Healthy Eating is Fun for Kids with National Nutrition Month March 2015

Visit MyPlate Kids' Place for tons of great information and fun, including games, recipes, videos, songs and more! Don't forget all of the free materials you can order and/or download like this vegetable race car poster!

My Plate for Kids

March is National Nutrition Month

Become a MyPlate Champion for National Nutrition Month

Press the MyPlate Ribbon and have your students  make a pledge to become a MyPlate Champion for National Nutrition Month!  You can download personalized certificates for the children to take home!

Join the Two-Bite Club for National Nutrition Month!

Click The Two-Bite Club image, and go directly to the USDA's web page to download the materials.  We hang a grid in the hallway with a marker attached to a string.  The dates are across the top and the children's names are listed down the left side.  On any day that a child tries two bites of a new food or a food they usually don't like (and we limit this to healthy foods, of course), they have the freedom to stop at the chart the next morning and put a check mark in their box for that day.  At the end of the month (you can shorten this to a week or two), we tally up how brave each child was with trying new foods, and everyone goes home with some fun nutrition information and a certificate for being a member of the Two-Bite Club.  The kids really enjoy the challenge, there are some great conversations that arise from it, and we have found that several children changed some of their snacking habits.  There is certainly a heightened awareness of "which food is healthier" and "which food gives me energy and which makes me tired" at the lunch table.  Be sure to introduce MyPlate before doing this, and don't forget to set up your lesson so that the kids notice on their own that there is no place on My Plate for junk food!   What an eye opener it is!!

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Nutrition Resources:

• Choose MyPlate:  http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
• MyPlate for Kids: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/kids/
• MyPlate Daily Food Plans for Preschoolers:  http://www.choosemyplate.gov/health-nutrition-information-preschoolers/daily-food-plan-preschoolers.html
• USDA's Cookbook for Child Care Centers: http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/recipes-healthy-kids-cookbook-child-care-centers-0

• Federal Nutrition Education Resources:  http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/downloads/USDA-DHHS-ComprehensiveListing-FederalNutritionEducationResources2005-to-Feb2010.pdf
• The Family Dinner Project:  http://thefamilydinnerproject.org/
• Food Network's Recipes Kids Can Make: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/packages/recipes-for-kids/cooking-with-kids/recipes-kids-can-make.html

Have Other Nutrition Resources to Share?  Post a Comment!