My Healthy Foods (plus printable)

It never fails.
Every weekend, when we go to the store, it happens.
Our 5 and 7 year olds very sweetly look up at their daddy, and ask for a dollar.
And he, of course, hands one over to them.
Ahhh... if only they saved those dollars up. But no. They are eager to spend it. (Okay, I can't really blame them. I am the same way when I want to buy yarn or something.)
Every week, we go through the aisles and they look at the items. Will they put their money together for a larger bag of cheetos or a package of cookies? Or will they buy their own individual snack at the checkout?
Whatever they decide, it always seems to be junk food.
Last week, when we got back from the store, while my 5 year old was munching on her funyuns and my 7 year old was digging into her bbq lays, I had an idea. (By the way... smart kids! They saw that I was buying  a cake, so they chose salty snacks over sweet!)

Anyway, back to my idea. They We get enough junk food as it is (note previously mentioned cake), so do they really need to be wasting their money on  more junk food?
I didn't think so either.
I had to think of a way to get them on board the idea of buying healthier snacks.
I thought for a minute, then I said to them, "You know, you could have put your money together and bought a big basket of strawberries! That would have been yummy!"
You should have seen their eyes light up! "STRAWBERRIES???!!!"
They went on about how much they love strawberries and how they wished that they had thought of that at the store. It worked! I kept it going with suggestions of grapes, blueberries, string cheese, yogurt and more of their favorite healthy snacks. They got excited about it and started planning what they would buy next weekend.
Soon it was time for bed, but I told them that we would do a project together the next day.

Monday morning rolled around and they were excited for their project. I started by telling them that we are going to start eating healthier and when they choose snacks at the store, they have to start choosing healthy ones. We talked about the food groups. They wrote down the foods that they like and categorized them into the right groups. It was relaxed and fun. We talked about what foods are healthy and which ones aren't as healthy. They enjoyed learning about how many of the foods they love are so good for them.

The fun we had with this little project prompted me to create a printable project out of it, and of course, share it with all of you!

Click Here for the Printable

There are seven pages including the cover page. Your child can draw and list his/her favorite healthy foods from each group. Or, if you prefer, you can find some food ads and use those to cut and paste onto the pages. On the last page, your child can make his/her own healthy plate. You can print extra if you want him/her to create a plate for each meal.

Fun, right? I hope you all enjoy this activity as much as we did!