Games To Teach Nutrition Facts To Kids

Getting your kids to eat healthy can be a lot easier when they are educated about food, and when they are empowered to choose.

But the truth is, nobody likes being educated unless you turn education into games, which is what we’ll try to do here

While the spelling bee competition tests kids’ spelling power, this game will help your kids learn more about their food choices. You can play it at the supermarket. Ask your kid to help you with shopping. While you are in a department, pick food packs and ask your kid to read the labels, this will establish the habit of knowing what's inside what he eats , and it will be really insightful to you as well. If your kid can read all the ingredients, there is a good chance the food contains little or no processed ingredients, if not, the opposite is probably true. You will have a lot of fun pronouncing such names as Castoreum, Shellac, MSG, Tartrazine which are only a small part of the list. You can add to the fun by looking up some of the strange words you come across. Go ahead and start with these ones, I promise you, you will be surprised.

   This game is based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) easy-to-follow food guide: MyPlate.

  Prepare for the game by drawing a plate as the one in the picture which is divided into 4 parts. Use 50x50 cm paper. Vegetables and fruits comprise half the plate with vegetables slightly larger. The second half is divided into proteins which include meat, chicken, fish plus beans. The last quarter is for grains and starches. Since dairy are especially important to kids, they are included as a side serving outside the plate.
  To complete the preparation collect as many food pictures as you can that belong to different categories, clip them from magazines, or print them from Google images.

  To play the game: Ask your kid to put each food item in its correct section. Every time your kid makes a correct allocation he takes a star.
  This way your kid will know the food groups in a practical and visual way.

  Next step: take it to the kitchen. When preparing a meal, get an empty plate and ask your kid to put the different food items in the correct corner on the plate, you could use a pre-divided plate or simply draw imaginary lines on the plate.

  Once your kid knows how to fill his plate with the right food choices, you have gone a long way towards teaching him how to eat healthy.