There are some simple, easy resources to teach your little one about the 5 food groups! I struggled at first to come up with some ideas- but I think I have come up with a well-rounded list:

1. see ’em. Why not see where the fruits and vegetables come from by visiting a garden? It will make a lot more sense when trying to explain that vegetables grow in the ground and fruit grows in the trees if they have seen it with their own two eyes.
2. serve ’em. Make sure, if possible, that you have a variety of foods (in the food group you are learning about) available at home for your little one to try. Eating food can be just the ticket to make the food groups fun!
3. read about ’em. There are tons of great books out there that will teach your kiddos about the food groups and proper nutrition.
4. sing ’em. There are a couple sites with some food group songs: Food Guide Pyramid and CanTeach
5. wear ’em. I am not talking about a food fight. How fun would it be to have 6 little kiddos wearing paper bag vests filled with a variety of foods from the food group (cut from grocery ads) that they glued themselves? Or have one kid be the veggies, one be the fruit,etc. Just an idea!
6. sort ’em. Take out your plastic food and put them to use by doing a food sort. I used these cards and they worked great (see the do it yourself section down below to download). If you don’t have plastic foods, just print pics of the foods or download a second set of cards to match.

Here are the sorting cards for the food groups from this great site. They have some great downloads.

There are some food pyramid coloring sheets from the Produce for Better Health Foundation. There are some arts and crafts ideas using the food groups from Everything Preschool. Check out the nutrition page on our site’s wiki for more ideas!

I searched and searched for a good nutritious toddler menu that would require little cooking! I was happy to come across this site that offered a very simple meal idea.

For breakfast:

• 1/3 cup cooked cereal
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 slice toast with 1/2 teaspoon butter
• 4 ounces whole milk

For a morning snack:

• 2 graham crackers
• 4 ounces fruit juice

For lunch:

• 1/2 peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• 2 tablespoons cooked broccoli
• 1/4 cup melon
• 4 ounces whole milk

For an afternoon snack:

• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1/4 muffin

For dinner:

• 1-1/2 ounces chopped chicken
• 2 tablespoons peas
• 2 tablespoons baked potato with 2 teaspoons butter
• 1/2 slice whole wheat bread
• 4 ounces whole milk

For a snack:

• 1/2 cup canned fruit
• 1/2 ounce cheese
• 2 or 3 whole grain crackers

We tried it out yesterday and today (as best as we could spending the day at a campsite with family) and I am very pleased with it! It is simple, something I could tweak here and there, but it gives me that meal planning framework. My daughter won’t eat ALL of that food yet- but I am offering it to her and have already noticed a small increase in how much she is eating at the scheduled times and I am not being begged for crackers all day. I know she appreciates the wider variety of foods she gets during meal time. I want to write a weekly schedule similar to this one that offers that variety and yet can give me a shopping list every week!
Let’s hope this plan lasts! 🙂
Happy Teaching!

So our healthy adventures begin today! I have a few goals I would like to accomplish during our month of fitness:

1. MISSION NUTRITION come up with a weekly meal plan that INCLUDES healthy snacks, lots of H2O, and is properly balanced.
2. GROOVE & MOVE do a different movement activity every day for at least 30 minutes- this is to expose my Boo to a variety of fun activities as well as teach her some large motor skills
3. TIDY UP! declutter, organize, schedule,…. clean up our routine as well as our home! i plan on implementing a basic chore system as well

In honor of our FIT KID month- check out this song available for download at dole5aday.com:
I’m a Fit Kid