Reasons To Drink Milk

Activity Synopsis
Students generate a list of adjectives and use them in poems or sentences that tell why drinking milk helps keep them healthy and helps them learn in school.

Objectives
Students will be able to:

• Generate a list of nine to 12 adjectives that describe milk
• Create sentences or a poem that incorporates at least nine of the adjectives and tells why drinking milk is important
  

Materials and Advance Prep:

• Blackboard
• Delicious, Nutritious Reasons to Drink Milk! (pdf) – Download and photocopy 1 per student.
• Optional: Quickly review “School Milk Gets an A+!”(The master is page 2 of the DINE newsletter)

What to Do:

1. Open with a discussion about lunch at school. Have students share lunch experiences – favorite foods, what they like most about lunch, etc. Have students stand beside their chairs. Do a quick poll:

• If you bring your lunch most days, jump three times.
• If you eat the lunch served at school most days, touch you toes.
• If you drink milk with your lunch, reach for the ceiling with both hands.
• If you drink chocolate milk with your lunch reach for the ceiling with your right hand.
• If you think drinking milk with lunch is good for you twist your shoulders back and forth.

Make observations about how many students drink milk with their lunch and how many think it is good for them..

2. Briefly talk about why lunch is important and why milk with lunch is a nutritious choice. Eating a nutritious lunch, like school lunch, gives you the energy to learn and play during the afternoon. Drinking milk with lunch provides you with calcium for building strong bones and a healthy body.

3. Brainstorm a list of 12 to 15 adjectives that describe milk and write them on the board. Be sure to include adjectives that describe flavored milk like strawberry and chocolate.

4. Have students choose nine adjectives from the brainstorm list and write them on their worksheet.

5. Have:

• Younger students write three sentences incorporating their adjectives. The sentences should tell why drinking milk helps keep their bodies healthy and helps them learn in school.
• Older students create a poem that incorporates all nine adjectives

6. Select a few poems or sentences for the foodservice director to print on the back of the school lunch menu or arrange to have sentences and poems displayed on the school lunch line.