<strong>LGS Promotes Healthy Eating for Children</strong>
<p>For many years, LGS has supported a number of school-based nutrition programs that promote healthier eating habits among children -- fruits and vegetables in preference to sugar-laden snacks and candy.<img width="300" src="images/stories/lgs/teachers_2.jpg" alt="Teachers" height="224" style="float: right;" class="image-border" /></p>
<p>As one school nutritionist explained, "Our state has a real problem with obesity, cardiovascular disease, and other diseases that could be prevented if we could teach our youth to improve their nutrition and be more physically active."</p>
<p>These programs often feature fruit or vegetable of the month campaigns that provide students with information about nutritional values, recipes, classroom lessons or games and involve not only local educators and their students but also parents and local grocery stores.</p>
You'll discover that clementines also offer real "food for thought" — ideal hands-on classroom tools that help "feed" growing young minds. Every clementine is just bursting with fresh learning possibilities. As you'll soon see, clementines inspire lessons in mathematics, science, social studies, art, and language, among many other areas. Clementines can often be used as self-contained educational aids, so they won't put the squeeze on tight school budgets. And clementines won't put the squeeze on tight classroom space because once they've done the job in the classroom, they simply vanish, quickly consumed by your students.
<p><strong>Did You Know?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>A clementine is a hybrid fruit. </li>
<li>Clementines are grown in Spain, Morocco, Chile, South Africa, Peru and the USA. </li>
<li>Europeans are currently the largest consumers of clementines. </li>
<li>A clementine is a variety of mandarin, which means a fruit that is easy to peel. </li>
<li>Mandarin fruits are sometimes called "Zipper-skinned" or even "Kid-glove" because a lady could eat them without soiling her hands. </li>
<li>Clementines are now available in the U.S.A virtually year round. </li>
<li>The consumption of three clementines a day will meet the FDA's Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of vitamin C. </li>
<li>Clementines have been called the "crown jewel of the mandarin family."</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Here are some classroom activities you can share with your students.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Mathematics</strong></p>
<p><em>A Tasteful Lesson in Percentages</em></p>
<p><strong>Materials:</strong> One clementine for each student, and one paper circle, about 20 inches in diameter, made out of sturdy orange paper.</p>
<p>Have each student peel and eat a clementine. How many students thought the best thing about it was that the clementine was juicy? That it was easy to peel? Or sweet? Or that it left no mess? Add up the numbers for each group, then divide each number by the total number of students in the class to arrive at approximate percentages. Represent the final percentages on the large paper clementine.</p>
<p><strong>Science</strong></p>
<p><em>Teaching an Old Nose New Tricks</em></p>
<p><strong>Materials:</strong> Clementines, apples, and cotton balls.</p>
<p>Students learn how their noses can trick them. Have students apply some clementine juice to a cotton ball and put it under their noses. Ask them if they can smell the clementine. Tell them to keep the cotton ball near their noses while they bite into an apple slice. Tell them to continue sniffing the cotton ball while they chew the rest of the apple. Ask them what the apple tastes like. Does it taste the same? Have them discuss if changing a food's smell gives it a different taste.</p>
<p><strong>Social Studies</strong></p>
<p><em>Foods with an International Flavor</em></p>
<p><strong>Materials:</strong> A world map.</p>
<p>Have your students work in groups of approximately equal numbers, with each group representing a different continent. Place a picture of a clementine on Spain or one of the other countries that grow Clementines. Have each group research other foods that come from their particular continent. Have them find pictures of these products, label them, and affix these pictures to the appropriate regions or countries within each continent.</p>
<p><strong>Language Arts</strong></p>
<p><em>A Clementine Has So Much to Offer</em></p>
<p><strong>Material:</strong> A dozen clementines.</p>
<p>Have your students work in pairs. Each pair will see how many words they can make out of the word "clementine." From those words, each pair will write a 100-to-200 word story using all the words they have found. The stories will be read aloud in class. The pair whose story is judged the best will split a dozen clementines.</p>
<p><strong>Music</strong></p>
<p><em>It's Clementune Time</em></p>
<p><strong>Material:</strong> A dozen clementines.</p>
<p>Have students work in pairs. Once they have learned about the many characteristics and benefits of clementines, have each pair of students write a theme song about clementines. They can write their own music and add their own words, or take an existing tune and rewrite the words. The students vote on the best song, and the winning pair is rewarded with a dozen clementines.</p>
<p><strong>Art</strong></p>
<p><em>"Growing" Your Own Clementine</em></p>
<p><strong>Material:</strong> One clementine as a "model." Art paper and either oil pastels or tempera paints in red, yellow, blue, and green.</p>
<p>Have students work in pairs. Have them observe a single clementine. Have them mix red and yellow to approximate the orange of the clementine. Have them mix blue and green to approximate the color of the stem. Each pair will paint a larger-than-life clementine on paper, trying to get as close to the true color and shape of the original as possible.</p>
<p><strong>For the kids to do at home...</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Your students have learned Clementines grow in countries like Chile, Spain, South Africa, Peru and the U.SA. They also know that many people who live in the U.S. have ancestors who came from abroad. Have your students talk with their parents about where their ancestors came from and about the foods that are native to those lands. </li>
<li>Clementines thrive best in small orchards. Have your students use magazines and other resources at home to create a collage of what they think a clementine orchard would look like. </li>
</ul>