Eat a Rainbow

Vocabulary: Variety, Nutrients, Health, Cooking

Grade Levels: K-2nd

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Science Framework

Spanish Lesson Plan

Lesson Video

Lesson Bridge:

Connect this lesson (3) with ‘Buggy Diner’ (2) by asking students to reflect on which types and colors of plants tended to be bugs’ favorites. Were they deep green? Yellow? Purple? Bugs require a rainbow diet to keep healthy and so do humans! Close the Loop by talking about how composted smoothie ingredients help to feed the microorganisms that will in turn build healthy soil (1).

Lesson Overview:  

In this lesson students will learn about the positive health effects that individual phytonutrients play for plants and people. The class will make a model showing which colors are linked to health benefits of various parts of our bodies.  Students will discuss patterns of diversity in our world to explore the value of a varied diet.  Then, students will make and taste a smoothie using produce from every color of the rainbow!

Essential Question(s) that Connect CCCs and SEPs:

• How do the foods we eat affect our bodies? (Cause & Effect; Asking Questions & Defining Problems)
• Do different parts of our body need different types of food to function? (Structure & Function; Asking Questions & Defining Problems)
• What would happen if we only ate one color of food for the rest of our lives? (Cause & Effect; Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating information)
• Why is it healthy to eat lots of colors? (Cause & Effect; Engaging in Argument from Evidence)

Vocabulary

Variety- A collection of different things

Nutrients- A substance that is needed for healthy growth ! Found in fruits and vegetables

Health- When our bodies and minds are well

Cooking- This is when we cut, heat, and prepare food for us to eat.

Materials:

• A sample of at least 4 different colors Fruits/Vegetables (1 red, 1 green, 1 purple/blue, 1 orange/yellow). If you can, harvest these colors from your garden!
• Platter or large bowl
• Compostable gloves
• Hand sanitizer
• Large butcher paper or rolled paper and markers/crayons (this paper can usually be found in the front office)
• Toothpicks (optional)
• Eat a Rainbow Worksheet (optional)

• Bugs, Humans, and Soil Series Garden Journal (optional)

Prep:

• Figure out what things can be harvested from the garden to be added to the fruit bowls (cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumber slices, are all good choices).

• Red: strawberries, raspberries, beets
• Orange: mango, oranges, carrots, pumpkin, persimmon
• Yellow: banana, peaches
• Green: spinach, kale, bok choy, cucumber
• Blue: blueberries
• Purple: plum, grapes, blackberries

• Buy needed produce or see about getting some from the foodbank.
• Arrange cut up samples of fruits/veggies in a bowl (1 for each student).
• Prepare a butcher paper from the office with the outline of a human body.

Activity Procedure:

Engage:

What do you think would happen if you only had one food you ate every day? Have you ever heard that it is important to have lots of vitamins and nutrients in the food you eat? Vitamins are things in certain foods that are good for different parts of our bodies and help us stay healthy. They are mainly found in colorful Fruits and Vegetables!

Sentence Frame: My favorite food is _____________.

Explore:

Have students go into the garden and look for different colors on the plants/crops. You can have them do a short scavenger hunt.

Explain:

Thumbs up/down: Do you think it is important to eat different types of foods?

Eating different foods is important because often, just one food doesn’t have everything we need to be healthy! We need fats to help our brain, sugars to give us energy, and proteins to make us strong! You can have kids repeat with you, pointing to the parts of their bodies that need these macronutrients. We must also eat lots of naturally colorful food to get all our vitamins and minerals.

 I said naturally colored because some foods like popsicles and cakes have lots of pretty colors, but they are not natural and don’t give you vitamins like apples and carrots do!  Let’s learn what colors are good for different parts of our bodies!

Using your human body butcher paper. Review what colors are good for each part of the body, and as you do, draw the different parts into the body with the right color of chalk.

Color of food                 Good for                                Try out these rhymes!

Green                        Bones and Teeth                          

Blue/Purple                Brain

Red                        Heart

Orange/Yellow                Eyes and Immune System

As you go through the list, pause to color the different body parts with the right color of chalk. For example, draw a blue/purple brain in the head and green teeth in the mouth on the face. To represent the immune system, you can use the shape of a shield, helmet, or coat.

*First and second graders could partner up and carry out this activity in pairs while you call out each color's benefits for each body part. This can be done if you have enough chalk and space!

Think, Pair, Share: Can you think of a fruit or vegetable that matches each color we discussed?

Sentence Frame: A ________ is [color]

Action: Making A Rainbow Snack Bowl

1. Review your Garden Agreements
2. Pass around a bowl or platter with a sample of each different color. For example, you may have purple grapes, red bell pepper, green cucumber, and orange carrot. Ideally, something in the snack bowl will come from the garden. Have a toothpick in each food item to avoid students touching it with their hands, and have students select one food item they want to try.
3. Call on students to tell you one of the foods in their bowls and what part of the body it is suitable for.
4. Invite students to taste each color by starting with a lizard lick and/or graduating to a rabbit nibble and/or followed by a coyote chomp!
5. Ask students to show you a thumbs up if they enjoyed a particular food. Remind students that if they don’t like food today, our taste buds change over time, so it’s always a good idea to try that food again in the future.  

Reflect:

Did you like the snack bowl? How does it feel in your body after having eaten the different foods?  In what ways is having a rainbow snack helpful to your body (they give you a variety of nutrients to help lots of different parts of your body). What are some other ways you like to eat fruits and vegetables?

Sentence Frame: My body feels _________.

Sentence Frame: Eating a rainbow helps your body because __________.

Extension Activities:

• Have students write down what they ate yesterday and list the colors they ate in each meal.  Have students reflect on their lists and ask them to think of ways they could incorporate fruits and vegetables with the missing colors.  Students can use a journal sheet like this: Garden Journaling: Eat a Rainbow
• The class can adopt a space in the garden (bed, row) and plant a rainbow garden.

• Plant rainbow carrots with the class

• People and Plants need Nutrients Lesson