June Tip of the Month
Breakfast GO POWER!

Eat breakfast to THINK-LEARN-GROW-PLAY!
Activity Idea: Build A Breakfast Chain

  
Source: Healthy Kids Challenge, A La Cart Breakfast Fun
Description: Kids will recall foods they ate for breakfast and build a colored paper chain representing MyPyramid food groups
Grades: 4-5

Supplies:

• Paper and pencil for each child
• MyPyramid for Kids Poster
• Construction paper cut in 8” by 1” strips,
  to use as paper chain links, in the following
  colors: orange, green, red, yellow, blue, purple
• Glue sticks
Goochland Middle School students preparing Fruit Smoothie Muffins— makes a great breakfast food!

Directions:

Discuss MyPyramid food groups, food serving sizes, and the importance of breakfast.
Have Kids:

1. Recall what they ate for breakfast that day, and write the foods on their paper. (Note: If there are kids who haven’t eaten breakfast, ask them to think of a breakfast they have had recently.)
2.  Draw a MyPyramid image using the downloadable MyPyramid for Kids Poster as a guide.
3.  Write their breakfast foods in the appropriate food groups.
4.  Use the following color code for paper strips to represent food groups in which they categorized their breakfast foods.
Grains—orange; Veggies—green; Fruits—red;
Milk—blue; Oils—yellow; Meat & Beans—purple
5.  Choose 1 paper strip, of the appropriate color, for each serving of food eaten. Example: For a breakfast consisting of 1 slice of toast with margarine, 1 bowl of cereal, 1 glass of juice and 1 glass of milk—the child would select 2 orange strips, 1 red strip, 1 yellow strip and 1 blue strip

After making the chain, ask students the following questions:
• Does their chain represent all 6 colors of MyPyramid? If not, which colors are missing?
• What (if anything) would they need to add to their breakfast so that all colors are represented on their breakfast chain?

    

This activity is found on page 21 of the A La Cart Breakfast Fun booklet. For more activity ideas like the one above, check out HKC resource materials. See the order page for descriptors and to view the Table of Content and booklet sample pages.