Activity Plans for Teaching Young Children About Nutrition

Fruit From Vegetable

• Helping the young children in your class understand the difference between fruits and vegetables can be a fun way to introduce nutrition to the class. Bring in a few fruits and vegetables and place them in a basket in the middle of the class. Explain to the class that the major difference between fruits and vegetables is how they're grown. Fruits are found on trees and vines, and vegetables grow in the ground. Hand a fruit or a vegetable to each student, and ask him to mimic how the plant grows for this fruit or vegetable. Either stand tall like a tree, twisted like a vine or sit on the ground like a vegetable. Help the students make the right choices and let them correct one another if they can. When the activity is done, cut up the food and pass it around. Be aware of food allergies before letting kids handle or eat food.

Food Pyramid

• When you teach the class about nutrition and healthy eating, one of the first things the students should get familiar with is the food pyramid. Hang a large triangle on a wall with the appropriate sections marked out for the food groups. Tell the class a little about each section and what types of food are found in each. When describing a food group, hand out photos of the foods that you may find in that group. When finished with the section, have the class tape the food photos in the section. Once the class has an idea of the food pyramid, hand out small triangles and food pictures and ask them to glue the correct foods into the correct food group. You may need to walk around and help direct the correct placement. Collect the project and hang it on the wall for reference for the students.

Healthy Food Collage

• Let the class explore the world of healthy foods and choices through a food collage. Pass around magazines with a variety of junk food and healthy food. Give each student an 8-by-10-inch piece of poster board to make her collage on. Have the students tear out pictures of healthy food and junk food, then have them glue their findings onto the collage boards with junk foods on one side and healthy food on the other. Walk around the class and help with the correct placements of the different food pictures.

Dinner Choice

• Help the students understand how they eat and what they can do to change poor eating habits. Ask the class to write down what they have for dinner that night and bring in a list the next day. The next day, draw a large circle on the board to represent a plate. Have the class name the foods they had for dinner and list them on the board next to the circle. Once you have the foods, have the class break down the foods into food groups. Once you have the food groups done, fill in the circle like a pie chart to see if the class as a group is following the food pyramid correctly for dinner.