Introduction
Teaching children about healthy eating habits is crucial for their overall well-being. Using engaging and interactive tools like healthy food worksheets can make learning about nutrition fun and effective. These worksheets can introduce children to the five food groups, balanced meals, and the importance of making healthy choices.
The Kid’s Healthy Eating Plate: A Visual Guide
The Kid’s Healthy Eating Plate, created by nutrition experts at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, serves as a visual guide to educate and encourage children to eat well and stay active. It emphasizes the importance of variety in food choices to ensure a balanced diet rich in both macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and fat) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).
Key Components of a Healthy Diet
Whole Grains: Prioritize whole grains or foods made with minimally processed whole grains.
Healthy Fats: Remember that fat is a necessary part of our diet; focus on the type of fat consumed.
Water: Water is the best choice for quenching thirst.
Read also: Healthy food access with Highmark Wholecare explained.
Limit Sugary Drinks: Limit juice consumption to one small glass per day and avoid sugary drinks like sodas, fruit drinks, and sports drinks.
Avoid Junk Foods: The Kid’s Healthy Eating Plate excludes sugary drinks, sweets, and other junk foods.
Free Printable Nutrition Worksheets for Kids
Nourish Interactive offers free printables for kids, parents, and teachers to make learning about nutrition fun! These nutrition education printables include activities that encourage learning and discussion about healthy food choices and nutrition. Teachers can use and distribute these worksheets for educational purposes, provided the copyright and footer information remain intact.
Types of Worksheets Available
Balanced Meal Printables: These fun educational sheets help children learn about the five food groups and how to create balanced meals. They include nutrition facts based on USDA guidelines and promote the importance of all five food groups for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
MyPlate Learning Sheets: Introduce the new MyPlate to children with learning sheets, coloring pages, worksheets, and activity sheets using common food group terms.
Read also: Healthy Eating on the Run
Food Group Specific Printables:
Dairy Foods: Dairy foods or milk and milk products are essential for a child's diet, helping them grow strong bones and teeth. The Dairy food group is represented by the blue part of the new MyPlate and the Food Pyramid.
Fruits: Fruits are colorful and fun, providing children with important vitamins and minerals to fight disease and help their bodies grow strong. The fruit food group is the red part of the new MyPlate and the Food Pyramid.
Grains: The grains food group gives children energy, fiber, and nutrients. The grain food group is the orange part of the new MyPlate and the Food Pyramid. Printables include worksheets, activity sheets, and coloring pages to help children learn about the foods in this group.
Protein: Protein food groups are the building blocks of the body, helping children grow tall and healthy. Printables emphasize healthy lean proteins, with the protein food group represented by the purple part of the new MyPlate and the Food Pyramid.
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Vegetables: Vegetables are a necessary part of a child's healthy diet, and these printables show children how colorful and fun vegetables can be, with the vegetable food group represented by the green part of the new MyPlate and the Food Pyramid.
Minerals Printables: These printables focus on healthy foods high in specific minerals, showing children how colorful and fun it is to eat foods rich in essential minerals needed to build and maintain a strong, healthy body and prevent disease.
Nutrition Education Guides: Nutrition education guides, tips, and manuals are available for teachers to support classroom educational programs.
Tracing Alphabet Letters and Vocabulary Sheets: Nutrition-themed tracing alphabet letters and words are available for young writers, while nutrition vocabulary sheets help elementary children practice their writing and spelling skills while learning new vocabulary words.
Serving Sizes and Portion Control: These printables help kids learn about healthy serving sizes and how to estimate portions, which is key to healthy eating.
Food Labels: Students learn to read and compare food labels for nutrition information, an important skill for finding healthy foods.
Farm to Table Concepts: Introduce children to the farm where foods from the five food groups are grown, helping them learn about farm to table concepts, farm animals, and how food is grown.
Cooking Activities: Cooking is a wonderful way to introduce healthy foods to children, and these activities help kids learn about healthy food substitutions in recipes for delicious and nutritious meals, while also building solid math skills.
Gardening Activities: Fun learning pages, worksheets, and coloring sheets introduce children to the fun of gardening, showing them just how interactive and fun fresh food is when they learn about gardening and planting.
Food Safety and Handwashing: Printables and worksheets promote food safety and handwashing to preschool and elementary school children, teaching food safety guidelines based on USDA guidelines and basic handwashing principles.
Meal Planning Printables: These tools provide tips for creating healthy and balanced meals, developed based on the USDA MY Plate Food Guidelines.
Calendars: Kid-friendly calendars promote healthy messages each day to the whole family, with holiday and food-themed options available for every month of the year.
Pledge Sheets and Goal Tracking: Balanced Meal and Exercise Pledge sheets help children take action in living a healthy lifestyle by setting goals for eating healthy foods from the food groups and exercising daily. Healthy goals tracking sheets help children track their progress.
Exercise and Physical Activity: Worksheets and activities promote the importance of being active every day, helping children learn the importance of exercise and how much their body needs.
Body Systems and Health: These resources teach children how different foods and activities promote a healthy body, made of different organs and systems that work together to promote a strong body and mind that fights disease.
Group and Individual Activities: Activities are designed for both group and individual settings, with healthy themes incorporated into arts and crafts.
Seasonal and Holiday Activities: Fun activity pages and greeting cards with healthy positive messages are available for summer, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Additional Resources and Worksheets
MyPlate Collection: Browse the MyPlate collection of printable tip sheets and resources.
Lessons and Workshops for Teachers: Access lessons, workshops, activities, and curricula for teachers to help kids learn how to build a healthy meal.
Tips for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers: View tips for building healthy eating habits in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
FDA Resources: The FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition developed “Everyday Food Safety” resources to increase food safety awareness among young adults ages 18 - 29.
DASH Diet Handouts: Browse handouts and recipes for the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Diet.
Healthy Aging Materials: Find materials about healthy aging for older adults.
Sisters Together Program: The Sisters Together program encourages Black women ages 18 and older to reach and maintain a healthy weight.
Eating Disorders Brochure: Download, print, or order a free copy of this brochure on eating disorders.
Vitamin and Mineral Supplement Fact Sheets: Access vitamin and mineral supplement fact sheets for the consumer or health professional.
Physical Activity Guidelines: Print and share these fact sheets and posters to help people learn key recommendations from the Physical Activity Guidelines.
Healthy Cooking Methods: Learn about healthy cooking methods and the equipment needed for each method.
Weight Management Handouts: Find handouts to help you manage your weight with healthy eating and physical activity.
Nutrition Explorers! These worksheets can be used with this nutrition unit, including answers for pages 1 and 2.
Healthy Eating Habits Sorting Activity: Use the "Sometimes food and Anytime Food Coloring/ Sorting" pages for a healthy eating habits activity.
Eat-Well Plate Activity: Engage in a free, well-differentiated healthy-eating activity for upper elementary/lower middle school, all about healthy food and nutrition. This cross-curricular activity incorporates numeracy in the form of a healthy-eating pie chart that represents an 'eat-well plate'.
Creative and Engaging Worksheets
Healthy Eating Poster: A visual aid to help students understand different types of foods and which portions to eat, including a black and white version for students to decorate.
Fruit Word Search Puzzle: A fun activity to add to your early-finishers tub, where students search for healthy fruit words.
Food Pyramid Worksheets: Make learning about food groups and healthy eating fun with a food pyramid that matches the most recent changes to the food guide, including cut and paste food images and sorting activities.
Interactive Centers: Create interactive centers for students to participate in following lessons and discussions on healthy eating choices, food groups, and meal composition.
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