Fun with the Food Pyramid

This is the second full week in a row that our county's schools have been closed because of bad weather. My daughter's teacher sent home work to be completed on snow days. To supplement that, she reads and has Play-Doh and crafts and she loves to write stories and letters. She gets a little bit of screen-time to go on PBSkids.org/go and to watch the occasional PBS cartoon.

One morning this week she watched a "Sid the Science Kid" episode about nutrition. That, and the Olympics, spurred a full day of discussion about eating right and exercising to be strong and healthy. She worked out to her Denise Austin "Fit Kids" DVD and afterward said, "My heart is happy." Our "unit" included printables from the USDA and a story book about sneaky rabbits published right here in Terra Alta by Headline Books -- for which I am the new publicist.



Every children's book Headline Books publishes has an educational component. "Grandfather's Garden" by West Virginia author Mary Jane Romig includes a simple representation of the Food Pyramid to help very young children begin to understand it. It also has recipes. With every turn of the page, readers search for the adorable bunnies among Karen Riley's vibrant illustrations of veggies.

Several of Headline's titles are about gardening, farming and/or farm life. Headline Books will have a booth at the Winter Blues Farmers Market from 4-7 p.m. March 1 at Lakeview Resort in Morgantown.

Here are links to the USDA printables:
Kids Food Pyramid
A Pyramid to color
A worksheet to track what you eat in a day and where the servings fit in the pyramid

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