SugarByHalf - What is the Impact?

Australian curriculum content descriptions: 

Year 5 and 6 HPE:

• Investigate the role of preventive health in promoting and maintaining health, safety and wellbeing for individuals and their communities (ACPPS058)

Year 5 Mathematics:

• Describe and interpret different data sets in context (ACMSP120)

Year 6 Mathematics:

• Interpret secondary data presented in digital media and elsewhere (ACMSP148)

Year 5 English:

• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1704)

Year 6 English:

• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, choosing and experimenting with text structures, language features, images and digital resources appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1714)

Syllabus outcomes: SLS3.13, EN3-2A, MA3-18SP, MA3‑1WM, MA3‑3WM

General capabilities: Literacy, Numeracy, Ethical Understanding

Relevant parts of Year 5 & 6 HPE achievement standards: 
By the end of Year 6, students demonstrate fair play and skills to work collaboratively. They access and interpret health information and apply decision-making and problem-solving skills to enhance their own and others’ health, safety, and wellbeing. 

Relevant parts of Year 5 & 6 English achievement standards:

Receptive modes (listening, reading and viewing)

• By the end of Year 6, students understand how the use of text structures can achieve particular effects. They analyse and explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used by different authors to represent ideas, characters and events.
• Students compare and analyse information in different and complex texts, explaining literal and implied meaning. They select and use evidence from a text to explain their response to it. They listen to discussions, clarifying content and challenging others’ ideas.

Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)

• Students understand how language features and language patterns can be used for emphasis. They show how specific details can be used to support a point of view. They explain how their choices of language features and images are used.

• Students create detailed texts elaborating on key ideas for a range of purposes and audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using a variety of strategies for effect. They demonstrate an understanding of grammar, and make considered vocabulary choices to enhance cohesion and structure in their writing. They use accurate spelling and punctuation for clarity and make and explain editorial choices based on criteria.

Relevant parts of Year 5 & 6 Mathematics achievement standards: 
By the end of Year 6, students recognise the properties of prime, composite, square and triangular numbers. They describe the use of integers in everyday contexts. They solve problems involving all four operations with whole numbers. Students connect fractions, decimals and percentages as different representations of the same number. They solve problems involving the addition and subtraction of related fractions. Students make connections between the powers of 10 and the multiplication and division of decimals. They describe rules used in sequences involving whole numbers, fractions and decimals. Students connect decimal representations to the metric system and choose appropriate units of measurement to perform a calculation. They make connections between capacity and volume. They solve problems involving length and area. They interpret timetables. Students describe combinations of transformations. They solve problems using the properties of angles. Students compare observed and expected frequencies. They interpret and compare a variety of data displays including those displays for two categorical variables. They interpret secondary data displayed in the media.

Students locate fractions and integers on a number line. They calculate a simple fraction of a quantity. They add, subtract and multiply decimals and divide decimals where the result is rational. Students calculate common percentage discounts on sale items. They write correct number sentences using brackets and order of operations. Students locate an ordered pair in any one of the four quadrants on the Cartesian plane. They construct simple prisms and pyramids. Students describe probabilities using simple fractions, decimals and percentages.

This lesson is part of the wider unit of work Sugar By Half

Time required: 60 mins.

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – Facilitate class discussion and provide guidance during the activity.

• A device capable of presenting video and webpage to the class
• Copies of the graph (provided in the Teacher Worksheet)
• Resources for creating a short story e.g., paper, workbook, or word processing software
• Student Worksheets – one copy per student

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

• communication
• creativity
• empathy
• global citizenship
• problem solving

These lessons were developed in partnership with SugarByHalf and the Australian Dental Association. 

These lessons were developed in partnership with SugarByHalf and Filter Your Future. Filter Your Future guides children towards positive lifestyle choices to reduce the impact of preventable chronic diseases in future generations. Not many people know that type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure account for half the chronic kidney disease cases in Australia. When children learn about the function of the kidneys to clean the blood, how it balances water and salts, and remove waste from the body, they develop an understanding which motivates them to follow a healthier lifestyle.

Filter Your Future's vision is that young students are provided with evidence about the global health epidemic of weight-related chronic diseases and are empowered to make better lifestyle choices for a healthier future.

People who carry the burden of chronic disease all share the same vision for the future. They want their children and grandchildren to have a healthier future than themselves. By providing children with early awareness, prevention and health promotion, we provide pivotal education about wise choices to prevent chronic disease before poor lifestyle choices become unhealthy habits. Members of the Dialysis and Transplant Association of Victoria, Inc. (D.A.T.A.) and FILTER YOUR FUTURE® believe that this project will benefit our future generations and our nation.

Guardians of the Gums was written by Bee Healthy Stories; if you would like to see more of their stories, head to Bee Healthy Stories.

SugarByHalf promotes action to reduce sugar-related diseases so that we can live better, stronger and healthier lives.

Their message is simple: to reduce added sugar consumption by half. Eating too much added sugar is a key driver of serious health problems including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, tooth decay, dementia and mental health conditions. A poor diet also puts children behind their peers, affecting brain development, sleep and ability to learn. Poor diet choices ultimately mean that this generation of children could be the first in modern history to live shorter lives than their parents.

Much of the added sugar in our diet comes from the processed foods and drinks we consume. On average, we consume 14-16 teaspoons of added sugar per day. Teenagers consume more than 20 teaspoons per day. The World Health Organisation says we should limit our daily added sugar intake to 6 teaspoons for good health. To put that in perspective, there are 4 grams of sugar in one teaspoon. If something has 20 grams of sugar, that's 5 teaspoons of sugar. 

This English lesson focuses on developing the skills and knowledge students need to critically consider messages about food and drink they are exposed to, thereby equipping them to be able to make healthy choices.

Talking about Health:

• Be mindful of students who may experience weight stigma. Some students may be sensitive to conversations around weight, body size or shape. Terms including obesity, weight issues, weight-problem and fat can be stigmatising for some people because they assign blame. It is important to note individual preferences around language vary. Research has shown using the terms ‘weight’, ‘weight gain’, ‘healthy weight’, ‘unhealthy weight’, and ‘high BMI’ are preferred as better alternatives.
• Be mindful about how you use the word ‘diet’. We recommend focussing students on the positive impacts of healthy nutrition and healthy lifestyles which help us to have stronger bodies and minds, feel good and sleep well.
• Steer students away from any focus on appearances by communicating that appearance does not determine your worth. We recommend fact sheets from the Butterfly Foundation on body image tips.

• Avoid using labels such as obese or diabetic. Refer to people living with diabetes, people living with cancer, people with high BMI etc.