Guilford County Schools ACES Program
Weekly Theme: Nutty Nutrition – Centers Activities
Art Center
Food Pyramid Mural
Cut a large triangle out of mural paper or cardboard. Divide the triangle into sections that mirror
those on the food pyramid. Then invite students to bring to school magazines and newspaper
circulars that include pictures of foods. Students can cut out food pictures that fall into one of the
six sections of the pyramid and paste them in the appropriate section of the pyramid.
Food Prints
Cut different foods to use as stamps for painting or with stamp pads.
What’s for Dinner?
Have a supply of paper plates and magazines handy for students to cut out food and glue on
plates. You can also use the finished product in Home Living.
Play Dough Food
Students can make different foods from Play Dough. Make sure to have different colors
available! Use rolling pins, measuring cups, muffin tins and cookie cutters with the dough.
Make a Pizza
Cut out cheese strips from yellow construction paper, mushrooms from tan construction paper,
pepperoni from brown construction paper, onions from white construction paper and green
peppers from green construction paper. Trace large circles on off-white construction paper for
the crust and trace medium circles on red construction paper for the tomato sauce. Have the
children cut out circles and glue on their favorite toppings.
Board Game Center
Nutrition Game Set (Kaplan)
Healthy Hurdles Nutrition Game (Bender Burkot, Edu-Play))
Which Way Café Game (Edu-Play)
Food Jingo (Edu-Play)
A Healthy You Jingo (Edu-Play)
Food Picture Bingo (Edu-Play)
Food Pyramid Bingo (Edu-Play)
My Food Factory Game (Edu-Play)
Building/Manipulatives Center
Build a basket of fruits and vegetables with LEGO® bricks. What other foods can you build?
CATCH Kids® Games
(K-2)-#97, #114, #306
(2-4)-#18; (3-5)-#22, #138,
July 2008
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Activity ideas obtained from ACES staff and public domain materials
Guilford County Schools ACES Program
Computer Center/Computer Lab
Nutrition Café
http://exhibits.pacsci.org/nutrition/nutrition_cafe.html
Dole 5 a Day Games and More
http://www.dole5aday.com/html/kids/Games%20&%20More.html
The Healthy Fridge Quiz
http://www.healthyfridge.org/kids.html
Smart Mouth
http://www.cspinet.org/smartmouth/
Fowl Words Game
http://resources.kaboose.com/games/fowl-words.html
Nutrition Exploration
http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/kids/
My Pyramid Match Game
http://www.mealsmatter.org/CookingForFamily/Activities/pyramid.aspx
Dramatic Play Center
Bakery
Prepare the housekeeping area to resemble a bakery where the children can pretend to make
breads and bake goods to sell to their customers. Provide the following items; aprons, baker’s
hats, bowls, mixing spoons, pans, rolling pins, muffin tins, measuring cups, egg cartons, empty
bread/roll mix boxes, oven mitts or hot pads, a cash register, a poster/pictures depicting baked
goods.
Restaurant
Prepare the housekeeping area as a restaurant. Provide props such as a tablecloth, dishes,
cooking utensils, and a cash register with play money. Create menus by cutting pictures from
magazines and gluing onto construction paper. Include pictures of different baked goods.
Gross Motor Center
Pin the Food on the Pyramid
Make a large image of the Food Pyramid. Laminate different foods for children to stick on the
appropriate areas to learn their food groups.
Missing Veggie Game
Place five or more familiar vegetables on a tray and have your children sit around it in a circle.
Discuss the names and characteristics of the veggies. Then ask the children to close their eyes
while you remove one of the vegetables. When they open their eyes, have the children take
turns trying to guess which of the veggies is missing. After the correct answer is given, mix up
the positions of the vegetables and start the game again.
July 2008
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Activity ideas obtained from ACES staff and public domain materials
Guilford County Schools ACES Program
Nut Toss
Large walnuts work great for this game. Set out a pan or bucket and let your children take turns
trying to toss the nuts into the container. Determine how far back each child should stand,
depending on their abilities.
Pop, Pop, CORN!
Played like Duck, Duck, Goose
KidzLit®
(K-3)-Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
(3-5)-The Bat Boy and His Violin
Listening Center
Learning Healthy Habits Puppets and CD (Kaplan)
Music Center
Vegetables Are Good for Me
Vegetables are good for me
E-I-E-I-O
They keep strong and so healthy
E-I-E-I-O
Eat a carrot here, eat a carrot there
Here's a carrot, there's a carrot
Everywhere a carrot, carrot
Vegetables are good for me
E-I-E-I-O
All the fruits are good for me
E-I-E-I-O
They keep strong and so healthy
E-I-E-I-O
Eat a banana here, eat a banana there
Here's a banana, there's a banana
Everywhere a banana, banana
All the fruits are good for me
E-I-E-I-O
If I had a Bagel - sung to the tune "If I Had a Hammer"
If I had a bagel.
I’d eat it in the morning.
I’d eat it in the evening,
All over this land.
I’d eat it for breakfast,
I’d eat it for supper,
July 2008
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Activity ideas obtained from ACES staff and public domain materials
Guilford County Schools ACES Program
I’d eat it with all my friends and sisters and brothers,
All, over this land.
Little Donuts - sung to "Ten Little Indians"
One little, two little, three little donuts
Four little, five little, six little donuts
Seven little, eight little, nine little donuts
Ten donuts in the bakery shop.
Peanut Sitting on a Railroad Track
A peanut sat on a railroad track
His heart was all aflutter (pat hand over heart.)
Around the bend came number ten, (hold up ten fingers).
Choo-Choo Peanut Butter (pretend you are pulling whistle.)
Smack (clap hands together).
Reading Center
K-3
Gregory, the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat
Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin
Bananas! by Jacqueline Farmer
3-5
From Wheat to Pasta by Robert Egan
Food Rules! The Stuff You Munch, Its Crunch, Its Punch, and Why You Sometimes Lose Your
Lunch by Bill Haduch and Rick Stromoski
Toad Food and Measle Soup by Christine McDonnell and G. Brian Karas
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Riddles
How do you make a soup rich?
Put 14 Carrots in it
What kind of beans have landed on the moon?
Human Beans! (Beings)
What fruit always travels in groups of two?
Pears
Which vegetable's name and first letter sound the same?
Pea
What does corn say when it's picked?
Ouch! My ears!
Why is a scrambled egg like a losing football team?
July 2008
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Activity ideas obtained from ACES staff and public domain materials
Guilford County Schools ACES Program
Because they are both beaten!
You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the
inside. What did you eat?
An ear of corn
Science and Nature Center
Color Changing Milk
Materials
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Milk (whole or 2%)
Dinner plate
Food coloring (red, yellow, green, blue)
Dish-washing soap (Dawn brand works well)
Cotton swabs
1. Pour enough milk in the dinner plate to completely cover the bottom and allow it to settle.
2. Add one drop of each of the four colors of food coloring - red, yellow, blue, and green - to the
milk. Keep the drops close together in the center of the plate of milk.
3. Find a clean cotton swab for the next part of the experiment. Predict what will happen when
you touch the tip of the cotton swab to the center of the milk. It's important not to stir the mix just
touch it with the tip of the cotton swab.
4. Place a drop of liquid dish soap (the Dawn brand works well) on the tip of the cotton swab.
Place the soapy end of the cotton swab back in the middle of the milk and hold it there for 10 to
15 seconds. Look at that burst of color! It's like the 4th of July in a bowl of milk: mini-explosions
of color.
5. Add another drop of soap to the tip to the cotton swab and try it again. Experiment with
placing the cotton swab at different places in the milk. Notice that the colors in the milk continue
to move even when the cotton swab is removed. What makes the food coloring in the milk
move?
How does it work?
Milk is mostly water but it also contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, and tiny droplets of fat
suspended in solution. Fats and proteins are sensitive to changes in the surrounding solution
(the milk).
When you add soap, the weak chemical bonds that hold the proteins in solution are altered. It's
a free for all! The molecules of protein and fat bend, roll, twist, and contort in all directions. The
food color molecules are bumped and shoved everywhere, providing an easy way to observe all
the invisible activity. At the same time, soap molecules combine to form a micelle, or cluster of
soap molecules. These micelles distribute the fat in the milk.
This rapidly mixing fat and soap causes swirling and churning where a micelle meets a fat
droplet. When there are micelles and fat droplets everywhere the motion stops, but not until
after you've enjoyed the show!
July 2008
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Activity ideas obtained from ACES staff and public domain materials
Guilford County Schools ACES Program
There's another reason the colors explode the way they do. Since milk is mostly water, it has
surface tension like water. The drops of food coloring floating on the surface tend to stay put.
Liquid soap wrecks the surface tension by breaking the cohesive bonds between water
molecules and allowing the colors to zing throughout the milk. What a party!
Repeat the experiment using water in place of milk. Will you get the same eruption of color?
Why or why not? What kind of milk produces the best swirling of color: skim, 1%, 2%, or whole
milk? Why?
Yeast Experiment
To demonstrate the effects of yeast, try this experiment. Pour one package of dry yeast, ½ cup
of sugar, and one cup of warm water into an empty soda bottle. Cover the bottle opening with a
balloon and watch it expand.
JMG-Gardener Handbook: Ch. 7, pg. 146-Nutrition in the Garden
July 2008
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Activity ideas obtained from ACES staff and public domain materials