Nutrition Month: Ideas for a School or Club based Nutrition Week

In one country where we are helping to strengthen a government nutrition education strategy in primary schools, the school likes to put on a Nutrition Day. This is part of an annual community education day. All the schools in one locality come together to show the community what they have learned on a given focussed topic. To prepare for Nutrition Day, the teachers work with the three upper grades in the school. When we worked with the teachers on this we developed a list of ideas! We thought you would be interested to see the kinds of things cross curricula ideas that they planned during the week. The best of these were then practised and performed or demonstrated on Nutrition Day!

Grade 5

• Mathematics: – Making and practice the use of an arm circumference measurement
• Language: – Nutrition word tests, spellings and word games (nutrition, balanced, vitamins, micronutrients)
• Science: – Finding out the values of different foods
• Social Studies: – Eating surveys & food diaries
• Creative Arts: – Role plays about food customs in our country plus songs and choral speaking

Grades 6

• Mathematics: – Understanding a chart to compare cases of diarrhoea in bottle-fed and breastfed babies
• Language: – Invent a crossword and clues
• Science: – Looking at micronutrients and how they can keep us healthy
• Social Studies: – Good Food Game Page
• Creative Arts: – Story-telling on two friends sharing ideas about food and food practices plus songs and choral speaking

Grade 7

• Mathematics: – Understanding weighing and measuring a baby’s weight regularly (Road to Health Charts)
• Language: – Writing a story about three families with different approaches to food for the family: What happens?
• Science: – How germs make food go bad.
• Social Studies: – Making model stomachs
• Creative Arts: – Storytelling and acting about a malnourished child that was found by another child and made well again. Songs and choral speaking

Have a look at our 10 nutrition messages for children to learn and share!