I’ve been a Wolf Den Leader in Cub Scouts for about a year now & I’ll admit it’s pretty fun. My boys are definitely not old enough (starts at 8 years old, mine are 3 1/2 and almost 2) but now I’ll be ready for it when they get into cub scouts!
Anyway, at our last den meeting we worked on NUTRITION, which is right up my alley (ahem, cue Bachelors degree in Nutrition & Food Management). For those of you reading this for the cub scout aspect, we accomplished Wolf achievement 8 a & b, the belt loop requirements #1 & 2 & pin requirements #2 & 6.
Ach. 8a) Study the Food Guide Pyramid. Name some foods from each of the food groups shown in the pyramid.
You can find “My Plate” at ChooseMyPlate.gov. I printed out this guide for 8 year old boys and we discussed the food groups, what they should eat, and how many calories & water they need and how much exercise they should get.
Ach. 8b) Plan the meals you and your family should have for one day. List things your family should have from the food groups shown in the Food Group Pyramid. At each meal, you should have foods from at least three food groups.
I printed out a simple menu that I made on Microsoft Word. They looked at the food guide and filled out breakfast, lunch and dinner and made sure to have at least 3 different food groups for each meal. (I love their spelling!)
[translation -- Breakfast: orange, dark [chocolate] pancake, and 2 glasses milk.
Lunch: fish, yogurt, and carrots, water. Dinner: Veggie burger, toast, and apple juice]
Nutrition Belt Loop #1) Make a poster of foods that are good for you. Share the poster with your den.
I cut out pictures from a grocery ad - healthy foods & junk foods. Last year I let the boys cut it out themselves, and it took 3 times as long. This year I cut out beforehand and had it all ready to go, and it didn’t take NEARLY as long for them to make the poster! Instead of just a poster of good foods, I had them divide it in half and glue “good” foods & “junk” (not ‘jump’, see picture below!) foods. Then they shared with everyone in the den what was on their poster.
Nutrition Belt loop #2) Explain the difference between a fruit and a vegetable. Eat one of each.
This one is always controversial with the little boys. Some boys think something is a fruit, other boys thinks it’s a vegetable, sometimes they are both right depending on who you are talking to. With 8 year olds, I just had them list off easy fruits (ie: bananas, oranges, strawberries) and east veggies (ie: broccoli, celery, carrots). When it came to tomatoes, avocados, corn, etc. we had a small discussion about them and let the boys say what they thought each was then dove into the eating part! That is always a win with boys!!
Nutrition pin #2) Read the nutrition label from a packaged or canned food item. Learn about the importance of the nutrients listed. Explain what you learned to your den or family.
I brought a granola bar for each of them and they looked at the nutrition label. Each of them found a certain nutrient or listing (ie: protein, calories, sugar). They found how much was in it, and more questions were raised – “what’s a calorie?” “how big is a gram” “what is saturated”. I did my best to explain, but in the end, they only cared about eating it! Now they at least know what that label is and the info they can find on it.
Nutrition pin #6) Make a list of healthy snack foods. Demonstrate how to prepare two healthy snacks.
This one I helped them out with by printing off a list of snack ideas from ChooseMyPlate.gov. We read over this list and then made #3 & 5 snacks.
They still have more to do with achievement 8, the belt loop and the pin before they can get those awards, but that’s a start! Now hopefully they are more aware of what is good for them, what they need to eat & how to plan and prepare what they eat.
One step closer to moving up in their ranks!
(for more cub scout ideas, click HERE)
*also posted HERE
