Choose three students to be the “chasers.” Have these three students pick one of the five colors from the Choose MyPlate food categories: green for vegetables, red for fruit, blue for dairy, purple for protein or orange for grain. You can also include the fats/oils group if you would like. Once they have picked their color, have them each choose one nutritious food item from that food category.
Have the rest of students line up at one end of the gym and the three chasers in the middle of the gym. One of the chasers tells the group which food category was chosen. He or she then tells their classmates that they need to decide to be one of the three chosen food items.
The chaser calls out one of the three food choices. All of the students who have chosen that food item run from one side of the gym to the other without getting tagged by the chasers. If the student is tagged they are out of the round and need to go to the side of the gym and wait for the next round to start. For example: The fruit category is chosen by the chaser group. From the fruit category, the first student picks strawberries, the second student picks grapes and the third student picks watermelon.
One of the chasers tells the group that they have chosen the fruit category. He or she then tells their classmates that they need to decide if they would like to be a strawberry, a grape or a watermelon.
The chaser calls out grapes. All of the students who have chosen to be grapes run from one side of the gym to the other without getting tagged by the chasers.
If the chasers would like all of the students to run at once, they might call:
“Fruit Salad” for the fruit group, “Salsa” for the vegetable group, “Milk shake” for the dairy group, “Popcorn” for the grain group, “Chili” for the protein (meat and bean group), “Grease” for the fat and oil group
Or some other food category name that the group has decided upon.
The game starts over when there are only three participants left to run. These three students then become the new chasers and a new food category and foods choices are chosen.