Nutrition Games for Groups of Kids

Kids love learning about nutrition and how food affects their bodies, especially when the lessons are fun. Turning nutrition lessons into games makes learning easier and keeps children focused for longer periods of time. When nutrition lessons are incorporated into other subjects, kids understand that what they eat affects their overall health and how their bodies feel. There are plenty of ways to encourage kids to eat healthy and take an interest in nutrition.

Tasting Games

• Instead of turning the dining room table into a battleground, use a tasting game to get kids to sample new foods. Pairing a favorite food with different dipping sauces allows children to sample a variety of tastes such as sweet, bitter, sour and spicy. This game works well for younger children, but older kids can follow up the tasting experience with a discussion about the ingredients in the sauces and how the different tastes appeal to their taste buds. Give each child several crackers or chicken strips for dipping into sauces such as honey mustard, barbecue or ranch.

  Allow each child in the group to choose a healthy food, and then give a persuasive speech encouraging his or her classmates to try the food. Speeches may include information about the food, ways to prepare it, why it tastes good and what makes it healthy. Award points to each speech giver based on how many in the group try his or her food. At the end of the game award a prize to the winner.

Health Games

• It is important for children to make the connection early in life between how they feel and what they eat. Assign each child a food and have him move around the room as he would after eating the food. For instance, the child assigned leafy salad greens will have loads of energy, allowing him to walk briskly around the room. The child assigned junk food should move her body in slow motion.

  Create a board game for children with a path leading to a happy, healthy child. Children choose from cards featuring pictures of different foods and move along the board's path based on the health of the food. For instance, if a child chooses a card with a picture of fruit, she gets to move ahead two spaces on the board. Depending on the reading level of the children, the game can be simple or elaborate and feature a variety of health and nutrition lessons.

Science and Math Games

• Have the children record their daily servings of fruits and vegetables on graph paper for one week. At the end of the week, the children with the highest number of servings win prizes. If you suspect children may bend the rules while graphing, have them list the foods they are eating on the back of the paper to compare to the graph. Older children should list the sizes of their servings, as well as which foods they have eaten.

  Divide children into small teams and give each group several whole vegetables and fruits, as well as a handheld juicer or reamer and a large measuring cup. The team that extracts the most juice from the fruits and vegetables at the end of a set time is the winner. Distribute fruits and vegetables that pair well together so kids can sample the juice after the game. Challenge the kids to determine what, besides speed of juicing, affected the outcome of the game. The answer, of course, is the water content of each fruit or vegetable.

Language Arts Games

• Divide children into teams and give each team randomly organized cards with the names of foods. Have the teams compete to see who can alphabetize their cards the fastest. Match the teams up two at a time and set a timer. Advance the fastest alphabetizers to the next round of the game until only one winning team is left. As a prize, let the winning team choose the class snack for the day.