Teaching nutrition is a crucial way to help combat childhood obesity, unhealthy weight gain and poor eating habits. According to KidsHealth.org, one of every three children is either overweight or obese, which suggests that nutrition education must be improved upon. Teaching aids are any device that enables you to better present nutrition information so your students are more actively engaged and interested in the topic. Knowing what teaching aids do and how to use them will help you better educate more children about the importance of good nutrition.
Benefits of Teaching Aids
Teaching aids can bring the nutrition information alive for your students. Simply standing in the front of the classroom telling your students to eat healthy is not likely to be as successful as encouraging students to take an active part in their education. Teaching aids provide a way for you to visually inform your students about healthy foods. Aids are also an effective way to help your students better understand the material and apply it to their own lives. When students are engaged in hands-on activities, they are more likely to remember the information in the future. Teaching aids are an entertaining and interesting way to create hands-on opportunities.
How to Use Teaching Aids
Introduce a variety of teaching aids throughout the lesson so your students continue to be interested because the material is not always the same. Rote participation in classroom activities can get boring for students, and they may begin to tune you out. Keeping the information you present ever-changing will keep your students on their toes and always ready to listen. As you present each teaching aid, describe its use and how it will benefit their understanding of nutrition. Demonstrate how to use it and then give students an opportunity to apply the teaching aid to a classroom activity.
Suggested Teaching Aids
Art supplies of all varieties can be used to support your nutrition lessons. Markers, crayons or colored pencils can be used to create healthy eating diaries or nutrition stories. Supply scissors, glue and old magazines and have your students create healthy meals by cutting out pictures of foods. Use objects, such as a deck of cards, plastic ball or CD, to demonstrate what an appropriate serving size is for your students. Use empty food cartons to teach students how to read and interpret nutrition labels. Search your local library for picture books about nutrition to read to your students. Many online resources exist that will provide color posters to hang in your classroom as well.
Suggested Activities
Have your students make a place mat that includes a picture of an empty plate separated into sections -- half for vegetables or fruit, one-quarter for starches and one-quarter for protein. Magazine pictures can be laid on the place mat to create a game that helps students visualize how much food they should be eating. Empty food cartons can be set up to create a grocery store. Use healthy and unhealthy foods and then have students shop for nutritious foods. Discuss each choice as a class. The same props can be used so your students can write plays, skits or stories based on the nutrition concepts they are learning. Lined paper can be stapled together to make healthy food journals.
