Kids, Have Fun With the Food Section

Attention kids: Not only can you play with your food, you can play with the Food section. Here are some ideas of ways to exercise your brain with food.

PICK YOUR FAVORITE food or recipe from today’s food section and create an advertising campaign for it. Cut out photos from the newspaper, make the dish and photograph it yourself, or draw what the finished product would look like. What is your advertising slogan? Write scripts for television ads as well and videotape them. Have an ad screening in your class and invite other classes in to vote on which food they’d be most likely to buy.

NEWSPAPER SCAVENGER HUNT: See who can find the following items in today’s Providence Journal the quickest:

A coupon for a food item. A restaurant advertisement. A picture of a person who looks like the eat healthy, exercise and take care of themselves.

A fruit (either picture or words). A food that is high in sodium. Something you’d like to eat for breakfast. A healthy snack. A recipe that has five or less ingredients. A fraction. A temperature.

SEARCH THE FOOD section for the names of foods that were once parts of plants. Make a chart and list foods by type: herbs, spices, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables. Which items grow below ground? Which ones grow on trees or bushes?

AS A CLASS, make a cookbook and include everyone’s favorite recipe. Call the cookbook, America’s Melting Pot, and include a favorite recipe from each student’s ethnic heritage. Using a world map, chart where each recipe originated.

SEARCH TODAY’S comics page. How many comics include food?

PLAN A BALANCED menu for your family using the recipes in today’s food section. Be sure to incorporate food from all of the food groups: protein, dairy, bread, vegetables and fruits and fats.

USING THE FOOD section, look for junk food versus healthy food. What are your best choices and why? Which foods are the highest in calcium?

Vitamins? Scan recipes and ads for foods that are: Low cholesterol, low sodium, low in sugar, low in calories, high in fiber.

CATEGORIZE items as “necessity” or “luxury.” Make a list of each and be prepared to argue your choices.

SEARCH FOR adjectives – words that describe a person, place or thing. Circle all of the adjectives you can find. What other descriptive words could you use?

SCAN RECIPES for references to measurement. What abbreviations are used? Convert measurements to the metric system.