The week before Valentine’s Day I thought would be a great time to teach kids in our homeschool co-op about reading nutrition facts labels and learning all about added sugar, just in time for the candy-filled holiday. But really, these activities would be great for anytime of year!
Reading the Nutrition Facts Label for Total Sugars
First, have the kids sit in a circle and take out their snacks. We did this activity during snack time. Hopefully some of their snacks have a Nutrition Facts label. Then, have them look for the “Serving size.” If needed, use measuring spoons and cups so they can see what the serving size is. Next, have them find where it says “Total Sugars.” How many grams of Total sugar does their snack have?
Hands-On Measuring Grams of Sugar Activity
You can use the snacks your kids currently have in their lunch bags. Additionally, we used candy and soda as examples. 5g of sugar equals 1 tsp of sugar.* The candy we used had 20g of total sugar in a serving.
20 grams of sugar divided by 5 grams = 4 teaspoons.
Have one volunteer put four teaspoons of granulated sugar in a small glass to visualize how much sugar is in the candy. Then we used a can of Mountain Dew which has 44g of sugar as our next example. We had each kiddo put in a teaspoon a sugar in the cup while we counted by 5s. We stopped when we reached 9 tsp (45g) of sugar in the glass cup so they can see how much sugar is in a serving of Mountain Dew. This is a very eye-opening visual for kids (and adults!) to see how much sugar is contained in items that we eat and drink every day.
We did this activity with kids ages 5-9, but I’ve also done this activity with high schoolers.
(*1 tsp of sugar technically equals 4.2 g of sugar if you want to be exact or have older kids do more math. We used 5g as an easy visual and easier math for younger kiddos)
Read the Ingredients List
Then have them look at the “Ingredients” list on the back of one of their snacks. Going around the circle, have the kids who can read, read the ingredients list. For the younger kids, have an adult read for them. The list of ingredients is in order of weight for each ingredient. So the first ingredient has the most amount in a product and last ingredient on the list would have the least.
After this, we discussed the difference between added sugar and natural sugar. Added sugar is refined sugar that is not naturally occurring in a food vs. sugar that is naturally found in foods such as milk or fruit.
Then we discussed how whole, fresh foods don’t have labels. Eating whole fresh foods without labels is usually the best choice since it is fresh and not processed.
Supply List:
- Cookie sheet (for any mess)
- Clear cup/glass
- Teaspoon
- White granulated sugar
- A snack or drink with a Nutrition Facts Label to read the grams of sugar (could be soda, yogurt, cereal, candy, chocolate, etc).
You can purchase a mini-unit study for yourself or your homeschool co-op group on how to read nutrition facts labels, ingredients lists, and how to differentiate from natural and added sugar in the LifeandLogic Etsy shop.
If you have time, you could also have the kids come up with their own list of healthy snacks that they would like to eat and write them down. For those of us who are stuck in a snack rut and eating the same snacks over and over it can be very useful to get some fresh ideas for new snacks. The kids can enjoy swapping snack ideas, and we can all look forward to trying some new healthy snacks together!
The goal here is to have the kids so grossed out by how much sugar is in some of these everyday snacks that they want to have these goodies in moderation. Too much sugar causes inflammation, tooth decay, and excess weight. I am hoping to follow this up with learning about teeth and dental health. This is an especially great activity to do before the Valentine’s Day or Halloween holidays. Hopefully, this visualization of how much sugar is in certain products and foods will help kids to make more informed food and snack choices.
More Homeschool Co-op or Small Group Classroom Ideas:
- How To Host a Fun, Hands-On Homeschool Co-op on Germs
- Everything you Need to Host a Fun, Hands-On Homeschool Co-op on Composting Worms
- How to Host a Homeschool Co-op on the Digestive System
- How to Host an Awesome Homeschool Co-op Christmas Party!
- How to Host a Fun Homeschool Co-op on Plant and Animal Cells
