What Are You Eating For Breakfast?
What Are You Eating For Breakfast?
Introduction
The purpose of our lesson is
to make children more aware of the advertising techniques that cereal companies
exerts over their breakfast choices. We also hope to inform children
of the nutritional value of the cereals they consume.
Audience
This lesson will be geared towards
third through sixth graders. However this
lesson can be easily adapted for younger or older students.
Objectives
Activity
Preperation:Each child will need a
plastic bag taped under his/her chair that contains exactly one serving
of cereal. Four different types of popular breakfast cereals will
be used to randomly group the students.
Materials:Four types of sugary breakfast
cereals
small plastic
ziplock bags (1 for each child)
measuring
cups
measuring
device for measuring grams of sugar
1 bag sugar
newspaper
for covering table during measuring
colored paper
markers
scisssors
glue
1. Predicting game:This activity
will be used to demonstrate to children how much sugar they are consuming
when eating one serving of cereal. Each child will check under his/her
chair to see what type of cereal he/she has in order to determine the group
he/she is in.
2. Analyzing "balanced meal"
advertisements:Students will view a videotape of commercials advertising
popular cereals and then discuss how these cereals are part of a balanced
meal.
Ask:What is
a balanced meal?
What makes up a balanced meal in these commercials?
Is cereal a balanced meal when eaten by itself? Why or why not?
3. Examining cereal boxes for
nutritional value:Lead discussion with class about how to read food labels.
Then have each group go to the table where their cereal is located and
examine their cereal food label for sugar content. Next let each
group measure in grams how much sugar is contained in one serving of their
cereal. Have children estimate how long it would take to burn off
the amount of sugar in one serving of their cereals. Tell children
how long it would take them to burn off the amount of sugar they consume
in one serving while performing different exercises.
4. Brainstorming activity:Lead
childen in conversation about the advertising techniques used on cereal
boxes. Let them look at their groups cereal boxes for ideas.
Ask:Which
techniques tell the truth and which are misleading?
5. Making a cereal box of their
own:Give each group the materials needed to design their own cereal box
front; construction paper, markers, scissors, glue. Remind them to
make their cereal healthy, be truthful in their advertising and make their
box cover look enticing.
Media Analysis
Media Literacy Key Concepts
1. All media are constructions. Media products are carefully crafted constructions, the results of many decisions, conscious and unconscious.
2. The media are commercial entities. All media products are shaped, in terms of both their form and their content, by commercial considerations.
3. Media communicate values and ideology. All media products contain implicit and explicit value messages and assumed truths about the nature of human beings and the world in which we live.
4. The media have social and political implications. The mass media have the potential to affect out behavior as individuals and citizens in a variety of ways.
5. Media forms are related to content. Different media represent reality in different ways: the form of a given piece of media shapes the message it sends.
6. The media have aesthetic qualities. Familiarity with the aesthetic dimensions of media can lead to deeper understanding and greater enjoyments.
7. Audiences are involved in the process of creating meaning.
What a viewer makes of a piece of media depends on his or her past experiences,
viewing skill, and current state of mind.
Links
