Healthy Food Web
Level: Grades 2 to 3
About the Author: Matthew Johnson, Director of Education, MediaSmarts
Duration: 1-2 hours
This lesson is part of USE, UNDERSTAND & ENGAGE: A Digital Media Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools.
Overview
In this lesson, students consider the role of snack foods in a healthy diet. The teacher then guides them on a tour of popular sites aimed at children, where the class identifies and classifies the advertising encountered there and looks at how the food products being advertised fit – or don’t fit – in the food groups found in the Canada Food Guide. Students then play the game Co-Co’s AdverSmarts to understand some of the techniques used by online food marketers and then create their own mock website promoting a healthy diet.
Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- begin to develop an understanding of the commercial objectives of immersive online environments, specifically those characteristic of food products’ websites
- identify the purpose and the intended audience of these types of websites and describe how audiences might respond
- recognize and identify the advertising and marketing elements and characteristics associated with commercial websites
- identify overt and implied messages of websites that market to children their age
- utilize their information to simulate the creation of a media text
- demonstrate an awareness of the types of foods needed to maintain a healthy body
- identify the nutritional quality of foods advertised in online spaces aimed at children
Home and School Connection
- Talking to your kids about advertising
- Dealing with Marketing: What Parents Can Do
- Co-Viewing With Your Kids
This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) are available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.