Teaching proper nutrition and healthy eating habits can help prevent children from becoming overweight or obese. According to Healthy Children, more than nine million children are overweight or obese. Instructing children about nutrition can be done in a kid-pleasing and entertaining way by incorporating a variety of different activities and materials into learning time. With the right amount of preparation and dedication, you can help children start down the path to lifelong health.
Sort Pictures of Foods
Gather many different pictures of healthy and unhealthy foods from magazines or books. Tell children they will be sorting the pictures into piles. One pile will include healthy foods and the other pile will include foods that are not good for them, says Dolly D. Lambdin, Charles B. Corbin, Guy Le Masurier and Meg Greiner, authors of "Fitness for Life: Elementary School Classroom Guide." Talk with the children about what makes a food healthy or unhealthy. Include nutritious ideas, such as vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein as well as unhealthy ideas, such as fat, sugar and salt. Work with the children to divide the pictures into two groups. Glue each group of pictures to a large piece of paper to help remind children about the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods.
Read Picture Books
According to Lambdin, Corbin, Le Masurier and Greiner, many children's books focus on health and nutrition. Use them as a starting point to teach children about nutrition as well as a stepping-stone for entertaining and educational activities. Try reading "The Victory Garden Vegetable Alphabet Book," by Jerry Pallotta and Bob Thompson. The book shows a vegetable for each letter of the alphabet. After reading the book, encourage children to make their own healthy foods book by drawing one nutritious food for each letter of the alphabet. Other picture books to read include "The Vegetable Show," by Laurie Krasny Brown and "A Book of Fruit," by Barbara Hirsch Lember.
Cook Meals
Cooking with children gives you a valuable opportunity to show them what ingredients make up a healthy meal or snack, says Mary Ellen Sterling, author of "Food and Nutrition Thematic Unit." Choose a recipe that includes simple directions for children, and gather your ingredients. Sterling suggests homemade pizza as one option because so many healthy toppings are available, such as tomatoes, green peppers, pineapple and cheese. Talk with the children about what makes each ingredient healthy and what it does for their body. Sandwiches are another good choice because you can make a sandwich with many different nutritious and delicious ingredients.
References
- Healthy Children: Downsizing a Super Sized Problem: Curbing Childhood Obesity
- "Fitness for Life: Elementary School Classroom Guide"; Dolly D. Lambdin, Charles Corbin, Gary Le Masurier and Meg Greiner; 2010
- "Food and Nutrition Thematic Unit"; Mary Ellen Sterling; 1999
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