Healthy Food Picture Menu

The healthy food picture menu will give your preschooler the freedom to choose foods and you'll be content knowing any choice is a healthy one. Use the menu for any food occasion - snacks you bring in for preschool, dinner ideas or post-game snacks for your preschooler's sports team. Use the menu to set a standard of healthy eating!

What You Will Need

Large heavy weight paper or posterboard

Glue or tape

Pictures of healthy foods, meals or snacks

How to Make the Healthy Food Picture Menu

Step One:
Collect pictures of individual healthy snacks or meals.

Step Two:
On your paper or poster, title the menu with your intended use - "Preschool Snack Menu," "Jack's Favorite Dinner Menu," "Post-Game Snack Menu"

Step Three:
Arrange pictures on the paper/poster and glue/tape down.

Step Four:
If you’d like to include the name of the food with the picture, position the pictures in a vertical row with labels beside each. Otherwise, jumble the pictures on the page or create multiple rows of pictures.

Tips for a Healthy Snacks Picture Menu

For a Healthy Snack Picture Menu, first get ideas for healthy snacks from the Healthy Preschool Snacks List or the Preschool Snack Menu.

Since most preschool snacks will include at least two food groups, organize your food images by group: fruits and vegetables, breads and grains, dairy, and meat, beans, nut. Then have your preschooler pick two foods - each from a different group.

Tips for a Healthy Dinner Picture Menu

Keep an ongoing list of your preschooler's favorite meals to create the menu. If you can't find an image of the meal, take a quick digital picture or draw a picture of the meal. Next time you're at a loss for dinner ideas, get out the menu and ask your preschooler for input.

Resources for Food Pictures

Magazines
Page through magazines to find food images you can cut out. 

Cookbooks
If favorite recipes or healthy foods are pictured, scan in the image and print out for your menu.

Internet
Some internet resources exist with free downloadable food images. Please reference the appropriate source if you are publishing your healthy food menu for others.

National Institutes of Health, Image Library (fruits, vegetables, salads)

Wheat Foods Press Images (breads, cereals, grains)

National Institutes of Health, Image Library (other foods - smoothie)

Stickers

Food Pyramid Chart Stickers

Simply Good Eating Food Stickers 

by Kati Chevaux

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