• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
    • Email Me
    • Disclosure & Copyright
  • Start Here
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Books for Moms

Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Spelling Activities
  • Family Fun
  • STEM
  • Movie Night
  • Toddler Activities
You are here: Home / Learning Activities / Preschool / Strong or Weak: A Nutrition Game

Strong or Weak: A Nutrition Game

May 23, 2013 By Terri Thompson

Sharing is caring!

39 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Life has been very busy here at the Creative Family household, so I’ve been very pleased to have been able to provide you with some fabulous guest posts. Today, I’d like to welcome Malia from Playdough to Plato. Take it away Malia!

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.


Strong or Weak: A Nutrition Game for Kids {Playdough to Plato}

Several years ago, my oldest son was at the beginning of his first picky eater phase. Hoping to make dinner time more enjoyable, I asked a parent educator to share her favorite survival tips. One of the simplest suggestions she mentioned was the one that helped my son the most: she taught children to call healthy food “strong” and junk food “weak”. By using words that explained how the foods would make them feel when they were finished eating, kids were motivated to eat healthier.

I immediately decided to make the vocabulary switch in our home too. That night, I placed my son’s plate in front of him and pointed out all of the strong foods he’d be eating. We had a nice, two-year-old conversation about the difference between “strong” and “weak foods” and then, to my surprise, he picked up his spoon and started eating. No complaints. No food on the floor.

We have been using those same words ever sense and I’m convinced that they have saved us from countless picky eater tantrums. I thought it would be fun to share the trick with all of you by creating a simple, kid-friendly game to help make the learning curve move quickly.

To play Strong-Weak, I first gathered a few supplies:

  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar book (optional)
  • A pile of strong foods and weak foods
  • A long piece of tape
  • Two signs: One that says “strong” and one that says “weak”

My now 3.5 year old son and I cozied up to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar together. It was the perfect introduction to our game because the caterpillar feels so sick after eating the cupcake, lollipop and other weak treats.

Strong or Weak: A Nutrition Game for Kids {Playdough to Plato}

Then, I invited him over to our play space. The pile of food was spread out on a tray. Directly in front of it was a piece of tape sandwiched between the signs “strong” and “weak” like this:

Strong or Weak: A Nutrition Game for Kids {Playdough to Plato}

It was time for my son to get to work sorting. He raced from the food pile to the labels, laying each item in the right spot. Most foods landed either on the right or left side, but he decided to place a few (including this box of macaroni and cheese) smack dab in the middle since it was a little of both.

Strong-Weak was a perfect combination of fun and nutritional learning. I hope your family will enjoy this picky eater trick too!

Meet Malia

Malia is a former kindergarten teacher turned stay at home mom who shares hands-on reading, writing and math games at Playdough to Plato. Stop by to download a free set of alphabet tracing cards and follow the blog by email.
 
The following two tabs change content below.
  • Bio
  • Latest Posts

Terri Thompson

Terri is a writer and mom of two elementary-aged girls. She has a passion for learning and is always looking for ways to make learning fun. You can find her here writing about fun learning activities, art, craft, and family fun ideas.

Latest posts by Terri Thompson (see all)

  • Thanksgiving Math Activities for Kids - November 10, 2022
  • Paper Plate Tambourine Kids Craft - May 15, 2022
  • Outdoor Shape Activities for Kids - May 9, 2022

Recent Posts

  • Thanksgiving Math Activities for Kids
  • Paper Plate Tambourine Kids Craft
  • Outdoor Shape Activities for Kids
  • Shape Hopscotch Outdoor Game
  • Butterfly Paper Plate Wreath Craft

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Categories

Archives

Copyright © 2023 ยท Designed by The Blog Surgery

Creative Family Fun uses cookies to improve your experience. These cookies provide feedback to our analytics and advertisers. We use the information to track views of the site, where you go and to know if you are a regular visitor or brand new as well as provide a personalized experience where possible. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
39 shares