The Good Village
Healthy Eating Activities for Kids
Welcome to Canteen! The home of nutrition education and healthy eating activities for kids.
Here at N4HK, we care about making food and nutrition education more accessible for both students and teachers. By sharing the latest in interactive and engaging nutrition education materials online, we endeavour to help you grow the next generation of kids to be the healthiest and happiest version of themselves.
Explore some fun nutrition and healthy eating activities, games and resources below.
When should nutrition education be introduced to kids?
In Australian schools, nutrition education, known as PDHPE, is a requirement from kindergarten to year 10.
Because it’s part of everyday life, teaching nutrition education should be interactive and meaningful for all children in the classroom. Our healthy eating activities for kids are a great resource for teachers to get primary school aged children engaged in nutrition education.
What is PDHPE?
PDHPE stands for Personal Development, Health and Physical Education and is a core subject in K-10 education in Australian schools.
PDHPE takes a holistic view on what areas young people need to have knowledge in to ensure they lead healthy and happy lives into adulthood.
Healthy eating and nutrition education is a key element of PDHPE and is implemented both in the classroom through dedicated lesson plans and through compulsory healthy food options offered in school canteens.
Healthy eating activities are a popular educational tool in PDHPE as they create a more engaging, fun and relatable environment for children to grow their knowledge around nutrition and a healthy diet.
Why do we teach kids about healthy eating in PDHPE?
Healthy eating and nutrition education is essential for improving the health and wellbeing of young people.
By fostering a healthy relationship with food at a young age, children will build positive habits that will help them with their nutritional needs as they grow into an adult.
Just like in the home, schools make an important impact in developing a young person’s knowledge and attitude when it comes to making healthy dietary choices.
The PDHPE syllabus for K-10 students links good nutrition and healthy lifestyle behaviours together to ensure students develop skills that enable them to choose foods in an wise and informed way.
Are healthy eating games an effective form of nutrition education?
Not only are food nutrition games and activities an effective way of teaching the importance of healthy eating habits, they are also beneficial in growing engagement and collaboration in the classroom.
Most popular healthy eating activities for kids incorporate other educational disciplines such as Maths, History, and Cultural Studies.
