Cub Scout Ideas

This is a blog of different things I have done with my Cub Scout den. Let me know if you find it useful and I'll keep it up! If you have ideas to share, let me know! Mike

1/24/2006

Fun Food Pyramid


Every year we have to do a food pyramid. If your like me, this is not your favorite. But the federal government has some good resources online to help make this fun. Yes, the food pyramid can actually be fun! My acid test is always asking my son what was his favorite part of the night. We usually have opening games while the boys arrive, so that can always be a safe answer for him. He actually enjoyed the food pyramid games, so there's something to this...

Get yourself some card stock (110 lb.) and print out the Go Fish cards. You will have over 100 cards from this, which was plenty for 12 boys. Try to plan ahead and borrow a paper cutter to cut these out. Your local Kinko's or OfficeMax may be able to help you with this as well. You can print out the directions for you and a helper, but I found that my boys all knew how to play Go Fish! Their rules were a little different than the rules I printed, and it made more sense for them to go with the rules they all knew. You will need to divide the cards into 2 decks. Make sure that each deck has roughly the same number of foods of each food group.

You will also want to make copies of some of the handouts. I used the MyPyramid for Kids poster, the Feed Me poster, the "Eat Smart with MyPyramid for Kids" handout, the MyPyramid Worksheet which can be used to meet Requirement 8b, and a couple of puzzle pages from the Team Up booklet. If I could only have one handout page, I would do the "Feed Me" poster. This is the one the boys will remember later.

As the boys gather, let them work on the puzzle pages. Sit the scouts down at two separate tables. Put a little bit of distance between them. Have your denner at one table and assistant denner at the other. Start by going through the food groups on the pyramid on the "MyPyramid for Kids" poster. If you aren't sure what to talk about, refer to the directions in Level 1 Lesson 1 and Level 1 Lesson 2. After they understand the basics, switch to the "Feed Me" poster. Talk about how much of each food group they should eat using the words "LESS, ENOUGH, MORE, and PLENTY". This is easier to figure out than the old "Cups" and "Servings" that we had to remember. Also talk about making good choices in each food group. The food names with white or purple shading are low in fat, while the food names in light and dark green are higher in fat.

Now that they know their food groups and how much to eat of each, play Go Fish! using the cards so that they will know the groups for the foods they eat. Here's the key: tell the boys that there will be a quiz after they play for 10 minutes. Each table will be a team. Whichever table knows their food groups the best will win! Let them play until they are bored. You may get some agruments over the rules to Go Fish! Remind the boys that the real contest is the quiz against the other team. Do what you can to encourage the play along, and have them focus on the foods. Walk around and comment on certain foods and the group they are in. Remind them there will be a quiz at the end.

When it's time, have them get up from the tables and form two lines. Review the food groups and "LESS, ENOUGH, MORE, and PLENTY". Tell them the quiz will consist of 3 foods for each team. The team will have to decide the food group. The correct answers are Grains, Vegatables, Fruits, Milk, and Meat & Beans. The team should discuss amongst themselves, but the team captain is the only one to answer for the team. The denner and assistant denner are the team captains. Pick cards from the decks. Go for the harder ones, like peanuts (Meat & Beans), pretzels (Grains), raisins (Fruits), etc. If a team misses, give the other team an opportunity to guess. If there is a tie after each team answers 3 questions, quiz them on "LESS, ENOUGH, MORE, and PLENTY". Each team member on our winning team got to add a Star bead to their strap on the den doodle. Give all the boys credit for Requirement 8a. Send them home with the the "Eat Smart with MyPyramid for Kids" handout and the MyPyramid Worksheet for Requirement 8b.

Resources:
  • Wolf Requirement 8: Cooking and Eating
  • Go Fish cards. I think the color cards print out nicer than the black and white version, even on a black and white printer. NOTE: the filenames on the website are backwards. I've listed them correctly here (as of March 2006), but double check in case they fix the filenames on the website!
  • MyPyramid for Kids poster (print on a sheet of paper for each scout). Everything you need to know on the food pyramid. (Requirement 8a)
  • Feed Me poster (again print on a normal sized sheet of paper). This is the "Food Pyramid for Dummies" version. While the scouts may not remember much, make sure they remember"LESS, ENOUGH, MORE, and PLENTY". There is also a Move It poster, which is "Exercise for Dummies".
  • MyPyramid Worksheet for tracking food choices (Requirement 8b)
  • "Eat Smart with MyPyramid for Kids" handout. See page 3 of this file. Answer key is on page 4. This is a paper version of our team quiz.
  • Team Up booklet. I used the word search on page 9 and the hidden pictures on page 11.
  • I covered materials from the USDA's "Level 1 Lessons". Check out their classroom materials for other grades. Note that Level 1 is Grades 1 and 2, Level 2 is Grades 3 and 4, and Level 3 is Grades 5 and 6. Enough to get us all the way through Cub Scouting!
  • See also the Team Nutrition Resource Library. There is a lot of good stuff out there!
  • Online game to reinforce lesson