At the store, show your child how
Discover new foods
ways to include it in a meal.

Food and Fitness for a Healthy Child

Put away the salt Here’s an easy way to cut
back on the amount of salt your child eats: Don’t invite the salt-shaker to the dinner table! If it’s out of sight, he won’t salt food without thinking. Too much salt can lead to high blood pressure and other health risks. Idea: Set out alternatives like lemon pepper and salt-free season-ing blends.

Active fundraisers Offer to help plan a healthy PTA or PTO fundraiser. Instead of selling candy or other sugary foods, suggest
active ways to raise money. Your group might hold a bike-a-thon or a student-teacher kickball tournament, for instance. This will get your youngster and her classmates mov-ing and encourage healthy habits.

Your child can use science to determine whether an egg is fresh!
Have him put an egg in a glass of cold water. If it’s fresh, it will sink. If it floats, it’s past its prime. Why? Eggshells have tiny holes that air seeps into over time—the more air an egg has inside, the older it is and the more likely it is to float.

Just for fun

Q: Why did the jelly wobble?

A: It saw the milk shake.

© 2019 Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated

February 2020

Farrell Area School District

Healthy choices at the store Turn a trip to the supermarket into a

healthy adventure for your child. Use these tips to teach her to make good food choices from the start.

Make a list
Before you head out, plan meals with your youngster. Ask her to name healthy foods to eat this week. Which lean protein (chicken, black beans, fish) would she like for dinner each night? What nutritious

snacks should you buy?
sugar per serving.
Have her write a shopping list that	or the yogurt with the least amount of includes her ideas. She’ll learn that
using a list can keep her focused and
or cookies into the cart.
Read labels
cut down on the tendency to toss chips		Work together to find a healthy new food to try. In the produce sec-tion, she might spot parsnips or ruta-bagas, for example. Check out the
lenges. You might ask her to find a
tahini (sesame seed paste or brown
in the cart, and at home, research
to read labels. Then, give her chal-	international aisle, which)may have box of crackers with whole wheat as	rice noodles. Let her put the new food the first ingredient (meaning there’s
more whole wheat than anything else)

Alphabet ftness

Get fit from A to Z! With this sug-gestion, your youngster will always have something active to do.

First, help your child make a poster of fitness options, one for
each letter of the alphabet. Encourage him to include a variety of ideas—indoor
and outdoor, or ones he can do alone or with other people. Examples: A = acrobatics, B = beach ball toss.

Now put a set of letter tiles or magnetic letters in a bag or bowl. Your youngster can pull out a letter anytime and do the matching activity. “It’s C. Let’s have a crab-walk race!”

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Nutrition Nuggets

Salad days
Salads make it easy to get more vegetables into your youngster’s diet. Try these kid-friendly strat-egies that will have your child asking, “More salad, please!”

Favorites first.Start with ingredients your youngster likes, such as croutons, ched-dar cheese cubes, and broccoli crowns. Then, let him mix in greens like romaine or arugula.
Finally, he could drizzle on a healthy dressing like ranch made with yogurt.

A “forest” obstacle course

Trekking through a forest is great exercise—and so is navigating this cre-ative indoor version. Encourage your child to make and play in an obstacle course disguised as a forest.

1.Set it up. What can she find around the house to make her “forest”? She might use a blue beach towel for a stream, green washcloths for lily pads, blocks for stones, and chairs for trees.

2.Add “creatures.” Now your young-ster can scatter stuffed animals or maga-zine pictures of animals throughout.

February 2020 • Page 2

Give it a twist. Who says you have to eat salad with a fork? Have your child fill his plate
with finger foods, such as baby kale leaves, red pepper spears,
green beans, and cucumber slices. Or he might make a “deconstructed” salad by put-ting each ingredient in a sepa-rate section of his plate.

Create a buffet. Ask your youngster to help you set up a
salad bar for dinner. He could choose fun containers for ingredi-
ents and add signs. Examples: “Superhero Spinach,” “Tasty Turkey.” Encourage him to put veggies on half his plate, then add cheese for calcium, a whole grain (cooked pasta wheels or farro), and protein (hard-boiled egg slices, lean ham).

Managing diabetes

When my son Logan was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, I worried about
how he’d manage, especially when I wasn’t with him. So we worked with a dietitian to create a healthy eating plan.
The dietitian said Logan doesn’t need special foods—just a nutritious diet and plenty of exer-cise. She also told us to email copies of his care plan to his teachers, the school nurse, the cafeteria manager, and the principal. Now they know when
Logan may need a blood sugar check or a snack. If he goes to a friend’s house, I send a healthy treat to share and give the parent a list of symptoms that would indicate his blood sugar is dropping or spiking.
Our whole family is working on eating better and being more active. That’s making things easier for Logan and keeping us all healthier.

Four-ingredient meals

3.Go exploring! Let your child move through her forest. She can hop across the lily pads, climb the chair, and move like the animals. Maybe she’ll swim like a fish or jump like a bunny.

O U R	P U R P O S E
	
To provide busy parents with practical ways to promote healthy nutrition and physical activity for their children.
Resources for Educators,
a division of CCH Incorporated
128 N. Royal Avenue • Front Royal, VA 22630 800-394-5052 • rfecustomer@wolterskluwer.com www.rfeonline.com
Nutrition Nuggets™ is reviewed by a registered dietitian. Consult a physician before beginning any major change in diet or exercise.
ISSN 1935-4630

© 2019 Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated

Healthy dinners don’t need to be complicated. These meals taste great and burst with nutrition—and each one has just four ingredients.

Chicken caprese Stir together: diced
baked chicken, grape tomatoes, marinated mozzarella balls.
Toss with: whole-grain angel hair pasta (cooked, drained).

Quinoa bowl
Stir together: cooked quinoa, canned chickpeas (drained and rinsed), sliced black olives.
Top with: plain nonfat yogurt.

Tuna tacos
Stir together: can or pouch of tuna (packed in
water, drained), avocado chunks, shredded purple cabbage.
Serve in: whole-wheat tortillas.