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Day 1: Green Scene Students learn the benefits of green vegetables and the number of recommended servings

Day 2: Vital Vitamins Students learn about different types of vitamins and how they function in the body

Day 3: Nutritious Choices Students examine their eating habits and learn about a balanced diet

Day 4: International Food Day Students learn the differences in people's diets from around the world

Day 5: Super-size Me Students learn about America's growing obesity and its relationship to portion size

Day 6: Got Greens? (See the lesson below) Students learn ways foods are marketed towards youth in order to start their own green campaign

Day 7: Getting the Skinny on Obesity Students learn about the New Food Pyramid and how to evaluate their Body Mass Index

Day 8: Action Plan Students evaluate their own activity levels and plan ways to add more movement into their lives

Day 9: Fitting in Fitness Students evaluate how they spend their time and how to include physical activity into their day

Day 10: Green Day Students plant a garden and/or fix up a community space for physical activity

More student resources for this cause are at:
www.dosomething.org/causes/healthy_eating

1. Warm-up: Ask students to brainstorm as many food slogans as they can. For example, "bet you can't just one", "Tricks are for kids", and "Twix really satisfies you." Share out with class. Ask students if they ever found themselves singing a jingle.
2. Explain to students that advertisers market high calorie and unhealthy food to children through techniques that are meant to appeal to young people. Discuss with students why advertisers create a lovable cartoon character such as Tony the Tiger or the Nestle bunny. Personifying the food item with a cartoon appeals to children and helps them remember to ask their parents to pick it up for them. Another technique is to have famous people endorse a product. This technique can be particularly successful with teenagers. You might want to have students think about celebrity endorsements? Although much of the food that is endorsed by celebrities is unhealthy, the "Got Milk" campaign is one of the few that endorse something nutritious through the use of famous people.
3. Have students bring in empty packages of what they would consider "kids or teen" food. In addition, bring in food advertisements from Sunday newspapers.
4. Split students into marketing groups to have them analyze the food advertisements and packaging of at least one item. Each group should focus on the following:
• Is this advertisement or food package meant to appeal to children? How can you tell?
• How does the food item look on the outside package? Does it look like that in reality?
• Does the outside package promise any nutritional benefits? How does that compare with the actual nutrition that one receives?
• Are there any cartoon characters?
• Do any special prizes come inside? Any special clubs to join?
5. Finally, have students compare a high sugar cereal with a healthier one. How does the packaging compare? Which one would appeal more to young people? Why?
6. Encourage students to start their own "Got Greens" marketing campaign. Students can use the advertising techniques they have learned to encourage others to eat green.
7. Reflect: Have students evaluate if they have ever been led into buying a product because of marketing techniques.

Other Activities:

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