Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.
This Sunday we continue our multi-week feature on ways to encourage food education and exploration at the grocery store. For picky eaters or children who are hesitant to try new foods, the grocery store can be a broad landscape of new experiences that may lead to new food choices at home. Other children with sensory aversions or sensitivities may have a harder time with the overwhelming sights, sounds, and smells at the grocery store. Think about situations that may be challenging for your child and modify these activities as needed. (For example, try "shopping" in your very own pantry or fridge as you are preparing for a meal)
Today's Grocery Adventure is great for children in the early elementary-school years or children who are learning about categories. The grocery store offers us endless options for food in a relatively organized fashion. Next time that you are shopping with your kids, point out the way that foods are grouped together. Challenge your little ones to describe the ways that the foods are similar or different. Here are a few examples.
Produce: Fruits and veggies are the primary foods found here. How are they grouped? Round foods together? Leafy foods together? Is there a section for produce that is from another part of the world?
Dairy: What kinds of foods make up the dairy section? Cheeses, yogurt, milk, and maybe a few other treats. Talk about why these foods all belong in the same category (made from milk, cold, etc.)
Today's Grocery Adventure is great for children in the early elementary-school years or children who are learning about categories. The grocery store offers us endless options for food in a relatively organized fashion. Next time that you are shopping with your kids, point out the way that foods are grouped together. Challenge your little ones to describe the ways that the foods are similar or different. Here are a few examples.
Produce: Fruits and veggies are the primary foods found here. How are they grouped? Round foods together? Leafy foods together? Is there a section for produce that is from another part of the world?
Dairy: What kinds of foods make up the dairy section? Cheeses, yogurt, milk, and maybe a few other treats. Talk about why these foods all belong in the same category (made from milk, cold, etc.)
Canned Goods: This section takes a little more detective work. What kinds of foods come in a can? Look for pictures to find out! Are there some foods that are not in a can? Cucumbers? Bread? Berries?
Meats/Fish: It's always important to know where our foods come from. The best place to see these foods might be the butcher counter. What foods are red, pink, white, gray, or even black? What animals do they come from? Be careful, you might end up with some little vegetarians on your hands!
Meats/Fish: It's always important to know where our foods come from. The best place to see these foods might be the butcher counter. What foods are red, pink, white, gray, or even black? What animals do they come from? Be careful, you might end up with some little vegetarians on your hands!
RSS Feed