Real Food Pyramid
Learning Outcome:
Children are able to select foods belonging to the ‘eat lots’ and ‘eat less’ groups of the Real Food Pyramid, (fruit, vegetables, breads and cereals) and eat some groups (milk and milk products, lean meat, seafood, chicken, eggs, peas, beans and lentils) recognising these foods as a healthy choice.
Learning Activity:
Draw a large pyramid shape on the wall. Make a collage of food pictures from the four food groups. The real food pyramid is available as a poster from the Heart Foundation.
Food Preparation
Learning Outcome:
Children will be able to identify the foods prepared as healthy choices.
Learning Activity:
Try making some of the following suggestions in your classroom. Remember this is an opportunity to reinforce food safety messages, (hand-washing, tasting using a clean spoon etc.)
Friendship Soup. Each child brings a vegetable along to school. The vegetables are washed/peeled/ grated/cut as appropriate by the children and cooked up into a delicious soup which is eaten at lunchtime.
Sandwiches:
Children can explore different ways to make sandwiches eg. club, pinwheels, open sandwiches, sandwiches cut with a cookie cutter into different shapes.
Popcorn:
Freshly popped corn can be eaten without salt or sugar.
Where Foods Come From
Learning Outcome:
Children are able to identify the origins of different foods.
Learning Activity:
The teacher selects either pictures or real food products, then small groups of children discuss where the foods have come from originally. It may be interesting to look at composite foods eg. tinned baked beans in tomato sauce. This activity could also be linked with a trip to a food processing plant.
Treats and Snacks
Learning Outcome:
Children are able to successfully identify treat foods and snack foods.
Learning Activity:
Assemble some pictures of treat foods and snack foods and get the children to sort them into treats and snacks.
Here are some suggestions –
Snacks:
Sandwiches (all shapes and kinds eg open, club, rolled up ones, toasted), fresh fruit, yogurt, raw vegetable sticks and peanut butter or lentil/bean based dip, natural popcorn.
Treats:
Chippies, fruit leathers, chocolate covered muesli bars, fizzy drink.
Helpful Information: Snacks are the healthy foods from the four food groups (see list above) that we eat between meals. Treats are the foods that we eat only every now and then as they are higher in fat, salt, and sugar.
Nutrition Activities written by Megan Grant Heart Foundation – as featured in the Hearty Fun Fitness Programme