Activity Purpose
Kids learn more about food choices and healthy eating tips by using a stoplight as a tool to guide nutritious food and beverage choices.
Objectives
- Identify "food" as fuel for your body and brain.
- Use a stoplight as a tool to make nutritional food and beverage choices: green-light (eat more), yellow-light (eat some), and red-light (eat less).
Preparation
- Talk Time: Kids sit and stretch or stand and march in place. Be sure they are a safe distance (arm’s length) apart.
- Activity: Group forms a large circle. Place a Food Activity Card face down in front of each kid. The color of the food word's text indicates whether the food is a green-light (eat more), yellow-light (eat some), and red-light (eat less) food choice.
- Wrap Up: Kids sit in a circle for discussion.
Talk Time
Introduction
Think of your favorite green-light food.
- What is it shaped like?
- How does it move?
- Can you move like your favorite food? (Oranges are round and roll. Movement = rolling or somersaulting)
Here are some ways that move and food are connected:
- Your food choices throughout each day give your body energy to move.
- When you move, you sweat. You get thirsty because your body needs hydration—you don't sweat soda or sports drinks, your body needs water!
Our next activity is similar to musical chairs and will help us learn more about green-light (eat more), yellow-light (eat some), and red-light (eat less) food choices.
Do The Activity
Activity Instructions
- Kids form a large circle. Place a Food Activity Card in front of each kid.
- One volunteer is selected to be the caller. The caller gives the card in front of them back to the leader, then stands in the center of the circle.
- Caller shouts “Go!” and group members start to walk around the circle.
- While all are walking around the Food Activity Cards, the caller randomly picks up 1 card from the circle of cards then returns to the center of the circle.
- Caller shouts, “Stop!” and the kids scramble to stand next to a card on the floor.
- The person left standing without a card joins the caller in the center of the circle. (This person will become the caller for the next round.)
- The caller looks at their card and shouts out the action all kids are to do, based on the stoplight color of the food on the card:
- Green – Run in place.
- Yellow – Walk in place.
- Red – Freeze in place.
- Leader (or caller) reads the card's information about the food, then leads the kids in a chant, “Green-light foods give me energy to move!”
- The first caller returns the card to the leader, and receives a new card to place in the circle.
- New caller shouts "Go!" and play begins again. Continue play for allotted time.
Wrap Up
Reflections
Q: What foods give you the best fuel?
A: Any green-light food choices named are correct. Eat green-light foods to have energy to be active!
Q: What is best to drink if you are thirsty?
A: Water!
Challenge
Begin each day with a green-light food choice to fuel your body and brain.
Time: 10 Minutes
What You'll Need
Resources
Materials
- Timer
Helpful Tips
- If your group size is large, separate kids into smaller groups of 5-6 and form more than 1 circle.