Of course, we want to impart to our pupils the value of nourishing their developing, active, and learning bodies with nutritious meals. Developing healthy eating habits in children and knowing proper nutrition goes a long way toward ensuring their long-term health. Kids should also be taught the GOOD that eating well may feel and taste like! Below you will find our favorite picture books about nutrition and healthy eating practices to share with kids, including topics like sampling new foods, learning to cook, understanding food allergies, and eating those veggies.
Vegetables are showcased in this photography festival at their finest. One of our favorites for starting a healthy eating or plant unit with young children is this engaging (but not didactic) nutrition book. Go, Go, Grapes: A Fruit Chant is another excellent resource to get people enthusiastic about fruit.
This alliterative tale describes the journey from farm to table of a wholesome, seasonal dinner. It’s fantastic for getting youngsters to consider where their food comes from and to discuss the traditions of their own families when it comes to eating.
Although Maurice is a very kind monster, he is desperate to be himself. That includes unwaveringly favoring green vegetables over typical monster food. Maurice proves to students with a lousy impression of vegetables that kale is unquestionably superb.
Instead of the usual goat menu of tires, cans, and t-shirts, Gregory prefers fruits, vegetables, eggs, and fish. Kids will find it humorous that Gregory’s parents choose for him to eat trash over his fruits and vegetables. In this book of amusing role reversals, the youngsters will be pointing out what is healthy rather than being taught what it is.
Lola won’t eat healthy meals until her brother gives them imaginative new names, such as “Orange Twiglets from Jupiter” for carrots and “Pointy Peaks of Mount Fuji” for mashed potatoes. After reading, ask your students to either write a tale about a time they tried something new and were pleasantly pleased by its flavor or come up with more imaginative, humorous names for widely despised foods.
Knowing where food comes from is essential for making good dietary choices. Each vibrant display shows children how a typical lunchtime dish is grown or made. An overview of the food groups is provided in the back matter.
A little child who likes spaghetti spends the day cooking with a neighborhood chef, creating fresh pasta, sauce, and meatballs. Encourage children to inquire about the components of their favorite foods.
This amusing story, which subtly mocks picky eaters, is beloved by children. Do the seven Peters siblings consume a balanced diet? Most likely not, but the book will undoubtedly spark a discussion among kids about what a good diet looks like.
- Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Here is a well-known children’s tale about overcoming dietary reservations. Like stubborn kids everywhere, Sam needs a lot of persuasion to try new food. - To Market, To Market by Nikki McClure
Food that is nutritious starts with healthy ingredients. This classic book does a beautiful job of capturing healthy food buying practices. We head to the market!
Zombie Dark secret: Mo Romero adores vegetables. In a secret garden, he even cultivates them. Kids will enjoy giggling at Mo’s attempts to get his parents to try vegetables, especially the intelligent method he eventually develops. This is an excellent example of how to discuss trying dishes prepared in many ways until you find one you enjoy. The book is available in Spanish.
In this parody of The Princess and the Pea, a birthday celebration serves as the setting for introducing food allergies. When Regina’s friend Paula discloses her nut allergy, Regina changes her cake recipes so Paula can consume them without getting sick. This tale can help persons with food allergies advocate for themselves and inspire sympathy in others.
This narrative reflects many children’s experiences, concerns, and questions regarding food sensitivities, allergies, and intolerances. To maintain his “super” best health, Aiden learns what foods he can and cannot eat. He discovers that many children around the world are much like him.
Here is a tale for any young person who believes that pizza, or any other beloved dish, should always be available. Pipo is unwilling to eat anything else because of her unwavering love for pizza. Then she walks around her neighborhood and discovers many other fascinating and delicious possibilities. This book is excellent for starting discussions about the value of eating various foods!
When Bilal’s father phones to ask for help creating the food WELL before dinnertime, Bilal’s buddies are curious about what his father is hard preparing. The day closes with Bilal’s friends enjoying a brand-new, delectable dish after participating in a fun-filled team culinary expedition. Use this tale to inspire children to approach new foods with curiosity.
When she started urging the Seventh Street produce market in Los Angeles to sell varieties of fruits and vegetables most people hadn’t tried before, Frieda Caplan established her reputation as a “produce pioneer.” She began her career by bringing various fruits and vegetables to U.S. consumers, such as kiwifruit, purple asparagus, and horned melon. This distinctive biography will inspire kids to look for something new to try the next time they visit the market.
This is an excellent cookbook and one of our favorite nonfiction books for kids on nutrition. It makes sense of healthy eating for kids by using the utterly understandable idea of eating a rainbow! It is an excellent how-to writing mentor text for the classroom because it is packed with lovely step-by-step pictures.
