Show kindergartners a picture of the food pyramid and discuss the different food groups. Make food group posters on 12-inch by 18-inch sheets of construction paper. Write "Grains" on an orange sheet, "Vegetables" on a green sheet, "Fruits" on a red sheet, "Milk" on a blue sheet and "Meats and Beans" on a purple sheet. Hang food group posters on the board. Pass out old magazines to kindergartners. Have students cut out pictures of different foods from the magazines. Bring the class together and invite kindergartners to share foods they found. Allow students to glue foods on the correct poster to make a food group collage.
Print out pictures of different foods and glue on index cards. Include foods from each food group. Shuffle the cards, then choose one card to look at but do not share the card with the class. Invite kindergartners to ask yes or no questions to figure out what food is on your card. For example students might ask, "Is it a fruit?" or "Is it in the milk group?" The next question might be, "Is it a red fruit?" or "Is it something you drink?" Once students guess the correct food, show them the card. After a few rounds with the class, have pairs of students play the game together.
Have kindergartners brainstorm foods people eat for snacks when they get hungry. Encourage students to share all types of foods from fruits and vegetables to potato chips and sweets. Write snack suggestions on the board. Read books such as "The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food" by Stan and Jan Berenstain, "Good Enough to Eat" by Lizzy Rockwell or "Showdown at the Food Pyramid" by Rex Barron. Talk about the difference between healthy snacks and junk food snacks. Invite kindergartners to come up to the board one by one to erase the junk foods so only the healthy snacks remain.
Write "What's for Lunch?" on the inside of a file folder. Draw a large empty plate, a small empty plate and an empty cup on the file folder. Laminate pictures of different lunch foods such as pizza slices, hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, chicken nuggets, sandwiches, salads, chips, crackers, carrots, celery, cupcakes, oranges, bananas and other items. Include a few pictures of drinks such as milk, juice and water. Have kindergartners pretend to be a chef and play "What's for Lunch?" by choosing foods to place on the plates. For example, a student might put a sandwich and chips on the large plate, strawberries on the small plate and milk on the cup. Have students share their lunch creations with the class. Ask students how many food groups are in each meal. Allow chefs to poll the class to see how many students would order their lunch if it were served at a restaurant.
Make pita bread pizzas with the class. Ask students to identify the food groups for each pizza item as they build their pizzas. Hand out flat pita breads to students. Give students 1 to 2 tbsp. of pizza sauce. Have students use a plastic knife to spread pizza sauce around. Give students 1/8 cup of cheese to sprinkle on their pizzas. Ask students what food groups are missing -- the fruit and meat groups. Bring out a few more toppings such as pineapple bits, pepperoni, Canadian bacon and olives for another vegetable choice. Allow students to add extra toppings to their pizza if they choose. Warm the pita bread pizzas for one minute in a 425 degree Fahrenheit oven or for one minute in a microwave. Enjoy pizzas at snack time.
This game is similar to musical chairs but with a twist. On each student's chair, tape a picture of a food. Include fruits, vegetables, grains, milks and meats. On one chair, tape a picture of a large bowl of candy. Have students make a circle out of their chairs. You will have enough chairs for every student in class. Start playing some music and have students walk around the outside of the chairs. When the music stops, have students sit in a chair. Everyone will find a seat, but one student will be left sitting on the junk food seat. That person is then out of the game. Remove a chair from the game, but keep the junk food chair in play. Have the student who was just eliminated from the game be the music keeper for the next round. Keep playing until only one person is left who has never been caught with the junk food!