Preschool Health and Nutrition Activities

What Are Fruits and Vegetables and Why Are They Important

With all the talk these days about eating healthy and making life changes that mostly include our diets, children need to know why it’s important to eat their fruits and vegetables.  The preschool age is a great time to teach children about them and start them on a road to healthy eating and good nutritional habits.  First children need to now what fruit and vegetables are and what each one looks, feels and taste like.

It can be pretty easy to teach children what fruits and vegetables are.  Go to the store and purchase plastic fruits and vegetables that are sold in the toy department.  They usually have many different items to choose from so you will have a wide variety to teach them with.

Talk to the children about their health and why it’s important to eat healthy.  Show them the different fruits and vegetables and explain to them what they are and how they help you to stay healthy.  Talk about the colors and the texture of each type.  Before you know it they will be able to tell you what fruit you’re holding up and which vegetable is red and which one is green. 

You can even play a game with these.  Give each child a basket or a box to collect fruits and vegetables in.  Place the fruits and vegetables out on the floor.  Have the children make a circle around them.  Now you call out a name of a fruit like an apple.  The children have to pick the apples out of the fruit and vegetables placed on the floor.  At the end of the game the child with the most food in their basket wins. 

Teaching children about the foods we eat is important and will continue to be important for the rest of their lives.  Teaching them why the foods we eat keep us healthy is a vital part of growing up and learning too.  It gives them a path to follow for the rest of their lives and will help their families to live long and healthy lives.