanding to the real world.
 * =====Students will have the necessary knowledge and skills to establish and maintain physical fitness, participate in physical activity, and maintain personal health. =====
 * =====Students will acquire the knowledge and ability necessary to create and maintain a safe and healthy environment. =====
 * Express ideas through multiple forms of media (e.g. - video)
 * Understand that media message are constructed for a specific purpose (sell a product)
 * Develop skeptical skills when analyzing media messages
 * Encourage healthy lifestyles and decision making
 * Ask questions about the media messages they see (who is the audience? why did someone make this message?)

**Lesson Steps:** > //Decoding questions for each commercial://
 * 1) Establish goal that we will learn to be good nutrition role models. Define role model term.
 * 2) Introduce through Nutrition Detectives PowerPoint Presentation
 * 3) Become “food detectives” and obtain knowledge of food packaging
 * 4) Locate and becoming familiar with unhealthy ingredients- high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oil, and enriched whole wheat flour (The 5 Clues for Nutrition Detectives)
 * 5) Students will rotate between three stations to evaluate food labels
 * 6) Give food label quiz (assessment)
 * 7) Decoding Advertisements (tips for decoding media documents) Prior to watching clips:
 * Who knows what a T.V. commercial is? What is a T.V. commercial?
 * Who makes a T.V. commercial?
 * Why do they make T.V. commercials?
 * Where do we see commercials and other advertising?
 * What kinds of things do they sell on T.V. commercials?
 * 1) Junk Food Commercial Questions: Add responses to a graphic organizer on Smartboard. View junk food commercials

What character is narrating the commercial? Does it look real? What character prevails at the end? Is this the most nutritious part of the breakfast? What did the advertiser do to try to get your attention and make the product look really good? What kinds of tricks did the commercial use to get your attention and to want to buy this product?
 * APPLE JACKS Commercial:**

What do they say the cereal is filled with? How do the kids describe the cereal? Do you see any "real" foods in the commercial? What did the advertiser do to try to get your attention and make the product look really good? What kinds of tricks did the commercial use to get your attention and to want to buy this product?
 * CRUNCH BERRIES CEREAL**

How is the cheese being served by the penguin? Is that what real cheese looks like? What is the "dessert" provided in this meal? What do you think this product is made of? What did the advertiser do to try to get your attention and make the product look really good? What kinds of tricks did the commercial use to get your attention and to want to buy this product?
 * KIDS CUISINE: CHEESE BLASTER**

How does the cereal smell? Are cookies a healthy breakfast choice? At the end do you see any "real" foods? What did the advertiser do to try to get your attention and make the product look really good? What kinds of tricks did the commercial use to get your attention and to want to buy this product?
 * PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE CRISP CEREAL**

What did the advertiser do to try to get your attention and make the product look really good? What kinds of tricks did the commercial use to get your attention and to want to buy this product?
 * CHUCKIE CHEESES**

How does the commercial describe the cereal's taste? What is the other main ingredient of the cereal? What "real" foods are presented in the commercial? What did the advertiser do to try to get your attention and make the product look really good? What kinds of tricks did the commercial use to get your attention and to want to buy this product?
 * CHOCOLATEY LUCKY CHARMS CEREAL**

How does the commercial describe the cereal's taste? How do the children react to the cereal? What did the advertiser do to try to get your attention and make the product look really good? What kinds of tricks did the commercial use to get your attention and to want to buy this product?
 * FUDGE RIPPLE CEREAL**

9. Compare above clips to a health food ad or ad comparing/contrasting healthy foods and junk foods. Ask students: have you seen ads like the ones above? Have you seen healthy ads? What kinds? 10. Students work in pairs and are assigned a food product to advertise. 11. Children create an advertisement (video) promoting good eating habits/ food product and good role models using green screen technology and software. //PRODUCTS://
 * whole wheat bread
 * yogurt
 * all natural fruit juice (with seltzer)
 * granola bars

//Their advertisement will include:// 12. Have students create a video using 123 VideoMagic or another video making tool. 13. Videos are presented at Morning Program for grades K-2.
 * NAME OF PRODUCT
 * KEY INGREDIENTS (MUST STATE IF PRODUCT INCLUDES HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP OR PART. HYDROGENATED ANYTHING)
 * WHY WE SHOULD CHOOSE THIS PRODUCT

**Materials:** Nutrition Detectives website junk food commercials health food ad Comparing/contrasting ad

//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.//