Climb That Food Pyramid and Boost Those Kinder Reading Skills!

Taking a kindergartner to the grocery store can feel like a battle at times. What parent hasn’t been ambushed at every aisle with requests for cookies, candies, chips, and other toothache-inducing treats?

Parents, take heart. With just a few simple tools, you can teach your child important lessons about nutrition, build early reading skills, and maybe (just maybe) emerge from the store next time feeling calm, cool, collected and healthy too!

What You Need:

• 7 “Pouch” envelopes, preferably plastic, in different colors
• 1 clear plastic baggie (large enough to hold some index cards)
• Black permanent marker or label maker
• Colored markers
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• 3x5 cards
• Copy of the USDA “food pyramid” (easily downloaded from www.mypyramid.gov)

What You Do:

1. Start by sitting down at your kitchen table and looking over the color-coded USDA “food pyramid” with your child. (Note: The food pyramid has been updated within that last few years and is somewhat different than the original one that we know and love. Please make sure you use the updated food pyramid, which can be found on the USDA website.  They even provide a printable template for kids to use!) Ask your child questions about food and the pyramid. What are the five largest food groups? What’s not on the recommended list (candy, high fat food, “junk”). Which are your favorite foods?
2. Use your first six “pouches” to label each of the five largest food groups on the chart as well as smallest section on the pyramid (oils): grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat/beans and oils. Since these are fairly advanced words for your kindergartner, you’ll probably want to do the writing, but be sure to talk as you go. Invite your child to draw an example of each category on the outside of the envelope as well. Color code each envelope according to the corresponding color on the USDA pyramid.
3. Make one last pouch for sugary “extra” foods—the kind about which the USDA warns, “Know your limits!”  These will vary according to your family’s tastes…but let’s be honest: just about every household will have a few of them. What’s important is that your child separates them from the core healthy choices on the pyramid.
4. Over the next few weeks—when you're preparing dinner is a good time—start cutting labels off your family's favorite foods. Invite your child to do some of the cutting himself (scissor practice is excellent for kinders!) and paste them onto 3x5 index cards. Then help him place them in the proper pouch. If a favorite food—bananas, for example—has no label, have your child draw the fruit on a card and help him write its name beneath the picture.
5. Next time you go to the store with your kindergartner, ask him to plan with you first. Have him go through the label collection, and pick out his choices and put them in the clear plastic “shopping pouch." Explain that he needs to select at least one item from each colored food group envelope, and that you will only be buying a certain number (you pick!) from the “extras” pouch.
6. At the store, put him in charge of matching cards to foods/food groups. Celebrate the learning, too: see how many different words he has learned to read as a result of this project he and how healthy his choices can be!

Did You Know?

In kindergarten, one of the first reading activities your child will do is called an “environmental print.” Sounds huge, but it’s actually quite simple and immediate: teachers want your child to become aware of the millions of times that all of us see and use the words around us (in our environment). It’s also a confidence builder - young kids are delighted to discover that there’s already stuff they can “read.” At the same time, kindergarten science frequently includes early lessons on nutrition. Kids see pictures of the major food groups and talk about healthy choices.  By doing this activity, you’re reinforcing several things at once: science, reading, proper nutrition, and (let’s not leave this one out!) your own peace of mind!