Amounts

Learning

The aim of this session is for children to:

• recognise that the Eatwell Guide food groups are different sizes and that this shows us the amount of food needed from each group;
• describe the amount of different types of foods needed to stay healthy using the terms lots, some, a little and not needed.

You will need:

• Let’s eat well and stay healthy! presentation
• The Eatwell Guide jigsaws - cut out, laminated (optional)
• Tac
• A board or wall
• A bag

Listen and respond

Read the Let’s eat well and stay healthy! presentation to the children. This could be shown as a presentation or printed and displayed. Ask the questions in the presentation and discuss the food with the children, e.g. Have you tried this food? Which food is your favourite?

Have a go

Show the children one of The Eatwell Guide jigsaws, e.g. Fruit and vegetable food group. Hand out the four pieces to four different children. Ask them to come to the front one at a time and tac their piece on the board or wall so it fits correctly with the other pieces. Ask the following question:

• What food belongs to this group? What can you see?
• Is this a big or medium food group?
• Should we eat lots or some food from this group?
• What is your favourite food in this group?
• Have you eaten any food from this group today?

The jigsaws focus on the four main food groups. Question the children to check if they can recall the messages from the presentation about other food and drinks. Ask them if they name any food of which we only need a little. Ask if they can name any food or drinks that are not needed for health. Challenge them to explain how much and how often they could have the ‘not needed’ foods and drinks, if they wanted to have these. (Only a little and just sometimes.)

Consolidate

Activity 1 – four players. Using one jigsaw at a time, give each child one piece and then ask them to help put the jigsaw together. As each jigsaw is completed, repeat the questions from the Have a go section.

Activity 2 – four players. Shuffle all the pieces from the four jigsaws and turn them face down.  Allocate each child a food group. (You may wish to give each child a printed copy of the full jigsaw for their food group to help them identify the pieces they need to collect.) Let the children take turns choosing a jigsaw piece. If the piece they turn does not belong to their group, they must put it back, face down and let the next child take their turn. If the piece is from their food group, they can keep it. The aim is for the children to find all their pieces and put their jigsaw together. Look at all the completed jigsaws and reinforce the idea that we need to eat different foods from these four main groups to be healthy. Can they see any foods that they have already eaten, or will, eat later today? 

Activity 3 – 16 players. Put all the pieces from the four jigsaws into a bag and ask each child to take a piece. Task the children to move about and find other children with pieces of the same food group.  When they do, they can put all their pieces together to complete the jigsaw. This activity can be completed as a race, or used to get children into groups of four for other purposes.

Note: The four jigsaws are not designed to be joined together to create a full Eatwell Guide. Each jigsaw is designed to comprise one food group only.

Reviewed November 2023