Look at this empty drinks can. How many teaspoons of sugar do you think were hiding inside when it was full? Hold up your fingers to show your guess.
Today we become label detectives. We will read the numbers on packaging, turn grams of sugar into teaspoons, and rank everyday drinks and snacks fairly.
That can has a secret panel of numbers: the nutrition label. That is our detective evidence for sugar and salt.
Grams are hard to picture, so we turn sugar into teaspoons: about 4 grams fills one level spoon. If a drink has 20 grams of sugar, how many teaspoons is that?
Later we will only rank drinks with drinks, and snacks with snacks. Picture a tiny juice carton next to a huge bottle: the bottle can look "worse" just because it is bigger. A fair ranking uses the same unit each time, for example sugar per 100 ml for every drink.
We will predict how many teaspoons of sugar hide in each everyday drink, then reveal the answer together on the board.
For each drink: call out your prediction first. After we reveal, we will turn grams into teaspoons and notice any label claims that might fool us.
Sugar detective: drinks
In groups, investigate clean empty packaging of everyday drinks and snacks. Use your Investigation Journal page as you go so nothing gets lost before we rank.
- Predict which pack will be highest in sugar and which will be highest in salt, and say why.
- Find the nutrition label and locate sugars (must-have) and salt (quick find).
- Record sugar with its unit, and convert sugar grams ÷ 4 into teaspoons.
- For drinks, also note sugar per 100 ml (the fair unit we will rank by). If the pack only shows a whole-pack or per-serving figure, ask for help to work out or read per 100 ml. For snacks, note sugar per 100 g the same way.
- Keep packs on the table ready to rank: drinks with drinks, snacks with snacks.
No tasting. Wash hands after handling packaging.
As a class we make two fair sugar lines, not one mixed pile.
Agreed rules: drinks line uses sugar per 100 ml (least to most). Snacks line uses sugar per 100 g (least to most). Only packs that have that fair-unit number on the journal page go on the line.
Groups bring standout packs to the bench. Everyone else is a judge: watch each placement, then agree or challenge using the label numbers and the rule. After the two sugar lines settle, notice which items also climbed high for salt.
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