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Activities and Crafts Related to Kids Health

Doing crafts or other activities is one way to spend quality time with children while also fostering creativity and helping them learn. If those crafts or activities have something to do with health, it allows you to set the stage for the child to not only learn about health but to take what they have learned and apply it to their lives. If they begin using what they learn now, it can ensure long-term health into adulthood.

  1. Dental Health

    • A simple craft to teach dental health is to ask the children to draw an even number of teeth on a piece of paper. It doesn't have to be perfect, because they are going to paste over it anyway. Allow them to cut pictures of various foods out of old magazines. Designate half the teeth they drew as healthy and half of them as unhealthy, then ask them to paste foods that are good for teeth on the healthy teeth and sugary or bad foods on the unhealthy teeth.

    Heart Health

    • The American Heart Association has a printout available for download on its site. Print out one of these for each child and go over it with them. It shows the heart and how the system of veins and arteries supply blood to the entire body. You can then discuss with them what kinds of foods are the best for their heart, and which ones to avoid or eat in moderation. Allow them to color the printout as you explain all of these things to them.

    Nutrition

    • Plan a meal or snack that features all or as many of the four food groups as possible. Then have the child draw something from each food group: dairy, meat, fruits and veggies, fats and oils, and bread and pasta. You can also have them color in pictures from a pre-printed template like the one at DLTK-Kids. Poke a small hole on the top of each picture and thread some string through it, then tie it to the top of a paper towel roll. String yarn or string through the paper towel roll and knot it to form a hanger.

    Fitness

    • Hopscotch is not only a game kids will enjoy but also will get them moving. Kids can also play it just about anywhere. If chalk and a sidewalk are not available, making a hopscotch mat will allow them to play the classic game. Take a large roll of canvas and draw out eight squares in the traditional hopscotch alignment. You can use a magazine as a guide if it helps. Working with your child, fill in the numbers on each square and decorate, paint, or color in any way you desire. Punch a hole on one end and string some ribbon through it to act as a tie when you want to roll the mat up. Make a beanbag by filling an old sock or other sack with beans or rice.

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