Learning ZoneXpress has a range of education products based on LANA (Learning About Nutrition through Activity Preschool Program) to encourage healthy eating habits – specifically a love of fruits and vegetables with preschool and elementary education students.
One of the main keys to the MyPlate is encouraging fruits and vegetables – in fact the recipe for healthy eating is to make half of your plate fruits and vegetables. Below are some fun activities to help parents, teachers, nutritionists and others develop a taste for fruits and vegetables with younger children. Check them out – they’re just a sample of the wide range of educational products available at Learning ZoneXpress:
Fruity Bug Recipe – Free Download
Demonstrate to your child how to make the Fruity Bug by making your own bug. Show your child the finished Fruity Bug. (This recipe is taken from LANA’s Favorite Recipes Recipe Book.)
Animal Feeding Time Activity – Free Download
Have the children spread out around the room. Call out the names of animals and what they eat. Tell them to walk the way that each animal walks and pretend to look for food to eat. Include an iguana, since for most of them this is a new animal they haven’t been introduced to yet – and iguanas love fruits and vegetables!
Apricot Tasting Activity – Free Download
Introduce apricots as fun game. Discuss dimensions of the fruit. A great way to introduce a new fruit or vegetable and work on new vocabulary and descriptions. (Consider adding a Garden Hero to the game to draw in younger kids.)
Mouse Painting – Free Download
Ask the children to create a mouse from the book Lunch. Start by reading the book. After reading about each food, encourage the children to add that color food with paint (or markers) to their mouse picture.
A Rainbow of Fruits & Vegetables – Free Download
Make a rainbow out of the colored construction paper OR have one large sheet of each color available. The children can then tape the fruit or vegetable on the rainbow or piece of construction paper that matches the color of the food item.
Grocery Store Dramatic Play – Free Download
Children make a grocery store, including arranging the shelves with food like those in a grocery store.
Veggie Bagel Face Recipe – Free Download
Demonstrate how to make the snack and show your child your finished Veggie Bagel Face. (This recipe is taken from LANA’s Favorite Recipes Recipe Book.)
What Does Cooking Do? Activity – Free Download
Demonstrates the difference between raw and cooked vegetables while children taste each way and discuss the changes. (This math and science activity is from the Our Senses Teach Us Theme Unit in the Lana Preschool Program.)
Delivering Fruits and Vegetables Activity – Free Download
A fun excercise to get kids thinking about how fruits and vegetables travel from farm to grocery store to home!
