Healthy Eating Week Primary (5-11 Years)

Healthy Eating Week – Primary (5-11 years)

A range of different activities are suggested below to support your Healthy Eating Week. While the activities are based around the days/themes of the week, feel free to use the suggestions to best suit your school. Direct links have been made to free resources.

Remember to look at the Directories which provide thumbnail images, short descriptions and direct links of all the resources available on the Food – a fact of life website!

Date: Monday 3 JuneMorning theme: Eat well!

Healthy eating / Cooking / Where food comes from
Know about The eatwell plate - its food groups and healthy eating messages
Teach about the eatwell plate using the lesson notes, PowerPoint presentations and resources.
Eatwell plate resources for 5-8 years
Eatwell plate resources for 8-11 years
The eatwell plate video podcasts – useful background information for teachers.
Eatwell cards – images of the individual eatwell plate groups.
Let children practise what they have learnt, use the interactive activities:
Make a balanced plate
Unmuddle the meals
Alisha and Ronnie
Don’t forget to display your Healthy Eating Week Eatwell plate poster!
Why not…
-play The eatwell plate race?
Chalk a large eatwell plate on one end of the playground. Take the children to the opposite end of the playground and give them each a food image. On your instruction, they should run to the eatwell plate and stand in the food group where their food image belongs. Check they are in the right place! Collect the cards, re-assign them and play again!
-create a 3D eatwell plate display?
Ask children to bring in clean food packaging/labels. Create a blank eatwell plate on a display board. Attach the food packages to the correct food groups. / For help planning a cooking session, look at these resources:
Health and safety checklist
Demonstration guide
Permission letter
To get children ready to cook, try these resources:
Skills guide
Peel, chop and grate- food preparation videos
Let’s get ready to cook poster
Learn more about ingredients:
Ingredients resources for 5-8 years (including food bingo!)
Ingredients resources for 8-11 years
(including writing recipes and weighing and measuring)
Make some simple dishes which include foods from a variety of The eatwell plate food groups.
Recipes:
Couscous
BLT sandwich
Salmon and cucumber Bagel
Pitta pockets
Sandwich wrap / Talk about the origins of some of the foods in The eatwell plate:
-Where do they come from?
-How are they farmed?
Try these resources:
From farm to fork board game
Plant or animal interactive active activity

Date: Monday 3 JuneAfternoon theme: Fruit and vegetables: 5 a day!

Healthy eating / Cooking / Where food comes from
Know about 5 a day – eating a variety of fruit and vegetables, what counts.
Use the Healthy Eating Week target tracker poster to set your class a 5 a day target for the week. (Remember to set your breakfast, drinks and activity targets for the week, too!)
Organise a tasting session where children can try new fruit and vegetables. Use these resources to help:
Tasting checklist
Sensory work with food
Find out more about the variety of fruit and vegetables available. You could visit a local shop or supermarket (or use the internet) and record the different types of fruit or vegetables sold. Challenge children to:
- find the fruit or vegetable with the most unusual name;
- find the cheapest/most expensive fruit or vegetable;
- find a fruit and vegetable they haven’t tried before;
-find the smallest/largest fruit or vegetable;
-find the most unusual looking fruit or vegetable.
The children could create a poster to display so the informationcan be shared with others in the school.
Create a 5 a day display. Fruit and vegetable images can be found amongst the images in the following downloadable cards.
Ingredients cards
Extended food cards / Make some simple dishes which can contribute to 5 a day.
Recipes:
Coleslaw
Fruit salad
Veggie snacks
Layered salad
Chunky soup
Vegetable kebab / Collect fruit and vegetable labels to find out where different fruit and vegetables grow. You could record where they grow on a map.
Find out how fruit and vegetables grow:
Plants video clip – showing a selection of fruit and vegetables being grown.
Fruit and vegetable harvesting – showing a selection of fruit and vegetables being harvested.
Why not grow some of your own fruit or vegetables at school? You could grow cress, lettuce or tomatoes.

Date: Tuesday 4 JuneMorning theme: Eat breakfast

Healthy eating / Cooking / Where food comes from
Know it’s important to have breakfast everyday – including a drink.
Remember to update yourHealthy Eating Week target tracker poster to encourage everyone to have breakfast everyday.
Carry out a class survey to find out what people eat for breakfast - what is the most popular breakfast?
Why not have a class breakfast? Task the children to plan and prepare the breakfast. (See the Cooking column opposite for recipe ideas.)
Challenge children to find out what is traditionally eaten for breakfast in different countries, e.g. China, Turkey.
Learn more about what foods are eaten at different meal occasions, including breakfast:
Meal occasion resources / Make some breakfast dishes.
Recipes:
Apple and carrot juice
Fruit smoothie
Fruit salad
Plum-berry layered dessert - fruit and yogurt – ideal as a part of a healthy breakfast!
Tasty toast
Bread rolls / Explore where meals, including breakfast, come from.
Try these interactive activities:
Where do my meals come from? (5-8 years)
Where do my meals come from (8-11 years)

Date: Tuesday 4 JuneAfternoon theme: Drink up!

Healthy eating / Cooking / Where food comes from
Know it is important to drink plenty – 6-8 glasses a day and more if the weather is hot or you are being active.
Remember to check your Healthy Eating Week target tracker poster – is everyone drinking 6-8 glasses of fluid a day?
To track the progress of everyone in the class, use the Are you drinking plenty? poster.
The Are you drinking plenty? teachers’ guide, includes more drinking information, an individual drink tracking worksheet and fun drinking related maths questions. / Make some fruity drinks.
Recipes:
Pear, cucumber and ginger juice
Apple and carrot juice
Fruit smoothie
Perky punch / Challenge children to find out what ingredients are in different drinks and where they come from:
-Milk
-Juice
-Tea
-Coffee

Date: Wednesday 5JuneMorning theme: Bread, potatoes, rice, pasta

Healthy eating / Cooking / Where food comes from
Know it is important to base meals on foods from the Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods group.
Discuss the different main meals (breakfast, lunch and evening meal) children enjoy. What foods do they contain? Ask children to identify foods in their meals which come from the Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods group. Explain we need some foods from this group with each main meal because they help to keep us full and are the main source of energy for the body.
Take a look at some of these resources:
World food cards – images of dishes (most including a starchy food).
Resources to explore what people around the world eat.
Resources to teach about carbohydrate and other nutrients.
Show children The bread stories story to help children learn about different types of bread around the world and how bread is made.
Use The bread stories interactive activity. / Make some dishes which include starchy foods.
Recipes:
Bread
Soda bread
Pizza
Couscous salad
Royal rice
Welsh rarebit
Bagel bruschetta
Jacket potatoes / Find out more about how potatoes are grown.
Growing potatoes video
Show The bucket garden story about a class of children growing potatoes. A selection of worksheet which support the story themes are also available.
Why not grow your own potatoes?

Date: Wednesday 5 JuneAfternoon theme: Be active!

Healthy eating / Cooking / Where food comes from
Know that being active is important for health – children should be active for at least 60 minutes a day
Find out what activities count towards your 60 minutes with the Are you doing 60 minutes a day? poster.
Ask children to record the activity they do in a week using the Being active worksheet.
Explore the importance of being active to maintain energy balance. Read the teachers’ guide about energy balance and let children use the Energy balance interactive activity. (Recommended for 8-11 years.)
Plan a PE lesson where children can devise their own activities. Organise the children into small groups and provide each group with a few items of games equipment, e.g. cones, bean bags. Challenge them to create an activity which will contribute to their 60 minutes a day (make them feel warmer, breathe harder and make their heart beat faster). This can then be used to form a ‘circuits-style’ activity where children complete one activity for several minutes and then move to the next.
Remember, your Healthy eating Week target tracker poster includes a target for activity!
Use the Active lifestyles charts to help children track their activity. / Foods from the Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods group provide energy. Challenge children to create a healthy ‘energy-providing’ dish which includes a food from this group!
How about a potato, rice or noodle salad? / Get active (digging, planting, pruning) by growing fruit and vegetables at school!

Date:Thursday 6 JuneMorningtheme: Milk and dairy foods!

Healthy eating / Cooking / Where food comes from
Know that we need some food from the Milk and dairy foods group every day.
Show The farm visit story to help children learn more about how milk is produced. The story is accompanied by a selection of literacy and numeracy worksheets on the theme of dairy foods.
Use the interactive Farm visit activity.
Why not arrange your own farm visit?
Use the My dairy farm visit booklet to support your visit. / Make some dishes which include dairy foods.
Recipes:
Fruit smoothie
Welsh rarebit
Plum-berry layered dessert / Explore how dairy foods are produced by looking at these videos:
Milking
Cheese making
Follow a group of primary school children as they visit a dairy farm in this video.
Use these posters to learn more about life on a dairy farm and the journey of milk – from grass to glass.

Date:Thursday 6 JuneAfternoontheme: Get cooking!

Healthy eating / Cooking / Where food comes from
Know how to make some simple, healthy dishes safely and hygienically.
Find out about what needs to be considered when planning meals.
Learn about what people eat in different countries around the world. / Challenge the children to create a ‘pop-up’ restaurant in the classroom and prepare lunch for some guests, e.g. school staff, siblings in other classes.
Task the children to plan and prepare the dishes.
Try some of these recipes to create a tasty buffet-style lunch.
Recipes:
Bagel bruschetta
Terrific tuna tarts
Morish muffins
Veggie snacks
Bread
Soda bread
Guacamole
Cheese dip
Splendid seaside salad
Fruit kebab / Grow some food which can be used in food lessons at school, e.g. cress, herbs, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes.
Not much space?
-A classroom window sill can be used to grow small items like cress and herbs.
-Grow bags can be used for foods like tomatoes, beans and strawberries.
-Potatoes can be grown in a bucket.

Date:Friday 7 JuneMorning theme: Meat, fish, eggs, beans

Healthy eating / Cooking / Where food comes from
Know we need to eat some foods from the Meat, fish, eggs and beans and other non-dairy source of protein groupevery day.
Discuss the food group:
-what foods does it contain?
-how much food do we need from this group?
-what are your favourite foods in this group?
You can use these resources to support your discussion:
Eatwell plate resources for 5-8 years
Eatwell plate resources for 8-11 years
Look at Healthy Eating Week Eatwell plate poster tip 3, Eat more fish. Explain to the children that we should eat two portions of fish a week, one of which should be oily.
Use the Food and farming resources to teach more about fish. / Make some dishes which include foods from the Meat, fish, eggs, beans and other non-dairy sources of protein group.
Hummus
Pitta pockets
Splendid seaside salad
Marvellous mackerel pâté
Fantastic fish cakes
Fancy fish fingers
Special smoked haddock samosas / Find out more about how meat and fish are produced.
Fishing
Processing fish

Date:Friday 7 JuneAfternoon theme: Health for life!

Healthy eating / Cooking / Where food comes from
Know that we need to eat (and drink) well and be active to stay healthy now and be healthy in the future.
Ask children to prepare a short presentation about what they have learnt during the week and what they plan to do in the future to help stay healthy. Encourage them to use props to support their presentation. Older children may be able to create a PowerPoint presentation.
Ask the children to write three personal health pledges based on what they have been learning about in Healthy Eating Week. They should also write about how they plan to achieve and keep their pledges.
Children can track their learning about food with these colourful target charts:
Food route target chart 5-8
Food route target chart 8-11
There are more target charts which focus on different aspects of food, e.g. diet and healthy, cooking, food safety and shopping.
All available target charts. / There are lots of video versions of the recipes previously listed. Take a look!
Cool creations
Hot and happening
Brilliant baking / Learn more about where food comes from.
5-8 years
8-11 years