Activity Idea:	Give Me a Break!
Source:	Healthy Kids Challenge, A La Cart Snack Fun booklet
Description:	Kids learn how foods "feel" and how that may affect choices
Grade:	1-3
Supplies: Flipchart or blackboard with marker or chalk MyPyramid for Kids Poster Optional: Different textures of food for tasting

Directions:

1. Ask kids to think of their favorite snacks and list them on a flipchart or blackboard. (Use this information later in the activity.)
2. Talk about the different "feel" (texture) of snack foods, i.e., soft, hard, crispy, crunchy, chewy, stringy and sticky.
3. Discuss how sometimes we choose certain foods because of how they "feel" in our mouth when we eat them---sometimes we want soft foods and other times we want crunchy foods.
4. Many crispy foods are fried, which means they are higher in fat than other foods. Regular chips are an example of a high fat, crispy food. Ask kids to give examples of lower fat "crispy" foods they could choose if they wanted this kind of mouth feel. At this point, share the MyPyramid for Kids Poster to look for examples. List their responses on the board. Examples might include baked chips, pretzels, cereal flakes, and low fat crackers.
5. Using the MyPyramid poster, continue to ask kids for healthy snack options of the various food textures listed above.
6. Go back to the favorite snack list that kids mentioned at the beginning. Ask the group to imagine how each of the foods "feel". Ask the kids to determine healthy snack choices that would replicate that "feel".
7. Optional: Allow kids to taste different textures of actual foods.

This activity is found on page 36 of the A La Cart Snack Fun booklet. For more activity ideas like the one above, check out HKC resource materials. See the Online Store for descriptors and to view the Table of Content and booklet sample pages.