What Makes a Great Plate? Nutrition for Today

Day 1:
Discuss the purposes of posters. A good poster tells important information and tries to persuade the reader to remember and use the ideas.
Show the students examples of well-designed posters.
Review the USDA guidelines for the “MyPlate” program at http://www.choosemyplate.gov. Discuss the main ideas of the “MyPlate” guidelines. Tell the students that the posters they design and print will be displayed in the cafeteria to be seen by the entire school.

Day 2:
Have students develop the ideas that will be featured on their poster. They will do a rough drawing to place the text and graphics for their poster.
Have students check their poster design for these elements:
Big titles
Lots of color
Good graphics
Great message
Creativity
Gather the class and answer any questions that students have about their project.

Days 3:
Students will complete tutorials for Tool Factory Workshop’s Word Processor tools in our school’s computer lab.

Days 4 & 5:
Students will work in the computer lab using Tool Factory Word Processor tools. Poster size will be 18” x 24” printed over 4 conventional 8.5” x 11” sheets of paper. Page size will have to be increased so that it is 2 sheet wide and 2 sheets tall.
Students will follow these directions to increase page size:
• In the menus click FILE>PAGE SET UP
• Click the “Custom” button
• For Height, enter 2 sheets
• For Width, enter 2 sheets
• Click OK

Next students will add images and text to design the poster.

Students will select images from the picture bank. These images can be moved, resized and rotated as needed for the design.

Print posters in black and white so that students can evaluate and edit their design.

Day 6:

Students will make any needed edits to their poster. Posters will be printed on a color printer. Students will cut off the borders and tape the 4 sheets of paper together.

Finished posters will be displayed on the walls in the cafeteria.