Healthy Eating Activities For Kids

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These healthy eating activities help kids to learn about food groups and making healthy food choices. They are hands-on and suitable for kids in kindergarten up to second grade.


Teaching kids about healthy eating is such a wonderful topic because it has real world connections. Prior to becoming a teacher, I studied Nutrition at university so it’s a topic I’m very passionate about teaching. I teach kids about nutrition as part of my health lessons, but love finding incidental learning opportunities too. For example, at fruit time you can talk about the different types of fruit. Kids love learning special facts such as how drinking milk can help our teeth stay strong!

 

Healthy Eating Sort and Classify

These healthy eating and food groups activities are a great way to tune kids in to the topic of healthy eating. They work well as a whole class or small group activity.

Sort and Classify Mats – These mats feature the different food groups and corresponding photo cards. You can choose between a blank mat or the mat with the photos already on it. Kids need to choose a card and then match it to the corresponding mat.

Sort and Classify Labels – These are helpful for tailoring a mat session to a specific topic such as healthy foods and treats. Begin by laying out the headings, in hoops if you have them. Then place the pictures into a mystery bag or box. Take turns choosing a card from the box and then place it near the corresponding heading.

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You can grab these nutrition activities here or by clicking on the picture below.

Healthy eating, food groups and nutrition activities for kids. Sort and classify mats. - Fairy PoppinsPin

Healthy Eating Activities

I designed a variety of worksheets which help to reinforce the children’s understanding of healthy eating.

My Healthy Lunchbox – This activity is well suited to most age groups. Talk about the types of foods that are healthy. Then ask the kids to draw a picture of some healthy foods to go in the lunchbox.

Making Healthy Choices – These activities help kids to choose healthy foods. Kids need to circle the foods that is the healthier options. There’s another similar worksheet that focuses on portion sizes too.

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My Healthy Plate – This activity comes in a few different versions. Basically, kids need to draw a picture of a healthy meal. Talk about how half of the plate should be filled with vegetables. Potatoes can be placed in the carbohydrate section of the plate.

Food Sort – There are a few different food sort to choose from. Kids need to cut out the pictures and paste them in the corresponding area of the table.

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Other Healthy Eating Activities

Kids also enjoy making picture graphs. I’ve made a set of printable picture to create graphs such as “Favorite Foods” or “Favorite Breakfasts”. Alternatively, kids can draw their preference on a sticky note.

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Sugar Investigation – This is a fun class experiment to do with kids in first and second grade. It involves measuring the number of teaspoons of sugar in various foods to show how some foods contain more sugar than others. I’ve included flash cards of the foods to measure and the sugar quantities. There are also labels, a worksheet and instructions included. I love this activity because it teaches kids that drinking a fruit juice is not the same as eating a piece of fruit.

I always explain that a piece of fresh fruit is healthier because it contains fibre and less sugar. A juice contains far more than just one apple – because it’s like eating five apples but with no fibre!

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I’ve also created a printable book which can be used to read to students. It helps to explain how different foods help us. For example, dairy foods help out teeth and bones stay strong because they contain calcium. This is included along with the worksheets pack shown below.

You can grab these healthy eating activities here or by clicking the picture below.

 

Healthy eating worksheets and activities for kids. Food groups and nutrition activities - Fairy PoppinsPin

 

More Fun Healthy Eating Activities

Another fun way to explore the concept of healthy eating is to set up a Supermarket. This will help kids learn about the different food groups such as fruits, vegetables and dairy. You can check out the “Supermarket Dramatic Play” pack here.

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Kids may also enjoy these new Healthy Eating Clip Cards. You can check out these here.

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Happy teaching! :)

 

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