Fat Test: A Lesson Students Have to See to Believe

Last Wednesday, I sent this note home with my students:

Snack Note Home

I encouraged my students to bring their FAVORITE snack, even though it might not be the most healthy snack...bring the snack food that they would eat everyday if they could! I explained that my favorite snack was the powdered sugar Donetts and even though I only eat them once in a while...they are definitely my favorite snack!

The next day, boy did they ever come with their favorite snack proudly tucked away in their backpacks! Doritos, cookies, Krispy Kreme Donuts, Dunkin Donuts, Pringles, muffins, M & M's...if it had sugar, it was in our room!

We started the lesson by having everyone gather on the carpet and explain what snack they brought and why it was their favorite snack. (Good thing I had a few kiddos bring extra treats for those who forgot!) 

After drooling over our snacks, I introduced the food pyramid to the students. They were so surprised to learn that their snack was full of fat and not even considered a food group! Not good news...

Students placed their snack in the correct food group and we ended up with a very unbalanced, unhealthy food pyramid!

                                                                               Yuck!

I then told students that their snack would be getting the FAT TEST!!!

                                     
The Fat Test started by the students placing a measured portion of their food on the circle on the brown paper bag. (I drew the circles to save time!)

Students then made a prediction about what they thought would happen when the food was left on the baggie overnight. I was surprised that none of my third graders predicted that the brown baggie would leave a grease stain. Instead they predicted that the snack would become stale, change colors, shrink, or disappear!!!

Before they left the classroom at the end of the day, all snacks were neatly lined up on the table. All students wrote their prediction about what would happen on the sticky note.

Look! You can already see the grease stain starting to form from the Pringles on the paper bag! It was not even an hour before the grease stain started! They were in awe. (So was I!)

To be continued...Stay tuned for part 2 of the FAT TEST!!!