Healthy eating activities for preschool can have an impact on the foods your children are willing to eat. Three of my kids love fruits and veggies more than junk food and the fourth loves meat. A healthy eating theme in preschool provides fun activities to give kids exposure to fruits and veggies to learn the names, nutrition information, and hopefully teach children good eating habits even in picky eaters. This Food Games and Activities Free Printables for Preschoolers includes a ton of free nutrition activities for preschoolers.
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Learning With a Nutrition Theme in Preschool
FOOD THEMED ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOL
PRESCHOOL BOOKS ABOUT NUTRITION AND FRUIT AND VEGETABLE ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOL GIVE CHILDREN IMPORTANT BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON HOW TO FUEL OUR BODIES.
There’s no question kids are often bombarded with candy, ice cream, cupcakes and sweet treats from every direction. Learning about healthy foods and nutrition gives children the understanding that feeding the body proper nutrition comes in other forms.
Whether you head to the farmer’s market, or visit the produce aisle at the grocery store, bring your kids with to see, touch, smell and taste the different fruits and vegetables.
This pack of fruit and vegetable preschool activities offers great hands-on learning of important skills with colorful food pictures to teach vocabulary, food groups, growing cycles, and more.
In addition to learning about food and flavors, the preschool theme encourages additional questions for thought:
- Where do different fruits grow?
- Which vegetables hide underground until they are ripe?
- What kind of fruit grows on a tree/vine/bush?
- What vitamins are found in apples/broccoli/carrots/onion/etc.?
What Can Preschoolers Learn With Food Themed Activities?
FOOD GROUP ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOL
GAMES, ACTIVITIES, AND HEALTHY EATING BOOKS FOR PRESCHOOL ARE EFFECTIVE WAYS TO ENGAGE YOUNG LEARNERS WHILE TEACHING IMPORTANT LIFE-LONG CONCEPTS.
The food themed games included in the PreK pack cover a variety of skills:
- Visual discrimination
- Counting
- Matching
- Vocabulary
- Colors
Why Is It Important For Kids To Learn About Nutrition?
Children are naturally curious about everything around them. Learning about the importance of good nutrition from an early age sets the stage for a healthy child, adolescent, and adult.
Background Knowledge
Learning about fruits and vegetables provides valuable background knowledge about food groups, healthy choices, and their importance within a balanced diet.
Connect with Nature
The more children know and understand about the natural world, the more they will connect with and understand natural surroundings. Knowing food comes from a vegetable garden vs. the truck outside the grocery store is key!
Good Habits
Promoting good choices early in a child’s development ensures they will grow, develop and mature in the most healthy ways possible.
Make Connections
Food is an everyday part of a preschooler’s life since birth. This makes it a really natural theme for kids to connect to where they already have background to connect do and attach learned vocabulary and ideas.
Tools you’ll need
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PreK Food Games and Activities Pack
Food Color Matching Clip Cards
Work on fine-motor skills by attaching a clothespin to the clip card on the color that matches the food shown on the card.
Fruit & Veggies Memory
Print on scrapbook paper so that the cards are not see-through.
To play: To play Memory, turn over two cards at the same time. If they match, you get to keep them and turn over another set of healthy food cards to try again.
If they don’t match, you turn them back over and it becomes the next person’s turn. Play continues until the food cards have all been matched.
Counting Clip Cards
To play, children count the fruits/veggies, identify the correct numeral, and clip it. Create self-checking cards by placing a light dot on the back of the correct number.
Three-Piece Puzzles
Practice counting to 3 with these super simple puzzles.
Fruit and Vegetable Spin & Cover
Create a spinner with the brad and the paper clip. Then use pom poms, buttons or other game markers to mark the different fruits and vegetables as they are spun.
Our Favorite Nutrition Books For Kids:
We can’t live without these!
Once your child’s creativity is sparked with these food activities, take it a step further with these engaging resources:
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I Can Eat a Rainbow (Children’s Book Collection)Good Enough to Eat: A Kid’s Guide to Food and Nutrition
The Silly Food Book: A seriously funny book about food
Eat More Colors: A Fun Educational Rhyming Book About Healthy Eating and Nutrition for Kids, Vegan Book, Plant Based Book, Colorful Pictures, Fun Facts
Eating the Alphabet
The Smart Cookie (The Food Group)
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Chicks and Salsa
Sensory Bin
Create a fruit and vegetable/garden sensory bin! Use real dirt, rice, plastic fruit and veggies, seeds, or other food-related items and let kids explore.
Have a Snack
Edible fruit and vegetable art possibilities are endless! From Mr. Potato Head (for real) to fruit skewers, kids LOVE creating with food before gobbling it up!
Play a Game
Continue learning about food with a fun board game designed to engage and teach more about all the different types of food and food groups.