Activity Overview: Food Pyramid Coloring Sheet

Target Age Range: 5-7 years

Objectives:By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:■ Identify the various levels of the pyramid and

name foods from each category that they enjoy.■ Recognize that in order to keep our bodies

healthy, we should all eat more foods from thebase of the pyramids and fewer foods from the top.

Ideas for Classroom Discussion:■ Guide the class through each level of the food

pyramid. Talk about the foods included on eachlevel and ask students to name foods that belongon each level. Ask students to name foods theyenjoy from each level.

■ Talk with the class about how food is fuel for ourbodies, like gas is fuel for a car. If you want yourcar to run well, you put good gas in it. If youwant your body to run well, you eat foods thatare good for you. Talk about what some of these“good for you” foods are and ask students toname foods that they like that are good fuel fortheir bodies.

■ Talk about the pyramid shape, and how weshould eat more foods from the levels toward the bottom of the pyramid, and fewer foods fromlevels at the top.

■ Ask students to name foods they ate that morningfor breakfast and then find them in the food pyramid.

Take It Further:■ Call out foods and ask students to name their

food groups. Some are easy, like candy. Othersare harder, like fruit-filled cereal bars. Talk aboutsome of these. They have cereal; that comes fromthe bottom of the food pyramid. They have fruit.That’s from the fruit group. But what about all thesugar they have to make the fruit filling sweet?That’s from the top. Ask students which groupthey think fruit-filled bars come from.

■ Ask students to cut pictures out of magazines ofvarious foods. Then assemble the foods into afood pyramid. Ask students what each picturedepicts, where it goes on the pyramid, whetherthey enjoy it, and, based on where it is posi-tioned in the pyramid, how much of it should we all try to eat (for example, “a lot, some, or alittle?”). How many times is “a lot?” “A little?”What about the sweets up at the top of the pyramid? Should we eat them at every meal?Every day? What about every week?

Additional Resources:Visit the American Diabetes Association Web site atwww.diabetes.org/schoolwalk to access these addi-tional materials and resources for your classroom:■ Full color fliers of the food pyramid.■ Links to the USDA’s “Team Nutrition” Web site

where you can learn more about the food pyra-mid, download additional versions, and get thefree “Feed Me“ and “Move it!” posters. Freedownloads and online ordering (for hard copies)available.

www.diabetes.org/schoolwalk