Curriculum Area: Nutrition

Materials: Bread Bread Bread by Ann Morris, markers and paper

Procedure: Read the book Bread Bread Bread. Notice how bread from other countries looks different. Have children draw a picture featuring their favorite kind of bread. Remind children that bread can be a flat circle, long, sliced, pretzel, triangle shaped like pizza crust, with a hole in the middle, or a croissant.

Guidance Suggestions: Use markers, chalk or colored pencils to make the pictures more unique. Label the pictures if the children are okay with it.

Variations: Do a group project by collecting pictures of bread. Then making a collage.

Curriculum Area: Nutrition

Materials: Sliced fruits and vegetables

Procedure: During lunch eat family style. Have children pick what fruits or vegetables they want to make their own salad or fruit salad.

Guidance Suggestions: Use a serving fork for each food. Tell children they can only have three pieces of each food they choose…to make sure there is enough for everyone. Then they can have seconds if they eat everything on their plate.

Variations: When the children are playing with toy food ask them to make you a salad. Remind them it is important to eat healthy.

Curriculum Area: Nutrition

Materials: Toy food or pictures of food

Procedure: Sort food into the food groups.

Guidance Suggestions: Tell children that dairy products are made from milk and protein usually involves animals.

Variations: Ask the kids to tell you what food groups they see on the table during lunch. Or what food group they are eating.

• Recipe: Mighty Milk

Ingredients: 8 ice cubes, 2 c. skim milk, 2 bananas, 4 tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate

Procedure: Put all the ingredients in a blender. Blend on high for about 20 seconds. Pour into individual cups.

Curriculum Area: Health

Materials: Marker board, dry erase markers, timer or clock

Procedure: Tell children why exercise is important. Play a game like tag that encourages movement. Keep track of how many minutes the children run and gross motor play each day. Make a graph on the marker board so the children will know what days they had more and less exercise.

Guidance Tips: Do the games with less active kids to motivate them.

Variation: Make a graph for children to take home to record their exercises. Make a note on it reminding children they need 120 minutes of gross motor play everyday.

Curriculum Area: Health

Materials: Construction paper, pictures of food from magazines or printed from a web search, scissors, glue and markers

Procedure: Draw a line down the middle of the paper. On the left side write “Healthy” on the left write “Not Healthy.” Cut out pictures of food and paste them on the correct side.

Guidance Tips: Try to rip the pictures out if children are having difficulty cutting.

Variation: Have children draw pictures of food instead of cutting them out.

Curriculum Area: Nutrition

Materials: Marker board and dry erase marker

Procedure: Write the day of the week on the board. Ask the children to remember healthy things that they have done. Repeat each day for a week.

Guidance Suggestions: Remind children that running and jumping are healthy choices.

Variations: Give parents a handout to do this activity at home too.

• Recipe: Chocolate Strawberries

Ingredients: 1 c. dark chocolate chips, 1-2 tsp skim milk, 1 pint strawberries (about 14 berries)

Procedure: Wash strawberries ahead of time. Cut leaves off the strawberries. Melt chocolate in a glass bowl. Add milk if needed. Place strawberries on a sheet of waxed paper. Dip or pour the chocolate on top of the berries. Stab the strawberries with a fork for easier dipping.

Preparation Needed: Make sure none of the children have a peanut allergy. Get out all the ingredients to make the recipe.

Materials Needed: Recipe, ingredients, mixing bowl and measuring cup

Procedure: Instruct children to wash their hands then come to the table. Make trail mix with the children, using 3 cups cheerios, 1 cup dark chocolate covered raisins and 1 cup peanuts.

Variations: You can also make muffins.

Guidance Suggestions: Have each child take a turn helping make the recipe.

Curriculum Area: Nutrition

Materials: A drawstring bag and a whole vegetable or fruit

Procedure: Put a large fruit or vegetable in the bag. Have the children feel the food and describe it without looking. Take the food out and tell children about it. Eat the food during snack time.

Guidance Suggestions: Set a timer if the children do not want to pass the mystery bag to the next child.

Variations: Use the mystery bag to help children describe the toys as well. Help them use words like bumpy, smooth, soft, hard, sticky and flexible.

• Recipe: Apple Smiles

Ingredients: Apples, peanut butter and mini-marshmallows

Procedure: Use an apple corer/slicer to slice apples. Spread peanut butter on one side of each apple slice. Place marshmallows between two apple slices in the peanut butter. The peels should both be facing the same direction to make a smile with marshmallow teeth in the middle.

Curriculum Area: Nutrition

Materials: The Two Bite Club by the Food and Nutrition Service and food from other cultures.

Procedure: Read The Two Bite Club. Serve a new food like couscous, kale or quinoa at lunch. Talk about diversity in the classroom.

Guidance Suggestions: Do not force children to eat new foods, but encourage it by eating new foods yourself and serving it more than one time.

Variations: Make necklaces with string and a paper that say “I tried (name of food) today”.

Curriculum Area: Nutrition

Materials: None

Procedure: Ask everyone to sit in a circle. One at a time say the name of a food. If it is a healthy food have everyone jump up.

Guidance Suggestions: If jumping makes the children too wild try clapping instead.

Variations: Play Duck, Duck, Goose using sometimes foods instead of saying duck and anytime foods for the word goose.

Curriculum Area: Health

Materials: Dolls

Procedure: Roll play what to do when someone is sick. Ask what part of their body hurts? (head, arm, leg, tummy, throat) What are your symptoms? (vomit, bruised, sore, head ache) Does it hurt a lot or a little? How long as it been hurting? What should you do to make it better? (lie down, drink water, use ice, wash the wound and a bandage it, wrap it up, rinse it off)

Guidance Tips: Make sure the children are using accurate information.

Variation: Teach where internal organs are located and their names, like brain, heart, lungs and stomach. Do an image search for the organs so children can see what they actually look like.