Teach Nutrition with the Food Pyramid

If your child is making poor decisions during meal and snack times, try this activity! By making a food pyramid, your child will gain a concrete understanding of what foods are healthy and how many he should eat during the day. Have him keep track of his meals and snacks and he'll soon realize if he needs to eat more healthy foods. This is a great family activity to teach everyone if they're making smart choices when it comes to eating.

What You Need:

• Print out of Food Pyramid (found on mypyramid.gov or google images)
• Markers
• Poster board
• Notebook and pen
• Stickers of food (optional)

What to Do:

1. Explain to your child that a food pyramid shows the recommended servings of different types of food that you should eat.
2. Then go to http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/index.html with your child and look at the current food pyramid. Click through the interactive food pyramid with your child and talk about the recommendations. Explore the website together, because there are additional tools and information that you may find helpful.
3. Now, get out the poster board. Have your child draw a large food pyramid on it with each food group labeled in a different color. Help him write the daily recommendation of each group in the correct section. If you like, draw pictures of the food in different food groups or use stickers.
4. When the poster is finished, hang the pyramid on the fridge or on a cabinet in the kitchen.
5. With the notebook, have him record what he eats throughout the day. Start with breakfast, and be sure to include all snacks and drinks. Help him determine the correct category for each meal or snack.
6. At the end of the day, help your child go through his notebook while looking at the food pyramid. Ask him what he sees. Did his food choices meet the daily recommended allowances of the food pyramid?
7. If his food for the day did not meet the recommendations, brainstorm together about changes the two of you can make to his diet. For example, substituting soda with 100% juice, or having a piece of fruit instead of a bag of chips for a snack.
8. If you make modifications to your family's eating habits, you might want to try this activity again a few weeks later to see how your diet stacks up now!