Today, we are talking about nutrition, which is lesson five in Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. While The Homeschool Scientist and I might have taken a week off, I am coming back stronger than ever. Must be all the vitamins I have been eating. Or, it could be because I have been waiting for this lesson for a long time!
Free nutrition lesson printables
After studying the text, discussing the food groups in detail, and looking through videos on YouTube, I brought out some new printables.
With the Choose MyPlate Printables, you have a lot of flexibility:
- Use the cards to have the children sort the food groups
- Color the plate according to the key, matching the Choose MyPlate standard at the USDA website
- Allow the children to create their own meal plan by putting the cards on the plate
Lira had a great time pretending like she was shopping and eating. If only she would try some of these foods in real life…
Matching the vitamins to the source and part of the body aided by those nutrients was a great review of what we learned in the textbook, Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology.
I placed a lot of focus on the healthiest food being the food that is closest to the way God created it. At first, this was a confusing concept for the children and I had to make them think about the Garden of Eden and what was grown there.
Shopping for nutritious foods
You have got to practice what you learn, right? So, we gathered the children and headed off to the grocery store. Divided into teams, each group had a grocery list. The goal was to find the healthiest items we could and still match the needs for our scavenger hunt. Our definition of nutritious food is a food that is as close as possible to the way God created it.
I think the girls had a definite advantage since Mommy knows the store so well and Lira has been paying attention during our lessons, but the boys definitely lost since they picked up honey wheat bread instead of whole wheat bread. SCORE!
While we did this scavenger hunt in a store, you could easily have a child do this in your home. Just make sure you plan ahead and have something for each item on the checklist before sending your child through your refrigerator.
And a classic nutrition video
While searching for videos about nutrition on YouTube, I got a big giggle from this old video and had to share it before signing off today. Enjoy!
Other resources for teaching nutrition
- Kids Eating Healthy (video)
- Vegetables on My Plate (video)
- Choose My Plate (website)
- Talking My Plate (interactive website/game)
- Place Setting Template (printable from Education.com – great with pictures cut from magazines)
- Spell Outloud Nutrition Lesson
- The Power of Choice PDF Curriculum from the USDA
- Printable activities for various ages at Super Kids Nutrition
- Nutrition Math at Kidzmet (links and ideas)
Free printables for you
- Healthiest Food Choice (PDF)
- Vitamin Matching Printable (PDF)
- Healthy Food Scavenger Hunt (PDF)
- Free Choose MyPlate Printables (PDF)
Don’t forget to swing by The Homeschool Scientist and see what they did this week as they studied nutrition.
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