August Tip of the Month
Drink Think!

Make a healthy SPLASH with a Drink Think. Choose water or low fat milk more often.

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Platte County, Mo, preschooler makes a wise Drink Think with milk

Activity Idea: Recognizing Sugar Content in Sweetened Drinks
   
Source: HKC A La Cart Snack Fun booklet
Description:

Kids identify sugar content in drinks using math tasks
Grade: 4-5
Supplies:
  • Blackboard, flipchart, or dry erase board
  • MyPyramid poster(www.mypyramid.gov)
  • Empty milk gallon container
  • Sugar cubes

Directions:

  1. Have kids name high sugar and high fat snack foods. List their responses on a blackboard.
  2. Ask kids if they can guess which of the items listed contributes a large amount of sugar to the typical American diet. Soft drinks and sweetened fruit drinks should be on the list. Identify them as the answer.
  3. Hold up an empty gallon container. Ask kids to guess how many containers this size of sweetened drinks, the typical American drinks each year. Answer: 50 gallons and it varies by age group. Guess: What age group drinks the most? Answer: Teens--60-81 or more gallons per year
  4. Math Tasks: Choose from the following:
    • Identify how many ounces are in a gallon.
    • Calculate how many 12 ounce cans are in 60 gallons.
    • Determine on an average, how many 12 ounce cans a person consumes each day to total 60 gallons in a year.
    • Most 12 ounce cans of soft drink contain about 10 teaspoons of sugar. 1 sugar cube = 1 tsp. Measure out the number of sugar cubes found in a typical 12 ounce can of soft drink.

This activity is found on page 53 of the A La Cart Snack Fun booklet. For more activity ideas like the one above, check out HKC resource materials. See the Online Store for descriptors and to view the Table of Content and booklet sample pages.