Grades 2–4HealthUnit pack

Healthy Plates: Canada's Food Guide

Four short lessons that teach the plate in Canada's Food Guide through sorting, drawing, drinks, a simple Nutrition Facts table and spotting food ads, with foods from many cultures eaten in Canada. Teacher notes, student pages, a family page, an assessment and an answer key.

13 printable pages · teacher notes and answer key · Ontario, British Columbia

Free sample (PDF)

Yours to keep, with free updates. Pay by card in Canadian or US dollars:

Pay in

Included in every school licence: one purchase order covers every pack for your whole staff.

Already bought it? Download the PDF (sign in with the email you bought it with).

Cover page of Healthy Plates: Canada's Food Guide

Healthy Plates teaches the plate from Canada’s Food Guide in four short lessons for Grades 2 to 4. Students learn that half the plate is vegetables and fruits, a quarter is whole grain foods and a quarter is protein foods, and that water is the drink of choice. They sort foods from many cultures eaten across Canada, from bannock and roti to congee, pupusas, lentils and tofu, and build their own plate by drawing it.

The pack also covers the Food Guide’s habits that go beyond what is on the plate: cooking, enjoying food, eating with others, using food labels, limiting highly processed foods and noticing food ads. Students read a very simple, made-up Nutrition Facts table and spot the tricks in made-up food ads. Everything works from pictures, lists and made-up labels. Nobody is asked to report what they ate at home, bring food or taste anything.

Inside: teacher notes with timings and sensitivity guidance, three readings, a cut-and-paste sort, a build-a-plate activity, label and media pages, a family take-home page, an assessment and a full answer key. Print it, copy it and teach it tomorrow.

Sample pages

Teacher Notes

Sort the Foods

What's inside

01Teacher NotesTeacher notes
02The PlateReading
03Sort the FoodsCut and paste
04Mixed Meals: Find the PartsPractice
05Build a PlateActivity
06Water First: DrinksReading
07More Than the FoodReading
08Habit MatchPractice
09Read a LabelPractice
10Spot the Food AdActivity
11Family Page: Plates at HomeActivity
12Healthy Plates Check-UpAssessment
13Answer KeyAnswer key

Curriculum 2 provinces

Ontario

Ontario Health and Physical Education, Grades 1–8 (2019), Grade 2, Healthy Living, Healthy Eating · D2.1Use Canada's Food Guide to identify food and beverage choices that contribute to healthy eating patterns. Practised on the plate, sort, build-a-plate and drinks pages.
Ontario Health and Physical Education, Grades 1–8 (2019), Grade 3, Healthy Living, Healthy Eating · D1.1Understand how the origins of food, and whether and how it is processed, affect its nutritional value and the environment. This pack covers only the part about less and more processed foods, in simple terms; it does not cover where food comes from or environmental impacts.
Ontario Health and Physical Education, Grades 1–8 (2019), Grade 3, Healthy Living, Healthy Eating · D2.1Understand the importance of good oral health and assess the effect of different food choices on oral health. This pack covers only the drink choices (water as the drink of choice, sugary drinks only sometimes); it does not teach brushing, flossing or why oral health matters to overall health.
Ontario Health and Physical Education, Grades 1–8 (2019), Grade 3, Healthy Living, Healthy Eating · D3.1Explain how local foods and foods from various cultures can be used to expand the range of healthy eating choices. This pack practises the foods-from-various-cultures part on the sorting, mixed-meals and build-a-plate pages; local foods are mentioned only in passing.
Ontario Health and Physical Education, Grades 1–8 (2019), Grade 4, Healthy Living, Healthy Eating · D1.1Identify the key nutrients provided by foods and beverages and describe their importance for growth, health, learning and physical performance. This pack takes a first step only: students find fibre, sugars and protein on a simple label; it does not cover each nutrient's importance.

British Columbia

BC Physical and Health Education, Grade 2 (Curricular Competencies and Content)Explore strategies for making healthy eating choices. Content: trying a variety of foods that gives us the energy to grow, play and learn.
BC Physical and Health Education, Grade 3 (Curricular Competencies and Content)Explore and describe strategies for making healthy eating choices in a variety of settings. Content: eating different foods helps our bodies grow and satisfies our hunger; eating a variety of foods, including whole grains, proteins, and vegetables and fruits; water satisfies our thirst.

How we align to the curriculum

Every pack

Teacher notes: how to use it, timing and differentiation
Answer key for every practice and assessment page
Prints well in black and white, on Letter paper
Mapped to provincial curriculum outcomes
Copy it for every student you teach
Written in Canada, checked by a second reader