The USDA announced previously the Dietary Guidelines for 2010 but they finally released the document that emphasizes a better balance of nutrition and physical activity (PA) along with a limiting in processed, high-fat, high-sugar, high-fat foods.
Image via WikipediaHow can you use these new guidelines in your programs to help your students be more physically educated and healthy for a lifetime? Please leave a comment below on how you might bring these guidelines into our St.Mary's experience so that the after-school students can learn and explore what the government recommends in terms of healthy living.Press Release
Executive Summary
Selected Messages for Consumers
Backgrounder
Questions and Answers
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010
(Policy Document)
Balancing nutrition, physical activity to avoid obesity is focus of new dietary guidelines [NEWS AND FEATURES]
Executive Summary
Selected Messages for Consumers
Backgrounder
Questions and Answers
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010
(Policy Document)
Balancing nutrition, physical activity to avoid obesity is focus of new dietary guidelines [NEWS AND FEATURES]
37 comments:
When it comes to working with young children we have to look at how they are able to learn. Young children learn through motor movement which is the foundation of the 3 domains (cognitive, affective, and motor). The way i'd encorporate the USDA Nurtrition Guildines into St. Mary's program is to make it into a game. One that would teach them the importance of eating healthy but also keeping them active as well. I don't have details on the game however i plan on putting it into action
Leave your suggestions on how you might bring in these new guidelines into your games.
When setting up a game for children, there are easy ways that the 2010 health plan can be incorporated. I would set up some type of game with a few good teams working together, vs. the bad guys. The good team could be each named a seafood, fruit, vegetable, and whole grain. The bad team can be named something with a lot of fat, etc. This will provide a visual picture for students of what is bad and what is good, all while being physically active during a game.
I think there are a ton of ways to teach the kids at St. Mary's how to be more physically and nutritionally healthy. For a start, we could play games where the kids are separating and identifying if the foods are good or bad to eat, to see what amount of knowledge they already know about healthy foods. After finding out what the kids know, we can take it a step further by letting them know exactly why certain foods they may have thought to be "ok" to eat are not. Creating posters of the current food pyramid might also spark interest with the kids. As far as a direct change to the St. Mary's experience; I advise the staff at St. Mary's to implement a healthier snack after school. The cookies I saw last time we were down in the cafeteria did not look too healthy; so changing that snack to something like carrots and celery sticks would be a sure way to getting our future student building healthy lifetime eating patterns. Finally, I think we should definitely play tons of games with the kids; and just have fun doing physical activity. Keeping the kids' experience fun after school will encourage them to take the physical activity they take part in, in school; out of school, too. This will in turn build a better awareness of the amount of physical activity the children at St. Mary's should enjoy and carry out for years to come.
I was thinking maybe play a game of basketball where we split the kids into teams (veggies, grains, meats, fruits)while the teacher assistants be the sweets. When they have the ball they are trying to score against us or in other words trying health surpass sweets and while the TA's have the ball they are defending against sweets. It'll be a way to make them think that sweets are bad for you not only in the game but in the real world and they'll focus more on the rest of the food pyramid
Physical educators are commonly overlooked and mistaken for a group of people who simply enjoy wearing sweats and playing sports. If it would be deeper looked into people would see PE teachers care about more than just a game, and in actuality put much of their time into bettering the health of the community. Equivalent to when a volleyball coach would check the net before a match for the safety of both teams…a teacher would promote healthy eating for the safety of their students and the community. Obesity in the U.S is out of control and we, as physical educators, have the opportunity to do something about it. With the guidelines given to us by the USDA we can incorporate various games as a good way to get the students attention without having them actually think they are in a classroom being lectured. One game that could be done would be to set up a relay race with multiple different obstacles and in order to advance from obstacle to obstacle they would have pictures of multiple different types of foods (ex - bacon, cheerios, milk, waffles, and cupcakes) and would be asked to put together the healthiest meal for the time of day that they have (breakfast, lunch, snack, or dinner)while also including a reason why they chose those food items. Obstacles could include bean bag tossing, mazes, jump-rope… etc.
Being physical educators we have the opportunity to teach these kids in a way that nobody else can and so that they can remember it. Through games kids will remember much more because it is enjoyable and fun for them. I saw great advancements in this topic when I attended the NYSAHPERD, a guy invented a game called "Vegetable Land", it is very similar to "Candy Land." The only difference is the food choice, and they made the vegetables characters so kids remember them. The way the salesman explained it to me was that they are trying to introduce vegetables at a young age so that kids aren't disgusted and in fact they are more familiar with these foods. I thought it was a great plan of action and could definitely make a difference.
one way we could incorporate this into our teachings with the kids is through one of their favorite games. many kids love using the parachute in class and it just so happens many parachutes are multi colored just like the new food guide. The game you could play is that each color represents a certain food group. each kid could have a certain group to represent the food group and there could be music playing. other kids will be considered "sugar" and when the music stops the kids have to run to their designated food group with out getting caught by the "sugar" group. if they are caught then they are now in the sugar group and they switch places. this will not only get the kids involved physically but gets them to understand the food groups are split up n the "sugar" group is bad for them because the don't want to be caught by them.
Today people don't take care of there bodies and it is starting to show. More and more people are becoming obese everyday. As physical educators we have to let the kids know at a young age what is good for your body and why. You could try and incorporate health ideas and foods into the game you are trying to play. So not only will they be active while playing the game you can get there minds thinking about things like fruits and vegetables and make it fun for them. If we can get kids at a young age to understand the importance of nutrition. It will greatly help them down the road to be a healthier person and care more about there overall fitness.
The new USDA guidelines would be fun to learn if incorporated into a tag game. One such tag game would food blob tag which is every time you get tagged with a unhealthy piece of food you join the blob(sort of like fat accumulating inside your body). This would be an effective game to use not only in the St.Mary's after school program but in my future teaching experiences.
In my experience with teaching children new things, the best way to get them to understand is through visual presentation. So, inorder to teach these children the new USDA nutrition guidelines I woul create a game that clearly showed how unhealthy foods (fats, sweets) are "bad" and healthy foods (fruits, veggies, meats) are "good". An idea I have is too play games in which the teams that behave the best or perform the task the best can be labeled as one of the good foods for the rest of class. Something along those lines.
There are many ways you can include nutrition at St. Mary’s. As I saw when we were there last Monday they already get a good snack, when I saw the younger students eating bananas. I think it is important for us as physical educators though to teach them why foods such as fruits and vegetables are better to eat than candy and other sugar foods. By playing games that incorporate nutrition and physical activity they can get an idea of how food helps them stay active and healthy. You could play simple game like we played in lab on Monday where you have to retrieve balls. You can say that the green and red balls are fruits and veggies, while the blue and yellow balls are fats, sugars, and oils. Then separate them into teams, each team wants to get as many fruits and vegetables as they can. They can do this while skipping or running. It is important for us to explain to them why fruits and vegetables are important and why fats, oils, and sugars are bad for you. I feel that by playing games and incorporating nutrition in them, we can make an impact because this will show them that physical activity is fun, while teaching them something about diet and nutrition at the same time.
Research has shown that one-third of our children today are obese. Most of this come's from bad diet habits and lack of exercise. At st. mary's we can incorporate the knowledge of a good healthy diet and the movement of exercise as suggested in the USDA nutrition guidelines through very simple activities. One way that we could bring knowledge and movement to the kids is through a simple game of tag. The taggers could be solid fats and sugars; the bad foods. While everyone else could be the healthy foods; fruits, vegetable, whole grains, etc. Another simple activity that we could do at st. mary's with the children is a variation of capture the flag, but instead of a single flag we could use multiple sets of different colored balls. Each different ball could represent a healthy food. While each team is trying to get their share of "healthy food" each team will have a designated tagger that is represented as bad food. While the teams are trying to get the most healthy food as possible it is important to stay clear of the "bad food" or tagger on the other team. Simple games such as these are activities that not only can get the children at st. mary's doing physical fitness but helps teach them the importance of healthy eating habits. These sort of activities in physical education help the students learn through activity rather than just sitting there and staring at a chart. As we know when children are moving they are activating their cognitive skills,so understanding what good and bad foods are will only increase through visualization of these activity's.
There are a few different ways that you could incorporate the new Dietary Guidelines for 2010 when you are teaching young children. You could explain to them a certain tag game in which they have to hop, jump, skip, or run around, and split them up into "Good Food" verus "Bad Food". Onve you have them play the game for a certain amount of time they will be tired out at the end and more likely to listen to you when you are explaining to them the healthy choices when it comes to eatting. Learning healthy choices at a young age will most likely influence what healthy choices they make in the furture. When visiting St. Mary's school I noticed that instead of giving the younger children cookies or chips to snack on the teachers gave them bananas to eat. Giving them healthy snacks during snack time can also have an impact in the types of food they choose.
I think that the 2010 dietary guidelines for America are a really useful and helpful tool for everyone. As I was reading though them I was thinking of ways we can bring this to St. Mary’s with us. I came up with something like musical chairs into the snack time the children would have fun with it and get a little more movement into their day. Here’s a musical chairs game that makes eating healthy fun it’s called “tutee fruity’ and this is how it goes; everyone is giving a different fruit name like banana, grape, apple etc. the teacher calls out a fruit name and everyone with that fruit gets up and runs to the front of the room and they do a funny dance of their choice while the music plays. When the music stops they race back to the chairs like in regular musical chairs. With giving them fruit names it will make eating healthier snakes fun.
I am loving your ideas! I love learning new games and ways to play old ones! Keep up the great work and don't forget about adding your games to the Games Planner. If you don't know what that is, please ask someone from Monday's lab.
Following good nutrition habits is extremely important for young kids growing up. So incorporating healthy foods into some of our games is key. I came up with a a game that is a variation of Red Rover, Red Rover. Instead of saying just "Red rover, red rover...come over", we could say red rover red rover if you ate (random food) come over. The food that is called out, must have been previously consumed for the children to run over. After each wave of kids runs over, the physical educator could discuss if that specific food is healthy for kids to eat. This gives the children a chance to discuss with not only their instructor, but with their classmates as well. Good nutrition is something that our kids need to be aware of.
Physical Education is looked at a lot as being a useless class because the students get to run around and don't learn anything. People could not be more wrong with their thoughts about Physical Education. This should be one of the most important classes that students take because it teaches about lifelong fitness. Bringing the new USDA guidelines into a Physical Education class would be an excellent way for students to learn about what they should be eating. To incorporate this into a Physical Education class the teacher could use different color pennies to represent the good and the bad foods. Kids love tag because they love to run around, the pennies that represent the bad foods will be the taggers and the pennies that represent the good foods will be the one's being chased. There could be multiple taggers. Before getting into the game though the teacher could present the students with a poster that has good foods that they should eat more of and then the bad foods that they should eat sparingly. The teacher could talk about why some are better than others and then have cut outs of the foods and ask the children where the foods belong (on the good side or the bad side). Then when they are playing tag they could associate which foods are good versus the bad foods.
As a physical education teacher it is important to know up to date nutritional information. The USDA comes out with new information every year but is not directly given to students. As a teacher you have to know what type of kids you're teaching and how you can get across your point in a way that they will understand. For younger kids it may be more helpful to play a game that subliminally gets your message across. A popular game like Dr. Dodgeball could be slightly altered. When a person is struck by a ball that person has to sit. The "doctor" is the only person that can save the person that is down. In explaining the directions of the game you can say that the doctor brings back people who are out of the game by feeding them vegetables and fruits. For older students a more direct explanation of basic nutritional facts instead of games would be more effective. There are many different ways of teaching proper nutrition.
In order to incorporate the new guidelines into our after school programs at St. Mary's, I would use a variation of the game Elbow Tag. Not just Elbow Tag but with most games the students play they can be modified to teach them about the guidelines. In modified Elbow Tag the children would link arms with another student, these two students will represent either the dairy, fruits, vegetables, or whole grains. The student who is chosen to be it will be a "sugar" or a "fat" they will chase a student who must link with the other students and they will become a healthy food. This will teach them that the fats or sugars are breaking down their body by having the student on the end break off and join arms with another student. Teaching them the good food groups and the bad ones.
I think that there are many different ways that I would teach this lesson to the children at St. Mary's. One idea would be to create colorful posters to explian the changes that have been made. Also the posters would explain the importance of daily physical activity and would list many fun activities that the children can play. In addition I would introduce some games that help them differentiate between eating good and bad foods. One game I would have them play is a variation of TV tag where they would have to say the name of a healthy food in order to be safe. If they cannot name a healthy food they then become "sweets" or the "bad taggers" that can go around and tag the other players. This will help the kids be active and will also test their ability of knowing the difference between good foods and bad.
Being a physical educator, a fun and creative way to incorporate the USDA Nutrition Guidelines would be by making a game out of it. Tag games are especially fun for children and can have several different themes. In regards to the nutrition guidelines, a tag game could be created where the "good" foods, such as fruits, vegetables, etc, could be one large team, and the "bad" foods such as sugars, salts, etc, could be another smaller team. The "bad" food team being IT, the "good" food team could do everything they can to stay away from and not get tagged by the bad food team.
In order to incorporate these new guidelines into some games at St. Mary's I would create a tag game:
(still lacks a name)
The children are split up into 4 teams: Meat/Protein(red), fruits and vegetables(green), breads/grains(yellow), and dairy/cheese(blue). 2 of the children are "it" and they carry around a piece of foam noodle. Those two children that are "it" are "kids in search of nutrition" and they must tag someone from every team in order to "win". Once tagged, the child must sit down criss/cross/applesauce. When the 2 taggers get at least one person from every team a two new taggers are chosen.
^^This is kind of a work in progress game, I intend to try and fine tune it.
The USDA Nutrition Guideline tells us to:
• Increase vegetable and fruit intake.
• Eat a variety of vegetables, especially dark-green
and red and orange vegetables and beans and peas.
• Consume at least half of all grains as whole grains.
•Increase intake of fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, such as milk, yogurt, cheese, or
fortified soy beverages.
•Choose a variety of protein foods, which include seafood, lean meat and poultry, eggs, beans and peas, soy products, and unsalted nuts and seeds.
etc.
After reading this article and working with the kids at St. Mary's Church I came up with a few games to implement these facts. I want to teach these students which foods to eat and which foods to stay away from. One of the activities I would bring to the table is garbage ball. I would split the kids in two teams and place two bins on each sides of the basketball court. I would use the color balls from class and assign each color ball either a fruit or fatty food. The objective is to get as many fatty food balls into the bin and as many fruits in the other bin. The team with the must balls in each bin wins. This game teaches kids about certain foods and keeps them active.
I think a way to incorporate the new USDA Nutritional Guidelines into St. Mary's after school program would be to set up 4 posters, one Red, Green, Light Blue, and Orange. On each board, label the food group it is associated with, and then post them up on the 4 walls of the gym. On each board i would put up pictures of each individual foods that are within the groups. I would then have all the students go into the center of the gym and the game i would play, is i would yell out a type of food, and everyone would have to run to that wall of the gym and touch it, so an example would be i would yell BREAD, and they would then have to run to the Grain wall yelling back BREAD is in the GRAIN Category. This is an activity for older students, but it would get them moving, also it would get them thinking about what foods are in which groups. Now the reason i chose those four groups is because kids would begin to associate what foods are in those groups so they would be able to think about more types of foods that would be healthier for them to eat. This activity would help them in making the right choice when it comes to eating foods. I used to always have a problem knowing what foods went where when i was a kid, so i think this game would help their knowledge of it.
The new guidelines given by the USDA can be implemented into programs to help students be more physically educated and healthy for the rest of their lives. This would mainly be used in students of younger ages to educate them about making healthy eating choices to lean them towards a more healthy lifestyle. I would simply incorporate food groups into games they are already familiar with so that they can focus solely on the lesson being taught in the game, which is to educate them on eating healthier foods. In a simple game of capture the flag, the flag could be made into a healthy food, and all the people on the other team are unhealthy foods. If you get tagged, you are hungry and need healthy food so someone from your team has to come free you. Simple things to incorporate lessons on how to eat more healthy can make games in physical education even more educating!
To help the children of St. Mary's know and remember the new USDA Nutrition guidelines. We would create a fun exciting game that makes the children learn while moving around burning calories. First we would have a short lesson so the children would know possible answers for the questions we would during the game. The game that I thought of is a version of Musical Chairs called Nutritional Chairs. We would Play a children song as the students walk around the colorful chairs which represent Food Groups. There would be a lot of extra chairs and the students would quickly have to find a seat when the music stops. For example when a student sits on a yellow chair, we come around and ask them what a healthy and non healthy yellow food. Good answers for healthy yellow foods are Banana. Good answers for unhealthy yellow foods are French Fries. This way the students will be learning cognitively by making the students think of possible healthy things. And actively by making the students walking around the chairs while paying attention and waiting for the music to stop therefore working on their awareness as well.
I think that there are many ways that a physical educator could incorperate the USDA Guidelines to the children at St. Mary's. Children become more excited about being active when they have a teacher that seems to be excited about the activities also. I think that a good way to teach the children about healthy eating would be to set up some sort of game such as tag where the "it" people would be not as healthy foods such as cookies or chips while the other children are different types of veggies or fruits. I also think that being enthusiastic about the healthier chices would get the children more enthusiastic about eating them. I also think that a healthier snack such as apple slices or carrots could also be benifical to the children. I think incorperating these choices would be very beneficial to the children and help them make healthier choices.
When setting up games for the children at St. Mary's, it is possible to incorporate the Nutrition Guildines. One way I was thinking of was maybe modify the game of tag. The people that are it can be title as fats or grease (something that is negative towards good nutrition). Now there are also another group title veggies or fiber (something positive toward good nutrition). Everyone else are free until they are tagged. When they are tagged the children will stop moving until the veggies unfreeze them. The game will go until the coach blows the whistle or stops the game.
The children at St. Mary's could greatly benefit from games that educate them on the principles of the USDA Nutrition Giudelines. Games that include movement and implement healthy nutritional facts would be the most benefitial because kids learn better when they are having fun. Therefor sitting down and teaching the kids about nutrition in a classroom would be less effective than, for example, rewards the children with healthy snacks and beverages. This would help the kids associate activity and replenishing foods/drinks.
Our time spent at St. Mary’s grants us an amazing opportunity to spread the knowledge about how important nutrition is to a healthy lifestyle. Most children are constantly given portions that are far greater than their dietary needs call for, and to me this is the most important point I plan to hit on. While children sometimes don’t have the opportunity to eat as healthy as we might like, they always have the control to choose how much they are consuming. I would like to incorporate into a game some sort of trivia during the down time, that will grant them extra points or another form of incentive. This eliminates downtime and does so in a manner that is productive as well as informative.
The new guidelines that are being established into the modern physical education programs concerning health plans for our younger generations are of the upmost important. Personal experience involving lack of nutrient in my physical education in the past gives me a great opportunity to express new ideas. Enhancing games and locomotor skills by modifying them with cognitive excercise skills to help develop the knowledge for nutrient. An example of this would be: Red Fruits, Green Fruits, 1-2-3 - The materials needed for this game are (4) 8 foot long jump ropes. There could be more or less depending on the size of the class and the area or space needed. Place the jump ropes on the floor on opposite sides of the gymnasium. Join the jump ropes together to form a big box so that there is a big box on both sides of the gymnasium. One box will be the donut penalty box, which is where the students will start. The box at the far end on the opposite side will be the fruit bowl. There will be a student chosen as the fruit police officer. His/her job is to stand on the fruit bowl side, turned around facing away from the students. The fruit police officer is not able to turn around or see them until saying out loud red fruits, green fruits, 1-2-3. If a student is caught moving toward the fruit bowl for safety, he/she will be asked a question on a specific color that is a fruit. If they get the question wrong they must go back to the donut penalty box and start over. If they get the question right they are safe. The objective is to have all the students reach the fruit bowl safely without getting caught by the fruit police officer.
Modifications - Variety of locomotor skills including running, hopping, skipping, sliding, and walking from one end to the other. Game can change as well. Instead of just asking a student right after being caught a question, you can have other fruit police officers chosen to try and tag the person who was caught moving. That person who was caught has the opportunity to run to the fruit bowl for safety before being tagged. If tagged though then he/she must answer the question given by the instructor.
Incorporating the USDA dietary guidelines into the games could be as simple as playing musical food group members or as complicated as learning specific vitamins and minerals provided by the foods. To expand on the musical food groups the P.E. instructor could place several items of the food choices on the floor. The choices could be pictures with words. As the music plays the students could do any number of motor skills to move around the gym (walk, run, skip, two foot hop, or one foot hop). When the music stops, or a whistle blows the instructor could call out a specific food group to stand on or as simple as “a food that is good for you.” If the instructor had the same number of each food groups on the floor it would be a good warm up game to group the kids for another game or drill. All the vegetables are one group, all the fruits another and so on.
Today many children are obese and as physical educators we need to do what we can to help change this. Kids today need to start eating healthier and start doing more physical activities. Many kids sit around and either watch t.v. or play video games instead of going outside. I believe that we need to help inform children about healthy eating habits and also why they should be eating healthy. Growing up I remember sometimes while we were playing games in class the teacher would give a prize to the winners but they would give out candy as a prize, instead of candy they could give out healthier snacks like fruit. One game that I think I would use would be another version of ice cream tag, but instead of using ice cream flavors I would change it to different types of fruit like apples, oranges, peaches, etc. I would have one or two students be in the middle of the floor and they would be the taggers. Then they would call out a fruit and when your fruit was called you have to run the other side of the gym without being tagged. If you get tagged you're out, the last couple kids remaining would be the winners and maybe give the winners a piece of fruit. Another game that I might do is split everyone up into a couple teams and have a relay race. At each station there will be a question about the food pyramid and in order to move on to the next station you have to answer the question correctly. During this game they will be active because they are running to each station and they are also learning about the food pyramid
I thought of a pretty simple game to teach kids the concept of good foods vs. bad foods. It seems simple in my head at least, I'll try to explain it as best I can. You would start by splitting the students into 2 or more teams depending on class size. For the sake of this description let's say that the class is split into 2 teams. You would put 2 large containers on opposite ends of a gym (garbage cans or laundry bins or some other large bin) and put a tape circle around the bins. The size of the tape circle would vary depending on the skill of your students. You would then need a bunch of small koosh balls or nerf balls. The balls would be color coded to represent different food groups. Yellow for grains, green for vegetables, orange for fruits, blue for seafood, red for meat, white for dairy, and black to represent fats, candy, etc. The students start by their trashcans on the ends of the gym. The balls are scattered throughout the gym. When the teacher blows their whistle, the students run around the gym and pick up balls and throw them (from outside the tape circle) into their teams trashcan. Students also try to throw the black balls (sugars and fats) into the opposite teams bin. When all of the balls are in the bins, the teacher will blow the whistle again and the teams will dump out their bins and add up their score. Yellow, green, orange, blue, white, and red balls are worth 1 point each and black balls are worth -1 point each. The team with the most points wins. This game teaches students the importance of eating healthy and teaches them that too many sugars and fats are bad for them.
when using food with physical activity, what i would do is think of creative warmups in which i can utilize a vast array of food stuffs, weather i'd be using plastic toys of food or simply using box tops off cereals or assorted snacks. an example of what i would do could be possibly scattering false foods all throughout the gym and give high point values to fruits and vegetables thus subliminally making kids place more importance on greens. another example i think would be interesting is applying a physical activity fro each food, for example 15 pushups if they pick up snacks, or 20 jumping-jacks if they pick veggies. besides these few examples there are many other ways i b
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