Healthy Interactive Activities for Kids in Grades 3-5

According to Let'sMove.gov, obesity rates among children have tripled in the last three decades. Today, physical activity and organized sports get competition from video games and television. To counteract this trend, teach your child healthy habits and activities early on. Organizing healthy interactive activities can make exercise more fun than work and set the foundation for lifelong health.

Healthy Cooking

• Teach kids to make their favorite snacks healthy.

  Healthy eating habits early on can lead to a lifetime of good choices. Involve kids in creating a healthy meal or snack to help them understand nutrition. Choose a snack that is popular among kids, such as pizza, and buy healthy ingredients to make the snack. For example, make a "pizzadilla" by instructing kids to put low-fat shredded cheese and spinach on a whole wheat wrap. Fold the wrap and cook it in a pan on the stove. Pour marinara sauce on a plate for dipping. Talk with your child about why you chose the ingredients and let them help you every step of the way.

Obstacle Course

• Encourage your child and his friends to make an obstacle course in the backyard. Use jump ropes, balls, a trampoline or a swing set to create the course. Prompt them to run, skip, jump and crawl to get moving. Give your child a stopwatch to see who can get through the obstacle course the fastest. The goal is not to win the obstacle course, but to get the heart pumping and create a positive physical activity for the whole group.

Pig Ball

• Who needs a computer game when you have a backyard and a ball?

  If your child isn't involved in competitive sports, get him moving with a street game, such as Pig Ball. Divide a group of kids into two teams and set up "endzones" at either end of a backyard or a basketball court. Use a ball such as a kickball or a Nerf ball. The team with the ball has to pass it to teammates to get the ball to their endzone. Once someone catches the ball, he cannot move. His teammates have to run around to become "open" so that they can catch the ball. See who can score the most points in 10 minutes.

Sponge Relays

• Get kids out of the house in the summertime with a water relay. Divide the group into teams. Each team gets a bucket with water and sponges. Place a glass or cup at the "finish line" for each team. When the race starts, one person from each team soaks her sponge in the bucket and runs to the cup. She squeezes the water from the sponge into the cup and runs back to hand off the sponge to the next person in line. See which team can fill up their cup first.