Here's a range of activities, each divided into less/more time and complexity. The focus is on all things healthy eating: healthy eating messages, The Eatwell Guide, energy and nutrients, digestion, nutrition labels, food choice, and health and wellbeing.
Healthy eating messages
Less time / Less complex
1. Art: Let’s get creative with 5 A DAY! Create a fruit and vegetable rainbow, showing the different types in each colour bow! If you get stuck, ask someone in your house if they can give you some clues!
2. Literacy: What’s on your breakfast menu? Create a menu for a restaurant that only serves breakfast. List a range of healthy choices, include a drink and make sure that there are fruit and/or vegetables in each option. For inspiration, why not research breakfast dishes from around the world!
3. Health and wellbeing: Make sure to drink plenty with your favourite Disney friends! Play Dory’s coral and seaweed game to help find Dory and save her from being lost at sea. Use the Frozen Drink Plenty worksheet to work out why Anna, Elsa, Olaf and Sven think drinking plenty is important. Remember – we all need 6-8 drinks a day!
More time / More complex
4. Literacy: Why should we eat fish? Nicola doesn't like eating fish, even though we are recommended to have two portions a week. Write a letter to Nicola to persuade her to start eating fish - use the Persuading Nicola worksheet or just use paper. List at least 3 reasons.
5. Health and wellbeing and ICT: Pick three numbers and find your fibre fortune with our fibre worksheet! Using the food in the store cupboard sheet, create a meal from the foods you select. Why not use Explore Food to calculate the amount of fibre provided by your meal?
6. Health and wellbeing and ICT: How much salt is in your food? Use Explore Food to calculate the salt provided from everything you have eaten in the last 24 hours. Is it above or below the recommendations for your age*? List three ways you could reduce the amount of salt you have eaten.
*The maximum amount of salt children should have depends on their age: 1 to 3 years – 2g salt a day; 4 to 6 years – 3g salt a day; 7 to 10 years – 5g salt a day; 11 years and over – 6g salt a day.
The Eatwell Guide
Less time / Less complex
1. Literacy and Health and wellbeing: Are you drinking enough during lockdown? Keep a drink diary over a day – listing everything you drink. You should be aiming for 6-8 drinks every day! Explain how you could make healthier drink choices in the future.
2. Health and wellbeing: Let’s get interactive with our online Eatwell game! Click and drag the foods into the correct food groups on The Eatwell Guide. Make sure you get a high score! If you want to play this game with someone in your house, why not print the Blank Eatwell Guide and food cards? You can stick the blank Eatwell Guide onto a wall and race to see who can stick the cards into the correct groups the fastest. No printer? No problem! Just create your own blank guide and cards!
3. Literacy and cooking: Getting bored of the same sandwich every day? Use this Sandwich generator to randomly suggest what you could have for lunch! When you have selected the 4 items, write down where each food is from on The Eatwell Guide. List three sides or other fillings that you could have with your sandwich to make sure the meal contains food from all of the groups. Remember a drink as well!
More time / More complex
4. Literacy and art: Keeping healthy at home. Write a list of the foods you have eaten in the last two days and write down which Eatwell Guide food group they fit into. Create your own Eatwell Guide with the foods you have eaten. What should you be eating more/ or less?
5. Food and Health and wellbeing: Unmuddle the meals! The Eatwell Guide shows the different type of foods we should eat, split into different food groups. However, we don’t eat separate foods all the time. Imagine the different parts of a pizza served separately on a plate! Look at these Meal cards and link the different parts of the meal to The Eatwell Guide food groups.
6. Food and Health and wellbeing: Are you a menu master? Develop a menu for 4 or 7 days using the principles from The Eatwell Guide. Include breakfast, lunch and an evening meal – and don’t forget to include drinks! If you really are a ‘menu master’, challenge yourself to ensure you meet the 8 tips for healthy eating too!
Energy and nutrients
Less time / Less complex
1. ICT and Health and wellbeing: How well do you know your vitamins and minerals? Use the Interactive matching exercise to match different foods to different micronutrients!
2. Art and Health and wellbeing: So, you think you know about fibre? Create a poster about fibre, outlining why it is important, how much we should have, and how we can have more in our diet. You can use the Fun way to fibre poster for inspiration!
3. Literacy and Numeracy: Download the nutrients cards. You could use these cards as a line up activity (lining up from highest to lowest on different vitamins and minerals) or you can use them like ‘top trumps’ and play a game against a family member. Why not use Explore food to create your own nutrients cards to add to the set by typing in 100g of a food and writing down the numbers shown for each nutrient?
More time / More complex
4. Health and wellbeing: Let’s talk about energy! Using the Energy needs worksheet, look at the people on the sheet and make a note of how much energy you think they will need. You can get someone in your family to help!
5. Health and wellbeing: How much energy does the food you eat provide? Play the interactive Energy in, energy out quiz and test your knowledge of how much energy (calories) is provided by different food and how much is used when you are active.
6. Numeracy and Physical activity: How much energy is used up by your favourite activities? Using the Activity and energy cards, put the cards in order of most energy used to least. If you don’t have a printer then you can just write down the list. You can then use the Energy used factsheet to see if you were right.
Digestion
Less time / Less complex
1. Science: Use our interactive labelling activity to label the stages of the digestive system and to join the digestive functions to the different parts of the digestive system. If you can’t use the interactive activity, try the Label the digestive system worksheet and the Digestion functions worksheet.
2. Science: Why not quiz your family? Play the interactive Kahoot quiz and test your and your family’s knowledge on the digestion process. If you are playing on your own, you can use the digestion process quiz and quiz answers.
3. Science and Art: How much do you know about the digestion process? Create an infographic which shows the various stages of digestion. Make sure to include arrows to show the different parts of the body and the various stages. You can use the information here to help.
More time / More complex
4. Science and Art: Draw a body and add labels to the part of the body in which each stage of the digestive process occurs. Cover the answers and test your family to see if they can name the part of the body and the stage that occurs there.
5. Science and Literacy: Use the interactive Digestion stages heat map to show the process of digestion. Write a short summary of each video explaining the function of each stage.
6. ICT, Food and Science: Fibre is important for digestive health, but how much fibre is provided by different food? See if you can line up the amount of fibre in food in order from highest to lowest using our Interactive fibre line up. If you can’t use the interactive activity, use the worksheet and answers.
Nutrition labels
Less time / less complex
1. Numeracy, Literacy and Health and wellbeing: Food labels can help us make healthier choices. They tell the energy, fat, saturates, sugars and salt provided by a food. Look at the food in your cupboards, fridge or freezer to see if you can spot the food labels. Complete the Food labels worksheet to find out more about labels and how they help us make choices.
2. Health and wellbeing: Having a healthy, balanced diet is about getting the right types of foods and drinks in the right amounts. Using your hands is a great way to measure the right portion size of some food. Why not try it next time you or your family are cooking? Here are some examples, but for more information go to, Find your balance, get portion wise!
- Fresh fruit – about one handful or more.
- Dried rice or pasta – about two handfuls.
- Cooked rice or pasta – about the amount that would fit in two hands cupped together.
- Baked potato – about the size of your fist.
- Plain popcorn – about three handfuls.
- Nuts and seeds – the amount you can fit into the palm of your hand.
- Cheddar cheese – about the size of two thumbs together.
3. Numeracy and Health and wellbeing: Reference Intakes are guidelines for the maximum amount of energy (calories), fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt we should have in a day. Using the Front-of-pack nutrition labels, compare the quantities of sugars and/or fat for each food. What conclusions do you make?
More time / more complex
4. Food, Cooking and ICT: Help a manufacturer create a range of healthier options that will meet the needs of its customers. Use Explore food to modify the ingredients of a macaroni cheese, quiche, pizza and apple crumble to reduce the fat, salt and sugar content. Also consider the portion size for the dishes.
5. Food, Numeracy and Health and wellbeing: Reference Intakes are guidelines for the maximum amount of energy and nutrients we should have in a day and the Reference Intake for total fat is 70g. Find an item of food from each of The Eatwell Guide food groups that have front-of-pack labels. How much total fat do they contain per serving or 100g? If you were to eat a serving of all four today, how would this impact on your Reference Intake for total fat? Are there alternatives that could be lower in fat, e.g. reduced fat Cheddar cheese?
6. Food, Numeracy and Health and wellbeing: Portion sizes can affect our nutrient intake. Having a too high energy intake with too little physical activity can lead to weight gain over time. Use the Serving size problems front of pack food labels and Serving size problems worksheet to see how portion size affects nutrient intake in a variety of situations.
Food choice
Less time / Less complex
1. Food, Literacy and Art: Family favourites – many people have favourite dishes that they like to eat or make. Ask your family what their favourite dish is and why they like it so much. Is it a traditional/cultural recipe, one that has been passed on through generations, one they have recently discovered or perhaps one that gives them good memories? Why not create a menu of favourite dishes and have a special meal together one evening?
2. Food, Cooking and Health and wellbeing: Dietary needs are varied and often people need to change the foods they eat, the recipes they make and the cooking methods used to meet their particular needs. View the Different dietary needs presentation and then complete at least two of the Dietary needs case studies.
3. Food, Art and Literacy: What do you like? Create a poster of different food that you and your family like and particularly enjoy eating. Try to find a food for each letter of the alphabet! Use this A-Z of food poster for inspiration.
More time / More complex
4. Food, Cooking and Health and wellbeing: Many people like take-away meals or having food delivered, but these can sometimes be high in fat, salt and sugar. Why not plan and make a healthier option ‘fake-away’ meal that you could enjoy at home with your family? There are lots of recipes here to choose from or find one in a recipe book or magazine. Use Explore food to calculate the energy and nutrients provided by the meal.
5. Food, Cooking and Health and wellbeing: Simple changes can be made to recipes to improve the nutritional content of the final dish. View the Twist the dish! presentation , and using the Twist the dish! Cards, redesign the meals to promote the key messages of The Eatwell Guide and 8 tips for healthy eating. Why not create a dish for your lunch that demonstrates a particular healthy eating message, e.g. reducing saturated fat intake, reducing salt or free sugars or eating more fruit and vegetables?
6. Food, Cooking and Health and wellbeing: View the Healthier cooking presentation to find out more about incorporating healthy eating recommendations when planning, cooking and serving a meal or menu. Create a menu for a day and identify at least two ways each dish could be prepared or cooked to make it healthier, e.g. poaching eggs for breakfast rather than frying or cooking vegetables in a microwave in a small amount of water rather than boiling on the hob.
Health and wellbeing
Less time / less complex
1. Literacy and Physical activity: Complete the My activity booklet with some activities you are able to do from home. If you want to keep track of your activity for a longer period, you can use the My activity diary chart.
2. Literacy, Numeracy and Physical activity: List six activities that you can do at home on a piece of paper and number them 1-6. Roll a dice and see which activity you should do. If you don’t have any dice, you could ask someone in the family to pick a number 1-6. If you want some inspiration, cut out and use the Physical activity dice.
3. Literacy and Health and wellbeing: Let’s do a wordsearch that will send you to sleep! Check out the Sleep well wordsearch and find the hidden words within the grids of letters. How many did you find? Take a look at the answers to find out.
More time / more complex
4. Literacy and Health and wellbeing: What do you do before you go to sleep? List three things that you do before you go to sleep and write why they are important. An example could be that you brush your teeth to make sure they stay healthy. You can use the Sleep well cards for inspiration.
5. Science: How much do you know about keeping your teeth healthy? Play the interactive Kahoot quiz and Multiple Choice quiz to test your knowledge. If you can’t access Kahoot, then use the worksheet and answers.
6. Literacy and Science: Using the Why is dental health important worksheet, write everything you know about dental health in the outer circle, including factors affecting dental health such as eating too much sugar, and then use the space in the rectangle to explain why good dental health is important throughout life.
New bread activity pack!
A new bread activity pack has been designed to support teaching and learning around ‘bread’, its history, production and uses. Bread is a staple food that is eaten throughout the world and is used in schools as a context for learning.
The activity pack covers the history of bread making, a world without flour, bread making, and uses of dough for other dishes. For more information, click here.
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