Friday Home Fun- Family Nutrition

It's important we teach our children to make healthy food choices. Here are some fun activities you can participate in together to reinforce the importance of healthy eating habits!

Nutrition Art: 

Healthy Calendars!

Items Needed:

magazines

scissors 

glue

calendar -(you can use a printed template of the month as well)

Have your children thumb through magazines to cut out fresh foods and  glue them on to each day on the calendar. It can be your families goal to eat the correct serving amount of that particular food group for that day. This will help your family to learn what the appropriate daily serving sizes are for each food group. 

Here is a great link that has the recommended daily servings of the five food groups for kids! 

Food Stamping:

Items Needed:

Variety of Fruits and Veggies

Paint

Paper Plate

A great way to get kids to eat fruits and veggies is to introduce them in a different way than just eating them! Let them play with them first! Cut items like apples, potatoes, celery and other interestingly shaped foods and allow children to dip them in paint and stamp a paper plate to create their own works of art. Letting children get familiar with foods by playing with them first might make them more interesting to eat later.

Nutrition Science:

Lets Get Growing!

Items Needed:

Seeds

Soil

Egg Cartons

Popsicle Sticks

Planting seedlings is a great way to learn about the process of growing and harvesting our own foods. Fill old egg cartons with some soil . In each small pod, have your children plant seeds for different fruits and veggies. Label the seedlings with a Popsicle stick so you know what they are when you go to replant them. I like to use the seed packet on the stick so the children can see what they will be growing. Don't forget to make a watering schedule and keep the seedlings where they will receive sunshine as well. When the seedlings are ready to be replanted, place them in planters on your porch, flower beds, or even your own backyard garden!

Edible Rainbow!

Items Needed:

Variety of Fruits

Large Platter

Cutting Board

Knife

Create our own edible rainbow! One of our family favorite snacks over the weekend is a platter full of fruits or veggies. This is a healthy and yummy way to curb those snack attacks! Take your children to the produce section of the store to pick out fruits (or veggies) that are all of the colors of the rainbow. When you get home, cut them up into bite size pieces and place them on a large platter to create a yummy rainbow! Add in fruits or veggies you haven't tired before! 

Nutrition Math:

Number Game!

You might not shop at King Soopers regularly, but you might want to swing in the next time you need to run to the grocery store to play this fun game! I've found they have a number system at their stores to help you make healthy choices. It is called the NuVal Nutritional Coring System. It gives all foods sold at King Soopers a score from 1 to 100. The higher the number the better the foods overall nutrition. The number is located on the price label on the shelf.  My daughter loves to turn this into a game while we are shopping. We have our list of items we need to pick up at the store, and in each category we both try to find the lowest number but also the most tasty looking foods! Whomever has the better choice gets to add it to the cart! We love to play this game when we go shopping! It helps pass the time and keeps the items going into the cart healthy and even new items we may not have tried otherwise!