Sam’s Day Out

Sam is so excited!  This is the big day for his 5^th grade class.    

They are going to the Metrodome for a baseball game.  Not only are they going to see the game but they will get to work with the teams athletic trainer and meet the team’s nutritionist.  What a great day it is going to be!

     The first stop of the day is at the local McDonald’s for breakfast. Sam selected  hotcakes, hash browns, Hi C, and a breakfast burrito to go.  What a way to start the day! His tummy full, it was time to get back on the bus. 

Time really moved quickly for Sam.  His best friend, John, was helping him with a cross word puzzle on nutrition.  Since students were going to meet with the nutritionist, they had to review good eating habits and know all about the food pyramid and reading a food label.  Sam was having so much fun that he didn’t realize the bus had stopped at Burger King.  Time for lunch already?  Sam and his buddy decided they would order a double whopper w/mayo, king sized french fries, dutch apple pie, and a medium chocolate shake with extra syrup.  Lunch fit for a king!!

The game was scheduled to start at 1:05, so everyone ate quickly, cleaned up, and reloaded the bus for the stadium. Baseball hats on, gloves ready to catch foul balls, plenty of peanuts, cotton candy, and pop would make for a fantastic afternoon.  But even more exciting was that Sam and his classmates were going to meet Jim Kahmann, the athletic trainer, and were going to warm up with the team.  What a deal! All eyes in the stadium were on them.

The game was very close and Minnesota pulled out a win, which made everyone very happy.  Time for the last event of the day, a presentation by Mr. Tomato, the nutritionist.  Before he started his discussion, all of the kids’ height and weight were recorded and used to determine their Body Mass Index .  Sam is 4 feet 6 inches tall.

He used the Nutrition Calculators to find an ideal body weight and daily caloric intake for boys and girls. The chart outlines the daily nutritional requirements for kids 10-11 years old.  He played a game with them that helped them remember what kind of diet they needed to follow to grow tall and healthy.

The day was really great and everyone was ready to head for home.  But first, dinner! Yea!  The class voted to stop at KFC.  Chicken sounded good to everyone.  Sam’s choice for dinner was a twister, fudge brownie, and large coke.

It had been such a busy day that once on the bus heading for home, most of the kids fell asleep.  The next day, Sam’s teacher was presenting a health lesson on nutrition. Part of the lesson was to list all they had eaten the day before and analyze it as to whether it was a good nutritional day or not.

Read through the story again and use the links to the restaurants.   Use the worksheet to record the amount of calories in each of the meals that Sam ate.  Did he make good choices?  What could Sam have selected from each of the restaurants that would have been better for him.