Childhood obesity is still a concern for the state of Kentucky.

Before the lesson began, I put up a My Plate Poster and each table had stickers representing each food group.  As I would say the group, the child with the sticker for that group would place it in that group on the poster.

Childhood obesity is still a concern for the state of Kentucky.  With this being said, I felt that it was necessary to reintroduce a My Plate lesson that I had taught before to my classes at Cartmell Elementary in Carroll County.  I taught 98 second, third and fourth graders about My Plate and took food items into the classroom that represented each food group.  The children were asked to put each item on their plate and then to do an art project by creating a sunflower with the items. Five children (almost 5%) said they were not putting carrots on their plate because they "hated" carrots. So I said "ok, but you will not be able to create a pretty art picture without carrots".  I only ask that you taste the carrot, you do not have to eat the entire carrot. So reluctantly. they put carrots on their plate.  The food items were rice cakes from the grain group (the middle of the sunflower, apples from the fruit group (leaves), string cheese from the dairy group (stem), carrots from the vegetable group (petals) and sunflower kernels (seeds) from the protein group. They had a fun time "playing: with their food.  Once their sunflower was created, we talked about one food group at a time.  They were eager to tell their favorite food in that group and expressed how they hated some foods.

In conclusion, ten children had never tasted rice cakes. After tasting them they commented that they tasted like popcorn,( all except for five  children), but the 93 children said that they would ask their parents to get rice cakes the next time they go grocery shopping. Of the five children who said they hated carrots, three ate their carrots and stated that they weren’t that bad.  We will continue our nutrition lessons by tasting more foods as the year continues.