KIDS LEARN HOW TO MAKE FOOD FUN!

11/29/20

At BOKS we believe in the power of movement and exercise, especially when it’s fun. We know that good habits start young and we also know that fueling your body with nutritious food is key to building healthy habits that last a lifetime. This is why our BOKS programming includes nutrition tips called BOKS Bits. Our Bits are small snip-its of information to help kids form healthy opinions on food choices. Even with our BOKS Bits, we focus on fun. Sharing creative games and tips about food helps kids retain the information when they are at home, food shopping, and even when eating out.

December is a month that has a lot of events where making healthy food choices becomes very important. With a little bit of knowledge and some tips, let’s make this season one where we can continue to be active and have fun with food.

Whether you celebrate one or more holidays, you and your kids are often faced with many options to consume treats throughout December (even in our new socially distanced environment). Here are three quick tips to help encourage kids to make healthy choices this season:

  1. Keep healthy snacks in visible locations as opposed to sweets. A bowl of fresh fruits versus a platter of cookies OR a veggie tray put out for an after school snack. How about creating a winter-themed veggie tray?
  2. Involve your kids in meal planning. What vegetable side dish would they like to help make?
  3. Similar to the games mentioned below – create a rainbow chart and see how many colors of the rainbow your kids can eat in a day.

Making learning about nutrition, fun.

Some of our BOKS Bits focus on fruits and vegetables which are good to eat each day. Did you know that a fruit is the part of a plant that contains the seed or seeds? If the seeds find their way into soil, they can eventually grow into new plants. An apple is an obvious example of fruit, but we might be surprised to learn that both tomato and avocado are actually fruits because they both have seeds. A fun activity to try is to take a seed and plant it in some soil and place in a sunny spot. Even in winter, your seed can sprout and grow. Vegetables, on the other hand, are the leaves, stems, roots and even the flowers of the plants that we eat. Lettuce is an example of the leaves of the plant we eat, broccolis are the flowers and the stalk, and potatoes are the root of the plant. While one can read this information and remember it, for kids it is so much more fun to play a game to help reinforce the information in order to make healthy food choices. Here is an activity from America’s Test Kitchen to check out and see if you can regrow a vegetable.  Click here to see the activity.

 

Here are two activities to help kids remember and become familiar with different fruits and vegetables.

FRUIT “AS IF” BURST  

 

  1. Call out the movements that are associated with the fruit mentioned.
  2. Players perform the skill for 30 seconds each.
  • Balance on your chair (in the shape of a banana) rock back and forth “As If” you are a rocking banana.
  • Spin around right and left “As If” you are an orange spinning on its side.
  • Jump up “As If” you are picking apples off a tree.
  • Lean side to side “As If” you are straining cranberries out of a bog.
  • Squat down “As If” you are picking strawberries and putting them in containers.
  • Reach up and shake “As If” you are shaking grapes off the vine.

Challenge: Have the kids create a Vegetable “As If” Burst which will give them a chance to reinforce their knowledge of whether something is a fruit or a vegetable.

RAINBOW VEGETABLE GAME 

 

  1. Draw a rainbow – Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple.
  2. Associate a movement with each color.
  3. Red – Fast Feet, Orange – Give your neighbor a virtual high five, Yellow – 10 Butt Kickers, Green – Take a deep breath for 10 seconds, Blue – 10 Squat Jumps, Purple – 10 Toe Touches.
  4. Have the Leader list off different (i.e. celery, endive, fennel, bean sprouts, eggplant, lettuce, mushrooms, onion, pepper, carrots, and more!)
  5. Perform the activity that matches the color of the vegetable called.

Challenge:  Ask the kids to create a Rainbow Fruit Game to reinforce their knowledge of whether something is a fruit or vegetable.

We hope you enjoy these activities and healthy tips, as you teach your kids about nutrition and help them to make good food choices this December!

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LAURA BURATI

BOKS Manager Program & Training