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Nutrition seems to be something taught mainly in Home Economics and in Science class and can be really boring! You learn about your vegetables, your fruits and then the importance of protein, but the excitement really isn't there. Nutrition can be a lot better taught using crafts, and this can also help make meals a lot more fun!

One way that is very simple is to gather fruits, vegetables and even round loaves of bread and convert them into animals. Make a shaggy topped carrot with black-eyed peas and cheese ears with an olive for a nose. Add a bit of dip to create a beard and your craft is now a balance meal! Corn can be used on a potato head for teeth with radish ears. Bread can be made into all sorts of shapes. The food becomes your craft supplies. Put things together using tooth picks or flour paste. It will give the children a whole new meaning to playing with your food!

You can also make sculptured landscapes using food. The bread can become hills or mountains covered with broccoli trees. Up near the top cut a boiled egg through the center and it becomes the rising sun. Cauliflower can become either clouds drifting through the sky or sheep grazing in the fields. Food used as art can be very attractive, but is it nutritional?

Use products containing all the essential nutrient and let the class learn about them and what each represents. Beans are a good source of protein, but so are eggs. Fruits provide vitamins such as C, B E and A, but which have which? When getting the students to construct their food craft, tell them it needs to be balanced. It can even become a contest as to who can create the most attractive, well balanced meal.

One thing to realize is that these crafts aren't going to last! The class needs to use clean hands so when creating and designing them if they eat them (some will) they won't develop health problems. You should also check for any food allergies first, such as peanut. Peanut butter can be a great glue, but not if it kills some one!

Nutrition, it can be taught through arts and crafts, but have a camera handy as these tasty designs may not be long for this world! They may be the start of a healthy diet!

Learn more about this author, James Johnson.
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