Pour Some Sugar on Me

Flu and cold season is upon us again and if you are anything like me, a day of 30 coughing kids can make you want to go home and dive into a bath of hand sanitizer. Helping students understand what germs are and how they spread is essential for the health of you and your students this winter.  A class full of germ-conscious kids who properly wash their hands regularly would be great, right?  Joann and I featured germ-related activities in our posts about germs last year.  Be sure to check them out on our blog archive here and here. 

On a similar note, Halloween traditions can bring up a whole new set of healthy eating teachable moments for your classroom.  As the kids are slowly coming out of the sugar rush of Halloween and building up to the feeding frenzy (more commonly known as Thanksgiving) in America, teachers have a chance to set a good example and teach kids more about the food they are putting into their bodies every day.  I know that I had more than my fair share of added sugar on Halloween, and as I was enjoying it, I started thinking about the added sugar in my diet.  There are lots of nutrition related activities you can implement into your class, but this week I thought sugar would be a timely and appropriate topic.

How much added sugar are we really supposed to be getting anyways?  According to the American Heart Association, women shouldn’t have more than about 5 teaspoons a day (20 grams) and men shouldn’t have more than 9 (36 grams).  Children should be limited to 3 teaspoons (or 12 grams) of added sugar per day.  Most Americans get more than 22 teaspoons, a fact that might surprise some of your students.  These numbers don’t include the sugar naturally founds in food like fruit.  This is the sugar that is added into many foods for extra sweetness.

This fall, I want to help students hunt down the hidden sugar in their diets.  They probably have plenty of Halloween candy to use in this activity, so I plan to ask them to each bring in a few pieces.  If they don’t have candy, they can bring in wrappers and containers from other popular items like yogurt, cereal, soda, and other packaged snacks.  Unfortunately, the nutrition information isn’t on most fun-size candy passed out during trick-or-treating, so you might need to do some online research.  Looking up the information online is a good technology lesson in itself, or you can provide students a list of sugar content in popular candies.  This list is a good starting point.

When looking at ingredients, remember that the sugar content is usually listed under carbohydrates. Sometimes it’s hard for students to figure out which sugar is naturally occurring and which is added, but the numbers will give you a rough idea of the amount of added sugar.  The amounts are generally listed in grams, a weight measurement students might not be familiar with.  They might be more familiar with a volume measurement like a teaspoon.  What does a gram of sugar look like?  The following idea is for an activity that will let students see the amount of sugar in each of their snacks.

For this activity, I will start with 3 baby food jars (or snack size zipper bags) in the front of the classroom, each one representing the maximum amount of daily added sugar that kids and adults should get per day (3, 5, and 9 teaspoons).  After a discussion of added sugars, I will let the kids research their own snacks and create jars or bags of the amount of sugar in each of their snacks. 

For kids old enough to do the math themselves, there is roughly 4 grams of sugar in each teaspoon (this can vary slightly by granularity of the sugar, but it makes for a easy conversion for kids to use).  They can simply divide the number of grams of sugar by 4 to determine the approximate number of teaspoons of sugar in the snack.

I will also make a few examples, so I am sure there is a wide range of snacks.  I will do an example bag for a can of soda, a sweetened yogurt, and a typical serving of a sugary cereal.  Once the kids have created their bags of sugar, I will let them creatively present their results to the class.  It might be a neat exercise to line up the bags with their wrappers in order of how much added sugar they have.  If we do this, we can make a class chart so we can remember and compare our results. 

Here are some more Gateway resources that will help you study added sugars with your class:

Reading Labels: Which Snack is the Best Choice?

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-04-10.9162408692

Put Your Favorite Beverage to the Test

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/32769

Good Snack, Smart Snack

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2007-10-09.8279893203

Sugary cereals

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/9203

Candy bar fractions

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-09-25.6576047958

~ Peggy's Corner - November 1, 2011~

The Dead Zone: The 1918 Flu Pandemic

Pandemics are frightful things – a widespread illness that strikes suddenly and virulently, leaving thousands or even millions in its wake. While horrific pandemics like the Black Death are today largely confined to the pages of history books, modern-day pandemics such as cholera, malaria, and AIDS continue to ravage many parts of the world. One of the most terrifying pandemics occurred nearly 100 years ago, towards the end of World War I. The 1918 flu pandemic swept the globe, killing an estimated 50-100 million people worldwide in the span of two and a half years. In the U.S., the flu struck over a quarter of the population; in a single year, the average life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by 12 years.

The 20^th century saw two flu pandemics in addition to the 1918 outbreak. The 1957 and 1968 outbreaks were relatively mild, with the global death toll reaching about 2 million and 1 million, respectively.  In 1918, governments worldwide instituted strict rules to try to prevent the spread of infection. In the U.S., stores were forbidden to hold sales, and face masks were required to be worn in public. Public gatherings such as funerals and weddings were limited to 15 minutes, and those who violated the flu mandates were required to pay heavy fines. Medical supplies and caskets were in short supply, and many communities lacked enough manpower to bury their dead in a timely fashion.  For many people, the horrors of war had been replaced by the even greater horrors of disease. Finally, at the end of 1920, the flu seemed to burn itself out, and life slowly returned to normal.

The 1918 flu pandemic offers rich primary source material for students to investigate; there are many photographs, personal letters, and news accounts online. For younger students, the advent of cold and flu season is a good time to revisit hand washing techniques and lessons on how germs are spread. Older students can explore how viruses work and mutate, and discuss how pandemics affect communities, the economy, and public health policies. This week, I’ve selected three resources on the flu for various grade levels.  I’ll also be featuring several new lessons and resources on this topic each day throughout the week on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so be sure to check those pages regularly.

Let's Learn the Flu FACTS

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-10-10.2852513394

Subjects: Health, Science

Grade: 1-3

In this lesson, students will learn the difference between a cold and the flu, including the symptoms they each present. Students also learn some precautions they can take to avoid getting sick. This lesson was produced by Scholastic, a leading children’s publishing, education, and media company.

Pandemic

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2008-12-30.0957862802

Subjects: Science, World History

Grade: 7-8

The focus of this teaching unit is to broaden students understanding of infectious diseases what they are, what causes them, how they are spread, and what can be done to prevent widespread transmission of these communicable diseases. Students will participate in a simulated outbreak and will also study the events of a historic epidemic that occurred locally. Given what they have learned, students will then be asked to predict whether such a widespread transmission of an infectious disease could happen today. This unit is a product of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, which offers educational TV, radio, and other media to the public.

Cold and Flu

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-10-10.1998814543

Subjects:  Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, Health

Grade: ESL Intermediate

This lesson, for intermediate ELL students, focuses on vocabulary and reading comprehension related to colds and the flu. Students will engage in pre-reading activities, read a passage about colds and flu, and check their understanding in post-reading activities. Along the way, students will also learn about how to tell the difference between a cold and the flu, and how to treat the illnesses. This lesson was created by English-to-Go, part of the Developing Teacher web site for language teachers. The site offers web hosting for language classes and courses, as well as teaching tips, newsletters, lesson plans, and training courses.

~ Joann's Picks - November 1, 2011 ~