Kids can stay healthy by playing lots of active games.
Games can reinforce healthy living habits that will help kids to live long, healthy lives. Show them that learning about and practicing good health is fun and exciting, introducing them to a variety of foods and activities through games.
Food Pyramid Puzzle
Give kids pictures of various foods from each of the food groups, and a big chart to place them in. Have them work together to fit each food into the appropriate group. Play this game after you’ve already talked about the different food groups. Afterward, talk about the answers and why the body needs each food group, and sample some tasty foods from each group. The Playnormous website also offers an online version of this game.
What's in My Food?
Talk with kids about preservatives and how many foods on grocery store shelves have a low nutritional content. Then, take kids to the grocery store and send them on a scavenger hunt. Tell them to look for five unhealthy foods and five healthy ones. Have them stay together as a group, unless they’re old enough to look in pairs without supervision. Meet in a central spot and talk about the foods they found, then put them back on the shelves.
Plan a Menu
Have kids plan a balanced meal within a set amount of time. Let each child plan his own meal, and draw it on a piece of paper, writing the ingredients beside it. Then, talk about why each meal is or is not balanced, and what could be improved. Vote on one of the options to make for dinner.
Obstacle Course
Set up an obstacle course in your backyard, using lawn furniture, saw horses, and anything else laying around in the garage or yard. At different points along the course, set out a flag with a message beside it, like "Do 10 push-ups" or "Do six jumping jacks." Have kids race through the course, completing all the activities posted along the way. Then talk about how the different activities build their strength and endurance in different ways.
Healthy Habits
Challenge kids to a trivia quiz about their bodies. Ask them questions like, "What’s one thing we can do to keep our eyes healthy?" and "How can we prevent colds?" For some questions, several or more answers will be right, so challenge kids to think of as many answers as they can.
Mission Nutrition
Visit Kids' Health and play their online game called Mission Nutrition, in which players answer nutrition-related questions while navigating through an interactive kitchen. The game poses challenges like, "Open the fridge and find the drink that contains the most added sugar."
Tags: talk about, each food, about different, food groups, foods from, foods from each