Healthy Eating

A Literacy Lesson on Healthy Eating

In the current 2013 EYFS document, Healthy Eating comes under Physical Development: Health and self-care, 40-60 months and it says ‘Eats a healthy range of foodstuffs and understands need for variety in food.’

I’m not sure that is worded in the best way possible, as it’s not as if we as practitioners can police what the children are eating, but if we focus on the understanding of healthy eating we will be able to make measurable observations.

The focus on this lesson is creating a healthy lunch box. I start with the premise that I’ve forgotten my lunch box and I need the children to help me pack a healthy lunch box so I have something to eat today!

I have included the lesson plan below as long as a fantastic pack of resources..

The lesson plan begins with a lesson on the purposes of food (so carbohydrates for fuel, proteins for building muscles, etc.) which is a recap from work done during snack times or a science lesson.

The lesson then moves on to helping the teacher to prepare a healthy lunch box, looking at a balanced diet and creating balanced lunch menu, including drink.

A lot of the resources used in this lesson plan are from Twinkl.co.uk, a fantastic website with some really good resources. I recommend signing up for their premium content.

There are some amazing online resources for the children to use on computers or on the interactive white board related to healthy eating.

	Make a Balance Plate This game is a sorting game where the children take the pieces of food and drink and put these items into their food group on the plate. Click here to load the game.
	A Healthy Lunchbox Children are presented with a choice of lunch box and then a choice of food. The children’s lunch box is then assessed at the end with ticks. Click here to load the game.
	Unmuddle the Meals This game takes the different elements of a meal and sorts them into the food groups. It shows children a more complicated version of food sorting. Click here to load the game.
	Healthy Eating This site has a series of different interactive white board activities to work on with the children. Click here to access the lesson plan.

As I said, Twinkl has a fantastic set of resources related to Healthy Eating. I used many of them in my lesson but there are lots more you may be interested in.

	Design a healthy meal. Children could cut out their food themselves (using fine motor skills) and colour in the black and white version of this activity, or if you laminate the pictures the children can place their food on the plates. Children could also use the pictures as guides for drawing their own plates. The link to the resource is here!
	Shopping list writing frames! Writing frames are very different to worksheets. A writing frame gives the children a framework for which they can put in their own writing. They work really well as a guide as children have a purpose for writing. Instead of using writing frames you could buy ultra cheap note pads from the £1 shop to use instead. Click here to go to the resource.
	Cafe Role Play This premium pack has everything you need for turning your role play area into a cafe. I thoroughly recommend signing up as a school to Twinkl as it really is worth it. Alternatively, you can ask the children to work with you to make a cafe by yourselves, using this as an artwork project. Click here to access this resource.
	Fill my tummy activity This seems a little fidgety for the little ones to make so I’d print this out on A3 and laminate for the children to use as an independent activity. Click here to access the resource.
	Healthy eating word bank Always useful to every independent writing area, word banks mean that children can look up their own words and copy. It’s surprising how much children enjoy copying writing later on in the year. Click here to access this resource.
	Healthy eating diary A good idea as an additional homework! Click here to access this resource.

Homework Ideas

As I’ve shown above, the healthy eating diary is a good idea for homework, if you use the Twinkl version or one of your own, you are able to encourage children to be eating healthily at home.

The homework we did, to follow on our healthy eating topic, was to ask children to pack their own lunch for the week proceeding this topic. We suggested children make their own sandwiches or wraps using their healthy eating knowledge, and choose their own snacks from a healthy choice, with the emphasis on a balanced lunch box.