Nutrition Activity Booklet A Message to Those Who Care for Children: Even young children can learn that nutritious foods and lots of exercise are important for growth and health. I Am Growing suggests many ways to convey this important message to children. Parents and caregivers often complain about fussy eaters or children who want too much of one food. You can be a huge help in shaping children s eating habits by giving positive messages about foods and providing encouragement to try new foods during meals and snacks. Often children in groups are much more willing to taste new foods than at home. And remember, children should be seeing you eat nutritious foods like vegetables and fruits. Jill Patterson, Ph.D. Dept. of Nutritional Sciences, Penn State Storybooks to Grow On How Kids Grow by Jean Marzollo (Scholastic Inc., 1998). Photographs show children at different ages and stages ranging from birth to age 7 and describe what children can do at each stage. This book is a great discussion starter. I m Growing by Aliki (Troll Associates, 1992). A young boy compares his body now with how he looked as a baby and attributes the changes to the healthful foods he eats. Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus (Harper Collins Publishers, 1971). Leo is a little tiger who can t seem to do anything right. Leo s mother claims that Leo is just a late bloomer and a watched bloomer doesn t bloom. Sure enough, in his own good time, Leo blooms. What s Inside Activities to Celebrate Growth Connect growing and healthful eating with these fun activities. How Do Our Bodies Use Food? Children begin to learn what happens to food inside their bodies. 1-2-3 Trail Mix Have children make a fun and healthy trail mix and practice counting, too. Celebrate Healthy Eating and Exercise A great rhyme for indoor exercising on a rainy day. Family Nutrition News A send-home page you can copy and share with families.
Activities to Celebrate Growth My, How I ve Grown! Fold an 11 x 17 inch piece of paper in half for each child. At the beginning of the year, have children draw pictures of themselves and write or trace their names on the front of the folded paper. Open the paper and trace the child s hand and foot on the left-hand side. Also, record each child s height. You may even want to include information such as their favorite food, color, or activity. Keep these papers until the end of the year. Repeat the same process on the right hand side. Have children draw and write or trace their names again on the back of the folded paper. Children delight in comparing the drawings and information from the beginning to the end of the year. Make a Collage Have children bring in magazine pictures of foods their families eat. Make a big poster titled: Foods that Help Me Grow. Try to make sure there are foods from the five food groups and only a few from the tip of the Food Guide Pyramid. Have your own pictures of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains on hand to include in the collage. Here are two messages to reinforce with children: 1) all foods help you grow, and 2) we need many different kinds of foods each day and each week to help us grow and stay healthy. Taste Testing Sampling pureed baby foods is sure to be a fun activity. Have children taste a baby food such as blended peaches and then taste the grown-up version of either canned or fresh sliced peaches. Strained carrots and carrot sticks would be another good comparison. Try to do this with foods from each food group. Children will be surprised by how much their taste buds have changed. Ask children why babies cannot eat big kid food. You can also make this into a charting activity as described in the Getting Started booklet. Circle Time Ask each parent to bring in a baby photo. Display the photos and have children try to guess who s who. At circle time, have each child reveal their photo. Talk about how they have changed in size and ability. Be sure to attribute their mental and physical growth to eating a variety of healthy foods and exercising. Talk about foods they ate when they were babies and what they eat now. Circle Time Growing Game Have children crouch down on the floor. Instruct them to grow a little bit whenever you call out a food item that helps them grow. If a nonfood item is called, the children should remain still. For example, call out cheese (children grow a little), chair (children remain still), apples (children grow a little), airplanes (children remain still), etc. Repeat until all of the children have grown as high as they can reach. Older preschoolers may enjoy taking a turn as the caller. 2 Books About Our Bodies and Food What Happens to a Hamburger by Paul Showers (Harper Collins, 1985). Through simple pictures and text, digestion is described. The book discusses healthful foods and how they build strong bones and muscles. Skip pages and paraphrase to hold young children s attention. The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole (Scholastic Inc., 1989). There are plenty of text and images in this book from the popular series. Focus on digestion and pick and choose other parts that will interest your children.
How do our bodies use food? Use these resources to explain in simple terms how we get the nutrients we need from foods. What happens to food inside of us? After snack or lunch, talk about what happens to food inside our bodies. Ask children to share their ideas. Clarify with this explanation of digestion. Illustrate it with an enlargement of the image at the right. Have on hand a piece of string 10 feet long to represent the length of the intestines of a child. Esophagus Small Intestine Stomach When we chew food, we are breaking it into little pieces. The pieces travel down the esophagus, which is like a pipe, to our stomach. Our stomach mixes the pieces into liquid mush. That mush goes to our small intestine, where it is broken down into pieces so tiny they can t be seen with just our eyes. These tiny pieces are called nutrients. They go into the blood and travel all through the body to the places where they are needed. So when we drink milk, the nutrient called calcium goes into the blood. Then calcium travels to our bones and teeth to make them hard and help them grow. The parts of food that the body does not need go into the large intestine. We get rid of that waste when we go to the bathroom. Large Intestine I know where food goes! Once children have an idea about digestion, use this center activity to let them test their understanding. You need a large, empty cereal box, an enlarged copy of the child s digestive tract from this page, small (1 inch x 1 inch) pictures of healthful foods, magnetic tape, and a magnetic wand or other strong magnet. Remove the top of the cereal box so a child can reach in. Attach the image to the front of the box. Mount small pictures of foods onto tagboard and glue a small piece of magnetic tape to the back. To use, one child chooses a food and places it at the mouth. A second child uses the magnet inside the box to guide the food from the mouth through the digestive tract. Coach them to stop at the large intestine because now all the food is inside the body making us grow and stay healthy. 3
1-2-3 Trail Mix Getting ready: small, plastic, ziplock bags two tablespoons and one teaspoon bowls for each snack food 1-2-3 Trail Mix Makes 2 (1/4-cup) servings. One serving provides 130 calories, 1 gram protein, 1 gram fiber, and 5 grams fat. Add 1 tablespoon of raisins. Add 2 teaspoons of sweet chips.
Add 3 tablespoons of cereal. Add 4 pretzels. Add 5 dried banana chips. Illustrated by Jodi Brown, 2003.
Twist Hop Celebrate Healthy Eating and Exercise Bend This is a great rainy day activity. Enlarge the 6 movement pictures on this page. Have children color them, then help children learn the rhyme below. Point to each picture so everyone can do the motion as they say the rhyme. Let each child choose a new one. Your bones and muscles are growing strong. Eat good foods and you can t go wrong! Now move your body, count 1, 2, 3.. Come along and with me. Also enjoy reading the book From Head to Toe by Eric Carle (1999). Rhyme by Carol Lebold. Clap Stomp Flap 6
Family Nutrition News How much do young children need to eat? Most children do well with three meals and two to four snacks daily. Each day, children should eat a variety of food from the MyPyramid food guide. Use the recommendations below to plan for shopping and meals. A range of amounts is listed since younger children may eat less than older children; very active children may eat more than less active children. Allow children to serve themselves whenever possible. Encourage small first portions, reassuring children that they can have seconds if they are still hungry and there is food left. Offer foods from all five groups Try to offer a few healthy choices from each group each day so your child will choose healthy. Within reason, your child can decide his/her own portion sizes. Each day aim for: Grains: 3 to 5 ounce equivalents One ounce = 1 slice of bread; ½ cup noodles, grits or rice; 1 cup dry cereal. Half of the grains should be whole grains. Vegetables: 1 to 1½ cups Include a dark-green vegetable every day and a yellow, orange, or red vegetable several days a week. Fruits: 1 to 1½ cups Fresh, frozen, or canned fruits in extra lite juice are all good choices. Milk: 2 cups A portion of ½ cup milk = ½ cup yogurt or 1 slice of cheese. Most milk group choices should be low fat or fat free for children over 2 years of age. Meat/Beans/Nuts: 2 to 4 ounces One ounce of lean meat, poultry, or fish = 1 egg, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, ¼ cup cooked beans. He hardly eats anything This is a common phrase uttered by the parents of many 2- to 6- year-olds. However, as long as checkups with your family s doctor show your child is growing regularly, there is no need to worry. Children grow rapidly during infancy. During the preschool years, growth slows down a bit, and so does appetite. So, if a child hardly eats anything at a meal, don t make a big deal of it. Tomorrow he/she may eat a lot more. Food jags are normal Food jags and food strikes are very common with 2- to 6-yearolds. Here are two tips that may help: If a child always refuses a food, give it a rest and try it again in a few weeks. When a child insists on the same food all the time, there is no harm in serving it as long as it is nourishing and healthy. Place a small helping of something new alongside the favorite; sooner or later your child will try it. Next week he/she will have a new favorite food. Guard against choking. Watch children while they eat. Readers may photocopy this page to send home to families.
Prepared by Jill Patterson, assistant professor of nutrition, Kathy Gorman and Carol Lebold, project specialists, Adam Steele and Charles Orlofsky, graphic designers, Jodi Brown, artist, and Julie Haines, assistant director, Nutrition Links Program Portions of this material came from Celebrate Healthy Eating, a collaborative project with Dannon Institute (a nonprofit foundation), Scholastic Inc., and the Dept. of Nutritional Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. Dept. of Nutritional Sciences College of Health and Human Development Cooperative Extension College of Agricultural Sciences Visit Penn State s College of Agricultural Sciences on the Web: www.cas.psu. edu Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences research, extension, and resident education programs are funded in part by Pennsylvania counties, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This publication is available from the Publications Distribution Center, The Pennsylvania State University, 112 Agricultural Administration Building, University Park, PA 16802. For information telephone 814-865-6713. Where trade names appear, no discrimination is intended, and no endorsement by Penn State Cooperative Extension is implied. This publication is available in alternative media on request. The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment. The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harassment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Discrimination or harassment against faculty, staff, or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Director, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901, Tel 814-865-4700/V, 814-863-1150/TTY. Produced by Information and Communication Technologies in the College of Agricultural Sciences The Pennsylvania State University 2006 Code # UE005 Rev5M5/06mpc4480