Chapter 5: Food and nutrition

By the end of this chapter you will be able to

• Say what nutrition is, and explain why animals, including humans, cannot make their own food
• Sort foods into the five food groups: fruit and vegetables, starchy foods, protein foods, dairy foods and oils and spreads
• Say what carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins and minerals, and water do for the body
• Explain what a balanced diet is, and choose a balanced meal from different food groups
• Compare what different animals eat, and name a herbivore, a carnivore and an omnivore
• Count items in a survey of food, and record the results in a table and a bar chart

You should already know

• What animals need to stay alive: food, water and air, and what a healthy diet means (Year 2 Science, staying healthy)
• How the leaves of a plant use light to make food, and what plants need to grow (Year 3 Science, Chapter 3)

Where this leads

• Skeletons and muscles, which need the right nutrition to work well (Year 3 Science, Chapter 6)
• Food chains, and how animals depend on the plants and animals they eat (Year 4 Science)