Category: 3-8 Years Old

More Milk, Please!

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people visualize how much milk they should drink each day by pouring 8 ounces into each of three glasses. The youth will complete a milk-themed maze activity. Optionally, the young people can photograph themselves with milk mustaches to remind them to drink milk each day.

Introduction

  1. Talk with the youth about why drinking milk is good for them.
    Drinking milk will:

    • give your body important nutrients like calcium and vitamin D to help your bones grow strong
    • give your body protein to help build strong muscles.
  2. Ask the youth, what could happen if your body doesn’t get enough calcium?
    Answer: Your bones can get weak and could easily break.
    If you’re allergic to cow’s milk, you can try fortified “milk” made from soy, rice, coconut or almonds. If that doesn’t sound too good, you can also:

    • drink calcium-enriched orange juice
    • eat vegetables rich in calcium, such as cooked broccoli and spinach.
  3. How much milk should you have each day?
    Answer: For most kids your age, three 8-ounce glasses of milk each day is enough to give your body all the calcium and protein it needs.

Activity

  1. To show how much milk a young person should drink each day, pour 8 ounces of milk into three glasses.
  2. Ask for feedback from the youth: Are they surprised with the amount? Did they think they needed to drink more or less?
  3. Give each young person a glass or carton of milk and ask them to try and make a milk mustache. (Offer a milk substitute such as soy milk for young people who cannot have cow’s milk.)
  4. Optional: Take a group photo of the young people with their milk mustaches to hang in your classroom as a reminder to drink milk every day.
  5. Have the youth complete the milk maze.

Conclusion

Remind the young people that drinking milk is good for their bones, muscles, and overall health. Ask them to count how many 8 ounce glasses of milk they have to drink today. Will they get to 3 glasses? Count again tomorrow and remember to get enough milk every day!

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue to talk about drinking milk getting enough calcium at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Healthy snacking: Moving beyond milk and cookies

Additional Instructor Resources

How Hungry Am I?

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people think about the ways their bodies give them signals telling them when they need to eat. They will use a worksheet to track their hunger before and after a snack and learn that tracking your hunger can keep you from overeating.

Introduction

Ask the youth, what does a baby do when it is hungry? Usually he or she cries or whimpers. A dog might do the same thing…bark or whine to let us know it’s time to eat.

Inform the youth that our bodies let us know in much the same way when we are starting to feel hungry. How? Maybe our stomach growls, we get a headache, we become cranky or irritable, or feel tired or weak. It takes about 10-15 minutes once we have started eating for our bodies to notice the change. The feeling of fullness is the result of your brain reacting to chemicals and hormones that are released when you eat. Your brain can take up to 20 minutes to register these chemicals before you are signaled you are getting full. Therefore, it’s important to eat slowly enough to give ourselves time to adjust. Our bodies send signals that we’ve had enough, like our belly actually feeling a bit more filled up. If we eat too much too fast we can’t notice those cues until it is too late and we feel extremely full and uncomfortable.

Here’s a simple way to gauge before, during and after eating what state we’re in:

😐 = Pretty hungry, my stomach feels empty

🙂 = Just right! Not too hungry or too full; satisfied

🙁 = Too full, I ate too much

This language of hunger is different from the cravings we feel when we smell our favorite food or see something delicious looking in a magazine. That’s our thoughts telling us, “Wow…I sure would like to taste that,” no matter whether our body is hungry or not.

Being hungry is different from craving and we can teach ourselves to better listen to our bodies to know the difference.

Activity

  1. Ask the young people to make a fist. Tell them that their stomachs are about the same size as their fist.
  2. Ask the following questions to further explore the topic of hunger:
    • How would your stomach feel if you put too much food in – two or three times the size of your fist? (Sore, bloated, sticking out)
    • How would your stomach feel if you didn’t put enough food in or if you missed having a meal or a snack? (Pain, rumbling)
    • Would it feel this way if you saw a piece of cake on the counter that you thought looked really delicious? Or if you smelled your favorite meal cooking? (You might feel these things for a short while when you are having a craving, but if you take a few minutes to pay attention they will go away. A craving won’t make you feel hunger that lasts.)
    • What if you put just the right amount of food in your stomach— about the same amount as your fist? How would it feel? (Content, not stuffed, good, nice, satisfied)
  3. Let’s enjoy a snack in an amount that is a little bit smaller than our fists, or the size of our stomachs, but let’s first think about how hungry we actually are so that we don’t eat too much and get those uncomfortable feelings.
  4. Pass out the Kids Hunger Tracker worksheet. Ask the youth to fill in the first line, writing down today’s date and then drawing the appropriate face in the “Before the Meal” column.
  5. Then pass out the snack. Encourage young people to eat slowly and chew the food well. Have them notice the flavor and taste and how their bodies feel. Encourage them to stop when they feel satisfied regardless of whether the food is gone.
  6. After the snack, have them complete the final column on the worksheet.

Conclusion

Encourage young people to use the worksheet over the next several days to track their hunger and see what they notice. The more they practice this mindful approach, the more attuned they will become to their bodies’ food needs.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

‘Tis the season to take note of your hunger cues

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing the ways that young people know they are hungry and when they have eaten enough.

Gardening – Growing Goodness!

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand where healthy food comes from. The youth will discuss what kind of plants produce their favorite fruits and vegetables. Then they will try out gardening themselves by planting some bean seeds and watching the plants grow.

Introduction

  1. Ask the young people where our food comes from. Give the youth a couple of minutes to share with another person where they think certain fruits and vegetables grow.  Discuss their thoughts as a group. You may want to mention the following points:
    • All food has to “grow” somewhere, whether it’s an animal for meat, grains for processing into flour and other products, or artificial flavorings made in a lab to mimic whole food flavors found in nature. Artificial flavorings and colors are used in some candies and flavored drink mixes.
    • It’s good to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible. Fruits and vegetables are the easiest type of food to find in a natural state. That means that not much has been done to them before they get to us. Foods that come in boxes and can be stored on shelves for months, for example, have been processed and have had things added to them to preserve them long before they get to us, in particular lots of them may have added sugar.
    • The sugar that is in fruits is different from the sugar in candy. The sugar in fruit is a natural sugar that is not made from many different chemicals like those found in candy, cookies, cereal and other sweetened treats, that’s known as processed sugar. Foods direct from the earth, no matter how sweet, are the healthiest foods for people to eat. So just where do our fruits and vegetables come from? Fruits and vegetables grow in many different ways. They can grow on trees like apples do, or they can grow underground from a root like a carrot. They also grow on vines and bushes.
  2. Download the interactive whiteboard activity from the What You Need section above. The goal of the activity is to match up the fruit or vegetable with the growing location whether it’s underground, above ground on the surface, or on a tree.
  3. Were they able to match certain fruits and vegetables to the type of plant they grow on such as underground, on a vine or in a tree?

Activity: Plant a Garden

  1. Talk about: Why are gardens healthy? Growing a garden can be beneficial in more ways than just getting healthy food. Gardening can help people relax. It can also be a time for family bonding if you work together in the garden. Gardening can even be a type of physical activity. Furthermore, seeds are cheap to buy, so why not grow your own food and save some money?

  2. Plant a mini garden. Have the young people plant their own green beans. You can split the youth into groups of four so they can plant one as a group, or you can hand out clear plastic cups to all young people to plant their own. However you wish to do this, you will need to handout a clear plastic cup (16 ounces) to everyone who will be planting seeds. Follow these steps for a successful gardening project:

    • Each young person or group will need to write their names on the cup so they know whose is whose.

    • Next use a thumbtack to poke a few holes in the bottom of the cup to let the extra water drain.

    • Once this is done, each cup will need to be loosely packed half way with potting soil. Make sure the soil is moist/damp.

    • Then place 5 to 6 seeds near the side of the cup so the youth are able to see them grow through the clear cup.

    • Cover the seeds with more moist soil to the top of the cup, and lightly pack it.

    • Place plastic wrap over the cups to help keep in the moisture, and place near a window for sunlight.

    • Once you see the beans starting to sprout, remove the plastic wrap and water as needed.

    • Continue to keep the cup in the sun.

    • The cups may need to be put into some sort of tray so the water doesn’t leak.

Activity: Veggie Scramble

If time allows, hand out the Veggie Scramble worksheet. Allow the youth time to complete the word puzzles, then share the correct answers from the Veggie Scramble Answer Key.  This worksheet may also be sent home as an enrichment activity.

Conclusion

You can keep the cups in the classroom and note their progress. This provides great informal, ongoing opportunities to talk about nutrition and health. Or you can have the young people bring plants home and care for them there. In that case you can, if you like, ask for periodic reports on how they are growing. Either way, once their plant has grown big enough, young people can transfer their seedlings into a big garden or larger pot at home!

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes these tips, so that families can continue discussing fresh, healthy foods at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog(s)

Additional Instructor Resources

What Kind of Sugar is in Your Food? Handout – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)

Super Sleep

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how important sleep is to growing bodies and minds. The youth will determine how many hours of sleep they should get each night and learn how to track healthy sleeping habits in a sleep diary.

Introduction

Introduce the topic of sleep by asking the questions below and facilitating a discussion with the participants’ answers.

How many hours should kids sleep every night? Let young people guess first. Then tell them the answer according to the following guidelines:

  • ages 3 to 10: 10 to 12 hours each day
  • ages 11 to 12: about 10 hours each day
  • teenagers (ages 13 to 17): about nine hours each day.

Then ask them: OK, so if you get up at (use an example of a time they might get up), what time should you go to sleep at night to make sure you get enough hours in? Help young people figure this out if they cannot do it on their own.

Why do kids need plenty of sleep? Let the youth answer, but make sure they understand the following reasons why sleep is important:

  • Sleep plays an important role in healthy growth and development. Your body needs the deep rest it gets during sleep to help your muscles, bones, and skin prevent injury and illness and helps your brain develop well.
  • Sleep also helps you remember what you learn, pay attention and concentrate, solve problems and think of new ideas. Studies show that people can focus better when they’ve had enough sleep, that’s especially important during school. Having enough sleep simply makes you feel better during the day.

Is all sleep the same? Let young people answer first and then explain that just like nature is full of cycles (the earth rotates, causing cycles of light and darkness – day and night; the moon has cycles) we have cycles in our sleep as well. Our bodies can’t get fully rested unless they are able to go through all the cycles several times. Explain that there are five stages in one cycle of sleep. Each cycle of sleep takes about 90 minutes. That means that within 10 hours of sleep we go through about six cycles and 33 stages of sleep.

  • Stage 1 and 2: You first fall asleep, but are not yet in a deep sleep.
  • Stage 3 and 4: You are in a deep, restful sleep. Your breathing and heart rate slow down, and your body is still.
  • Stage 5: You are in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Your brain is active and you dream.

Activity: Healthy Bedtime Habits

Ask the youth to think about what bedtime is like right now.

  • How do you sleep best? (Have kids demonstrate their favorite way to sleep.)
  • Do you sleep with any special blankets, stuffed animals, pillows etc.? (Have kids raise their hands to answer.)
  • What kinds of things things help you relax and feel sleepy? 
  • What makes it easier for you to go to sleep when you need to? 

Can you name some things that might help you have better bedtime habits? When young people come up with helpful ideas for how to develop good sleep habits, ask them to write them down on a piece of paper in checklist form. (Alternately, create a master checklist based on the answers and distribute copies.) Possible answers:

  • Try to go to bed at the same time every night. Your body gets used to a schedule and will be ready to sleep.
  • Don’t drink sodas with caffeine, especially in the afternoon and at nighttime.
  • Make sure your bedroom is cool, dark and quiet.
  • Exercise during the day. Running and playing at least 3 hours before bed helps your body get ready for sleep.
  • Avoid big meals before bedtime. Drink a glass of warm milk or have a light, healthful snack like fruit.
  • Have a bedtime routine. Do the same relaxing things before bed each night, like taking a warm shower, reading or listening to quiet music. Your body will know it’s time to get ready to sleep.

Activity: Sleep Diary

A good night’s sleep is important. Keep track of your sleeping habits using a sleep diary.

After a full night of sleep, you wake up ready for a new day of school, fun activities or family time. You use a lot of energy throughout your day to go to school, play outside, do your homework, participate in sports, practice an instrument, and play with your friends. After all of that, your body needs sleep!  Your body is just like a car’s gas tank, full in the morning and empty at the end of the day. If your family has a car, your parents have to fill up the car’s gas tank. Getting enough sleep will help you to fill up YOUR own gas tank! A full tank gives you enough energy to stay busy and do your best each and every day!

When you get enough sleep, you can:

  • pay attention better in school
  • be creative
  • fight sickness so you stay healthy
  • be in a good mood
  • get along with friends and family
  • solve problems better.

When you don’t get enough sleep, you can:

  • forget what you learned
  • have trouble making good choices
  • be grumpy and in a bad mood
  • have trouble playing sports/games
  • be less patient with brothers, sisters and friends
  • have trouble listening to parents and teachers
  • become sick more often.

You should talk to your parents and doctor if you:

  • have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
  • snore or have trouble breathing while you sleep
  • have weird feelings or “growing pains” in your legs
  • feel sleepy or tired during the day.

Conclusion

Ask the young people to use this sleep diary to keep track of their sleep over the next week to help them know how healthy their sleep habits are or are not.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing healthy sleep habits at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog(s)

Promoting a good night’s sleep

Are your kids getting enough sleep?

Additional Instructor Resources

Your Kid’s Sleep

Decreasing Screen Time

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people define “screen time” and potential problems with spending too much time looking at electronic screens. They will analyze how much of their day they spend in front of electronic screens and think of healthy ways to limit their screen time.

Instructor Notes

Before facilitating this lesson, you may want to review the following information about screen time for children. These facts can be shared with young people during your discussions.

We live in a world full of electronics and screens. We can find screens everywhere, from the face of a cell phone to the big movie screen. There are television, computer, tablet screens and more. People spend time in front of screens for work as well as play. They are necessary, however many people spend far too much time in front of a screen.

Screen time includes time spent:

  • watching television
  • using the computer or internet
  • texting using a cell phone
  • playing handheld games
  • other electronic devices.

Too much time in front of a screen can be harmful to our eyes. Individuals are encouraged to look away from screens every 20 minutes so our eyes have a chance to focus on other objects before returning to the screen. Increased screen time is often associated with decreased activity. A decrease in physical activity can lead to weight gain and other health problems.

How much screen time do you think that kids 2 years old and younger be allowed?
How much screen time for kids older than 2?

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the following for screen time:

  • Children younger than 18 months: No screen time, except for video-chatting.
  • Children 18 months to 24 months: If you want to introduce screen time to your child, choose high-quality programs and watch them with your child.
  • Children age 2 to 5: Limit your child to 1 hour or less of high-quality programs each day. Watch these programs with your child to help him/her better understand them.
  • Children age 6 and older: Set a screen time limit that is right for your child and the whole family. It’s important that screen time never replaces healthful behaviors such as physical activity, sleep and interaction with others.

Activity

  1. Ask the young people if they know what screen time is. Then explain that screen time includes time spent:
    • watching television
    • using the computer or internet
    • texting using a cell phone
    • playing hand-held games
    • other electronic devices.
  2. Have the youth list the various screens in their current environment or home. You can then point out the growing number of screens each young person is exposed to in a typical day. Here are some to add to the list: cell phones, televisions, movie screens, screens in arcades, handheld games, computers, and screens in cars.
  3. Ask the young people how much time they spend in front of a screen each day. Talk about the importance of limiting total screen time to two hours or less each day.
  4. Emphasize the benefit to their body by having them be physically active over sedentary screen time activity. Our bodies like to move and be physically active. When we sit in front of a television screen for hours we don’t get the amount of physical activity our bodies need every day.
  5. Pass out the “Change the Channel on Screen Time” handout and crayons to each young person. Cross out the pictures of screens. Color the pictures that show good things to do when you turn away from the screens.
  6. Allow the youth time to color. If time permits, young people can draw a picture of their own idea on the back of the paper, emphasizing the healthful benefits of physical activity over screen time. Volunteers can share their drawings.

Conclusion

Set screen time goals for the next week. Some examples include:

  • Turn the television off if nobody’s really watching it.
  • Eat our food in the kitchen or dining room. No screen time while eating!
  • Do not text during family meals or other time set aside for family activities.

Keep track of your screen time each day. When you’ve reached two hours, replace your screen time with a healthy activity. If you’ve had plenty of exercise already, read a book, make artwork or crafts, or even just have a conversation with other family members.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes these tips, so that families can continue discussing ways to limit screen time at home.

Guided Imagery for Younger Children

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand the negative effects of tension and stress, and how guided imagery can help you relax. The facilitator will lead young people in a guided imagery exercise.

Instructor Notes

Before facilitating this lesson, you may want to review the following information about guided imagery. This can be shared with young people during your discussions.

What is guided imagery? How can guided imagery be helpful to us? How do you do it?

Guided imagery is a simple, powerful technique that can have many health-related physical and emotional benefits. It can help people feel less nervous or upset, be less bothered by pain, or achieve a goal such as an athletic or academic achievement. Through guided imagery you can learn to use your imagination to “create the state you want,” meaning that you can actually change how you are feeling and what you are focused on. Even very young children can begin to learn this skill by linking images in their minds with feelings and experiences.

Introduction

This introduction demonstrates the negative effects tension and stress can have on our bodies. The next activity teaches youth how to reduce stress and tension through guided imagery.

  1. Use a rubber band to help describe to young people how much it can hurt us to be stretched and stressed too far or for too long.  Stretch the rubber as far as it will go and point out that if we keep it in this position too long it will snap. Explain that the same thing is true for humans, we need to be able to relax, calm, down, and get rid of our tension in order to be well.
  2. Have the youth flex as many muscles in their bodies as they can and then have them hold the tense, tightened position for several seconds. As they are doing so, ask how long they think they can keep it up? Will they be OK if they have to be this tense all day? Point out that sometimes our minds are tense like that and we don’t know how to let them go.

Activity: Guided Imagery

This activity teaches youth how to reduce stress and tension through guided imagery. Introduce guided imagery by explaining that it’s a way you can make pictures in your mind that can help you feel calm and relaxed. Then lead them through this simple guided imagery process.

  1. Find a comfortable position. You can sit or lie down.. Notice how you are feeling right now… your body and your mind.
  2. Take a deep breath in through your nose, and let the air out through your mouth.
  3. Take another breath, and feel your whole body getting calm as you breathe out.
  4. Continue to breathe slowly and gently.
  5. Breathe in relaxation….. and breathe out any worries….. breathe in calm…. and let all your worries go as you breathe out….
  6. Now imagine in your mind a place where you feel totally comfortable and happy. This might be a favorite place you have been, or somewhere you have seen, or it might be completely made up. It’s up to you.
  7. Picture a place where you feel happy and calm.
  8. Start to add details now: What do you see there? What do you hear? How does this wonderful, calm, happy place smell?
  9. Imagine how your body feels. You are comfortable, enjoying the nice temperature….happy being still and relaxed or doing whatever enjoyable activities you participate in here.
  10. Enjoy the way you feel in this safe place.
  11. You feel calm and safe here.
  12. Remain in your place while you practice being calm and relaxed.
  13. Again notice the environment around you in this place. Take some moments to just enjoy it and be here. Soon, it will be time to leave, but know that you can return here in your imagination any time to relax, feel calm, and feel comfortable and safe.
  14. In a moment I will count to three. You can become more awake and energized  on the count of three.One… take a deep, cleansing breath in… and breathe out slowly.
    Two… take another deep breath…. and breathe out…
    Three…. you are feeling calm, confident, and refreshed.

Conclusion

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes directions for guided imagery, so that families can practice “creating the state they want” at home. Learn more about Health Powered Kids and how we provide exercises and lessons for young people.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

In the know on guided imagery

Additional Instructor Resources

Visualizing Your Special Place

What’s My Portion Size?

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Lesson Overview

Foods commonly eaten by kids are typically served in larger portions than what their bodies really need. This lesson uses MyPlate to help young people recognize how much of a meal should come from each food group. The youth will compare healthy portion sizes to common items.

Instructor Notes

Foods commonly eaten by kids are typically served in larger portions than what their bodies really need. Often it’s the foods high in less desirable nutrients (fat, sugar and sodium) that are served as the largest portion. Fruits and vegetables, rich in vitamins, minerals and fiber are usually given the least emphasis. The impact of this distortion of portions over time could impact health by contributing to obesity and increased risk for chronic (long-lasting) diseases.

Introduction

Show the youth the baggie with 1 cup of cereal in it. Then show them the baggie with 2 cups of cereal in it.

Ask the young people which portion looks like the amount they would pour in their bowl. Is it the single serving, double or possibly adding the two baggies together, which would represent three servings.

Display the three different sized bowls and ask the class what size bowl do they use when they eat cereal? It is easier to eat more than we need when we are using large portion bowls.

Pour cereal from box into each bowl and then measure how many servings actually fit into each bowl.

Ask the young people, what are some other foods that they would likely eat more than one serving at a time? Examples: macaroni and cheese, ice cream, chicken nuggets, chips/snack crackers.

Activity: MyPlate

Introduce the youth to MyPlate. Show MyPlate graphic or use our Interactive Whiteboard activity (see What You Need) to talk about MyPlate. Explain to the youth that it is important for our bodies to get the right balance of foods so we can stay strong and healthy as we grow. If we get too much of one kind of food and not enough of another, our bodies could end up getting sick or not growing the right way.

Show them how certain foods have a place on MyPlate.

Ask the youth why they think fruits and vegetables take up 1/2 of the plate.

  • These foods give us lots of nutrients (vitamins, minerals, fiber) for our bodies so we want to make sure we are eating enough of them.

Now, let’s practice and see if we can match the different food group items to their recommended portion size. Ask the youth: What are some of the ways to get just the right portion of a food item the next time we eat a meal or snack?

  • Use the ChooseMyPlate.gov Food Gallery to see portion sizes visualized. (See links below).
  • Use common items such as a DVD/CD or a tennis ball to help us with our portion sizes.
  • Include fruits and vegetables more often because they are the foods we want to eat the most. If time permits, use the ChooseMyPlate.gov Food Gallery to come up with your own comparison of portion size to common objects.

Conclusion

Welcome additional ideas the youth have and encourage them to remember to often include fruits and vegetables with their meals and snacks.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing healthy portion sizes at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Portion sizes: What amount is ‘right’?

Additional Instructor Resources

Love Your Lunch!

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how to choose a healthful meal when eating school lunch. Youth will draw their lunch choices on paper trays, then examine the drawings to see if their meal represents the five food groups.

Instructor Notes

School lunches play an important part in meeting a child’s daily nutritional needs. Since most elementary age children need about 1,500 to 2,000 calories each day, the school lunch helps them meet that goal. Often young people will limit their food choices from the school lunch menu due to a lack of food/nutrition knowledge as well as some “selective” eating patterns. It is important to introduce young people at an early age to the concept of balance in eating. By choosing a variety of colorful foods from the five food groups (vegetables, fruits, dairy, grains and protein) they will have a healthful meal.

Activity: Love Your Lunch

This activity explores the current choices young people make at lunch by learning about the five food groups.

  • Pass out a lunch tray template to each young person.  Ask the youth to fill in their lunch tray worksheet with their favorite school lunch menu food choices by coloring food items or cutting out pictures of food items from magazines.
  • When the youth are finished drawing, review the lunch tray activity and ask young people the following questions:
    • How many young people have less than five colors on their tray?
    • How many have more than five colors?
  • Explain that it is important to have many colors on their trays. Why do you think this might be true? It means that their lunch is more likely to include a variety of foods from the five different food groups which makes it a healthful meal.
  • Introduce the youth to the five food groups: vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, and protein. Show food models, the resources at ChooseMyPlate.gov or pictures of foods representing each of the five food groups.
    • How many different food groups do you have on your lunch tray?  If time permits, ask if young people want to share the food groups they have included on their lunch tray. Give positive feedback to the healthful five food group choices the youth have listed or drawn.
    • Ask young people what food item they could add or change the next time they go through the lunch line to make it an even healthier meal that includes more of the five food groups.
  • Open the Online Interactive Lesson and Activity to review the five food groups. Young people can practice choosing more healthful foods for their bag lunch or school lunch.

Food Gallery
From ChooseMyPlate.gov

Conclusion

Conclude the lesson by handing out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue talking about healthful food choices at home.

Health Powered Kids Blog

Back to school means helping kids choose a healthy lunch

Additional Instructor Resources

Wash Hands for Health!

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand the importance of hand-washing. Youth will learn how to wash their hands and color a worksheet with the  proper hand-washing steps.

Introduction

Germs are everywhere, but we can take action to reduce them and lower our chances of getting sick! Washing your hands is the easiest way to reduce the risk of spreading germs that cause infections. Everyone can benefit from learning good hand-washing techniques. You should wash your hands after using the bathroom, blowing your nose, coughing, sneezing, and before eating.

If you cannot get to a sink, clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Hands get more germs on them than other parts of your body.

When you touch your eyes, nose or mouth, the germs can get inside your body and can make you sick. And when you have germs on your hands, you can spread the germs to other people and make them sick too.

Germs on your hands can also get on food you eat and can make you sick. That’s why it’s important to wash your hands before helping with any food preparation and before meals or snacks.

To help stop the spread of germs you should cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands. Put the used tissue in the waste basket and go wash your hands.

Activity

We know that germs can make us sick. But where are germs and how do they make us sick? What can we do to stop germs from making us sick? Wash our hands!

Today we’re going to learn why we need to wash our hands and how to wash germs away the right way.

Engage the youth in a discussion about the right steps to good hand-washing. Refer them to the “Simple Steps for Squeaky Clean Hands” handout. Read through steps one through six and show good hand-washing if a sink is available. The youth can color the worksheet as well.

Ask young people, how long should we wash our hands to be sure to get the germs off?

You should wash your hands for as long as it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song. And be sure to wet your hands with clean running water (warm or cold)… and use soap!

Depending on the age of the youth, you might want to post hand-washing tips near the sink in the bathroom.

Conclusion

Conclude the lesson by handing out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes these tips, so that families can continue developing healthy hand-washing habits at home.

 Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Practicing good hand-washing techniques will help keep germs away

Power-Up With Snacks!

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people choose healthy snacks. The youth will color a worksheet and decide which foods are healthful choices.

Introduction

Introduce the lesson by discussing the following questions with young people:

Why do we eat snacks?

  • Stop our stomachs from being hungry

When do we eat snacks?  

  • Between mealtimes

How do we know if a snack is healthful?

  • When we think of “Power-Up” snack choices we should think of how they might fit into the five food groups (vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy and protein). Snacks that keep our bodies strong and healthy can be tied to the five food groups.

Show food models or pictures as you explain the food groups. You may want to reference the MyPlate graphic as a guide. For example – baby carrots (vegetable), berries (fruit), pita bread (grains), string cheese (dairy), and hard-boiled egg (protein). As for potato chips and cheese balls, they maybe started out as a healthy vegetable or grain, but through processing, more than half of a serving becomes extra calories from added fats and sugars. Processing often adds extra salt to the food item too.

Ask the youth to share some examples of healthful snack choices versus unhealthful snack choices. Reinforce that we need to feed our bodies with healthful “Power-Up” snacks from the five food groups instead of snacks that won’t help to keep our bodies healthy and strong.

Open the Online Interactive Lesson and Activity. This helps you review the benefits of healthy snacking and gives examples of many snack foods from the five food groups. Young people can choose snacks from the food groups to build their own creative snack idea.

Activity: Healthful Snacks Coloring Sheet

Hand out the Healthful Snacks Worksheet. Give the young people a few minutes to color (or circle if time is limited) the healthful snacks on the worksheet. Take a couple of minutes to explain why the individual items are considered either healthful or unhealthful.

Conclusion

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing healthy snacking at home.

Health Powered Kids Blog(s)

Healthy snacking: Moving beyond milk and cookies

Snacking made easy!

Additional Instructor Resources

www.choosemyplate.gov
Sneaky Sugars Handout – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)
What Kind of Sugar is in Your Food? Handout – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)
Are You a Smart Snacker? Handout – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)