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9th Grade Level Fitness & Nutrition Activities

High school is the perfect time to teach students about nutrition and fitness. With their fast-paced lives of activities, school and sports, it's easy for students, especially 9th graders starting their high school experience, to lose sight of good eating habits and healthy lifestyle choices. Whether you are a teacher, parent or a coach, there are activities that can help your child understand fitness and nutrition in fun and creative ways.

  1. Food log

    • This activity can be integrated in a school lesson plan, or even done at home by a family to keep track of their eating habits. Create a “You Are What You Eat” log and ask your 9th grader to keep track of everything they consume in one week. At the end of the week, have them sort the list to see how many of the items fit into the food groups. Also, have them look up the calorie and fat content of each item. Write the totals for each category and then determine what foods need to be added and what needs to be minimized.

    Create a cookbook

    • Work together with your 9th grader to create a recipe book of fun and nutritious snacks. Leave this book on the counter so that when your child asks for a snack, they can create it themselves. Examples of snacks can include trail mix, dried fruit, frozen fruit, peanut butter on celery, and even fruit juice popsicles.

    Build an obstacle course

    • It is important to not only encourage healthy eating, but to also create fitness and exercise opportunities for your child. A great activity that high school students love is an obstacle course. You can create this in a school gym, or even your back yard. You can create one by using everyday objects such as lawn chairs, cardboard boxes, cones, and old tires. Be sure to keep track of the runner’s time so you can see the improvements made.

    Create fitness cards

    • Fitness cards are a great way to introduce young adults to exercise and fitness. Create a set of index cards that have a different activity listed on each card. Each day pick a card from the deck of activities and play that activity with your child for 20 minutes. Activities can include running, biking, playing catch, jumping jacks, or shorter versions of sporting events (football, baseball, hockey, etc…).

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