Divide your class into two teams and instruct each team to form a single-file line. State the name of a healthy food, like carrot or apple. Ask the players at the front of each line to identify the letter that makes the sound in the beginning, middle or end of the word you have stated. The first player to state the correct letter earns a point for his or her team.
Split your class into groups of three or four students, and provide each group with a piece of paper and a pencil. When you call out a letter, each group must work together to create a list of healthy foods that contains that letter anywhere in their sound. After an allotted period of time, ask teams to share their lists; the team that has the largest list wins the round.
Rhyming is an important phonemic awareness skill, as it allows children to identify a sound relationship between words. On index cards, draw pictures of healthy foods with the names written underneath. Place the cards in a face-down pile. Ask students to draw cards one at a time, then think of a word that rhymes with the food listed on the card. For example, if a child selects a card that has a beet on it, he may say the word "meet/meat" or "feet." If the child is able to name a rhyming word, he keeps the card; if not, the card is handed to the next player, who tries to think of a rhyming word for the food.
Provide students with an opportunity to segment words during your nutrition unit. State a nutrition-related word, then ask students if they can identify how many sounds are in the word. For example, if you state the word "milk," students should try to identify how many sounds they hear in the word. Use clapping as a means of breaking down the sounds heard in the word. The same activity can be performed with syllables.