Can kids have fun being healthy? Absolutely! There are many ways to incorporate kids into engaging physical activities and appealing, tasty food choices. However, it all starts with knowledge of how to be healthy. The Kids MyPlate and Physical Activity brochure is an easy-to-read and kid friendly guide. It is great for parents and kids to go over together so that the parent and child are on the same page of how to reach a healthier lifestyle together. The focus of the pamphlet is for kids but it surprised me that it can be used as a great reference source for parents as well.
The pamphlet begins with the slogan, “It’s Fun to be Healthy!” I think this a great saying because it helps catch kids attention since kids are all about having fun. On the inside of the brochure it emphasizes on the five important food groups: protein, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and grains. Each panel provides the importance of eating each food group and offers at least one good option to eat. Also, at the bottom of each panel, there is a tip colored in purple, which seems to be the most important take-away from the information. On the back of the pamphlet, it highlights on how kids can be active. It gives a very brief description as to why it is important to exercise and also explains how much every kid should be getting each day. It then lists numerous fun and active forms of exercise, instead of time in front of a screen. On the last page of the brochure, it offers kids to visit the MyPlate website in order to receive more information about how to improve their lifestyles to be healthier.
This brochure is very well put together. It exhibits the four C’s of communication, which includes being clear, concise, complete, and correct. It grabs its audience’s attention with the cartoon pictures and bright colors. Also, it is portable, inexpensive, easy to reproduce and could easily be stored. However, I think the pamphlet needs to incorporate more specific healthy ideas for snack or food options for each food group instead of listing just the broader option. By giving kids more detailed options will help them understand what are some truly healthy options that can be eaten.
As a nutrition educator, this pamphlet would be great to use in elementary and middle schools. It would be a fun interactive lesson where each student would receive the pamphlet and would discuss it as a class. In the class, the pamphlet would be expressed in much greater detail and as to why each panel is important. For this education tutorial, I would also bring in food items that are common amongst the age group to demonstrate what kind of options that are good and ones that are bad. A taste tester would be a fun engaging activity to do with the kids to demonstrate some new foods that they may have not tried before.
Overall, this brochure does a fantastic job of describing the importance of each food group and the significance of exercise.
To check out the brochure, click on the link below!!