Healthy+Island


 * **Name of Activity:** **Healthy Island** ||

**Purpose of Activity:** To integrate nutrition information (e.g. the Food Pyramid) with upper body strengthening physical activities **Suggested Grade Level:** 3-5 **Materials Needed:** laminated pictures of food or plastic food items, diagrams of the food pyramid, scooter boards, colored pinnies **__Description of Idea__** Select two players (number depends on your class size) to be the sharks (taggers on scooter boards wearing colored pinnies). In the center of the gym is the “Healthy Island.” The island is covered with laminated pictures of food or plastic food items and is guarded by the sharks. Divide the rest of the class into four groups and assign each group to an island in the corner of the gym. Within each group, children should pair up. The object of the game is for players to "swim" on a scooter board to the center island, grab a food item, and get back without being tagged by one of the sharks. On the signal, one student from each pair from each island will try to get a food item from the center island. If successful, the team gets to keep the food item and place it on their diagram of the Food Pyramid. They must place the food on the correct area of the food pyramid. Players who are tagged by a shark must go back to their island and give their scooter board to their partner, without bringing back a food item. The game continues until one team has completed the food pyramid.

**Assessment Ideas:** Check each food pyramid to see that students are placing the foods correctly, and that the correct number of servings are identified. **Teaching Suggestions:** Change the "sharks" (taggers) often. Also, depending on the number of students in the class, it may be necessary to have more than two taggers at a time.