Food Lapbook

I pieced this lapbook together mostly from my own ideas, but you can find lots more grocery lapbook ideas here.  This is my favorite lapbook we've done so far, and is the most do-again and game-like. The kids love it and I'm confident they are learning so much! 

Goals: 

• To gain understanding that food does REAL things for our body, we don't just eat food because it tastes good.
• To build money skills in how to read $ amounts and figure numerical order.
• To practice real-life skills such as menu planning and "looking for the cheapest price"

full view

 Food Pyramid (I realize that nutritionists don't 100% follow this same pyramid anymore, but it's the shape I wanted, and it does show the basic idea, including 8 cups of water a day, and mostly we're just focusing on the food groups anyway) These are the pockets for food cards which will be used in nearly all the activities.

#1 Sort food cards according to food group.

 # 2 Sort food cards according to color (mostly just the fruit and vegetable cards)
#3 Sort food cards according to where they come from (trees, animals, gardens, fields) I don't want my kids growing up just thinking food comes from the grocery store!

#4 Use food cards to lay out a daily menu plan. (use the serving suggestions on pyramid to help make sure diet is balanced)

 

#5 Money cards -- set out three cards and have child pick which $ amount is the smallest (we practice this in the grocery store too when I'm buying something)

#6 Money cards -- set out 3 or 4 cards and have child arrange them in order from smallest to biggest

#7 Money cards -- set out 4 (or more) cards and read a dollar amount and have child find correct card

#8 Money cards -- play same game as #7 and have child play game at YOU so HE is the one reading the $ amounts.

# 9 Money cards (including orange coupon cards) - select the whole-number $ cards and practice adding and subtraction, pretending the orange cards are your coupons at the end

 

#10 Just a general picture showing what different food groups do for our body. Use the clues to figure out what part of the body certain food groups help. Then glue the description onto the right food flap.

#11 An ABC list of foods, creating the border (for a complete food alphabet click here)

On the front of the flap-down 

#12 Vitamin chart (the info is all the same as this chart, minus the quantity column) I just reformated it so it could be a flip chart. Again the actual details of each vitamin aren't all that important. It's just neat to see that food works in an REAL way for our body!

#13 Kids' grocery list. Get out your store ads and let the kids practice cutting and gluing as they create their own "grocery list". I allowed them 2 treats but everything else had to be healthy choices.

 

 #14 And finally, to complete our lapbook, we included the Biblical tie-in for how our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit so we are to take care of them. I had the kids color to make it look like themselves. This is glued on to the back cover of the folder.

It took us several days to complete all the activities, and now we can play again and again!

 DOWNLOAD LAPBOOK COMPONENTS:  

Money Cards and Meal Planning

Vitamin Chart

What does food do for my body?

Food Cards

Pocket Pictures

My body is a temple, coloring page

I think this includes everything to make your lapbook, though it will probably take a couple minutes to download. 

Instructions: 

*I do not have a file for the food pyramid because I just drew it myself and now I can't scan it or anything because of the pockets on the lapbook. 

* And I also don't have files for the pockets themselves. They are a large fat T-shape that you fold together to make your pocket though.  Use the food/money cards to gauge how big the pockets need to be.

* Except for the pocket fronts, the vitamin chart, and the "what does food do for my body" flaps, everything else is printed on cardstock. The pockets are also folded out of cardstock.

Enjoy and let me know if you use this!