Overview

This lesson focuses on helping kids understand the difference between whole grains and refined grains.

 

Objectives

• Students will be able to describe a whole grain and a refined grain.
• Students will be able to recall that whole grain contains fiber.
• Older students will be able to identify and distinguish foods made from the entire grain seed and foods that have been refined.
• Optional: Older students will be able to find fiber on a food label and recall what parts of the kernel make fiber.
• Optional: Older students can find areas of the world where each of the whole grains are grown and find pictures of the grains.

 

Materials

• Parts of a Whole Grain worksheet
• Crayons, markers, or color pencils
• Popcorn (unpopped – enough for each child to have one hard kernel and one partially-popped kernel; plain popped – enough for each child to have a cup to eat)
• Napkins or paper towels
• Optional: Air-pop popcorn maker (for making in class - or teacher can make popcorn ahead of time)
• Optional: Food Label Worksheet
• Optional: Fiber in Food Worksheet

Worksheets: Download worksheets. Included with worksheets is a full PDF version of the same lesson plan. (349KB PDF)

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the worksheets.

 

Part A:

Activity: As you tell the students about the basic components of a whole grain, have them follow along by completing the Parts of a Whole Grain worksheet.

Teacher Talking Points for Activity Part A:

• Whole grains and foods made from them consist of the entire grain seed, usually called the kernel. The kernel is made of three components—the bran (the outermost layer), the endosperm (the middle layer), and the germ (the innermost layer). Fiber, important to eat for good nutrition, is the bran and the germ.
• When grains (the kernels) are refined, most of the bran and some of the germ is removed, resulting in the loss of dietary fiber.
• Popular grains in the United States include wheat, rice, corn, and oats. Other grains include rye, barley, wild rice, buckwheat, triticale, bulgur, millet, quinoa, sorghum, amaranth, emmer, farro, grano, spelt, and wheat berries.
• The average intake of whole grains is less than 1 serving per day; less than 10 percent of Americans consume 3 servings per day. In a study of whole-grain consumption by U.S. children and adolescents, the average whole-grain intake ranged from 0.8 servings per day for preschool-aged children to 1.0 serving per day for adolescents. This isn’t enough. *
• Children need to try to eat more whole grains and foods made with whole grains. These include whole grain breakfast cereals, whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, whole grain crackers, and whole grain tortillas. If a food package says made with whole grains, it is illegal for them to lie. So, the food inside the package must have at least some whole grains.

* http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DietaryGuidelines.htm

Optional Additional Talking Points:

• Choose foods that have a whole-grain ingredient first on the label’s ingredient list (such as brown rice, bulgur, graham flour, oatmeal, whole-grain corn, whole oats, whole rye, whole wheat, wild rice).
• Foods labeled with the words "multi-grain," "stone-ground," "100% wheat," "cracked wheat," "seven-grain," or "bran" are usually not whole-grain products.
• Color is not an indication of a whole grain. Use the Nutrition Facts label and choose products with a higher % Daily Value (%DV) for fiber. Read the ingredient list to see if a whole grain is the first ingredient.

Optional Additional Activity: Photocopy the Food Label Worksheet and the Fiber in Foods Worksheet. You assist by asking students the questions at the bottom of the Food Label Worksheet. You can ask the children to bring back the label from the Parent Activity and share in class as their peers write down each on the Fiber in Foods Worksheet.

 

Part B:

Activity: Pass out popcorn for each child (at least one hard kernel, one partially-popped kernel, and a cup of plain popped popcorn that the children can eat). Asks the children if they can see the bran, the endosperm, or the germ. You can explain (according to the level of development for the children) that when the corn POPS, the bran breaks apart and the inside parts fill with air, getting so big it turns white and fluffy!

Teacher Talking Points for Activity Part B:

Popcorn pops because the bran holds in the steam created when the endosperm, which is made up of 14.5% water, heats up. Another way to say it is that the steam reaches 350 degrees and 135 pounds per square inch of pressure, and the bran can't take it any more.

It then explodes, creating the morsel prized by Native Americans thousands of years before Orville Redenbacher was born. Archaeologists have found popcorn bits in a New Mexico cave that were 4,000 years old!

A strong bran is the key to having lots of fluffy white pieces. It’s important that strong bran keeps the steam inside until the whole thing blasts apart in one super-heated POP! Good popcorn holds its moisture until the end. Bad popcorn allows the water to leak out too early.

 

Resource: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DietaryGuidelines.htm