Nutrition Education Materials

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Pick a Better Snack Program

Healthy eating habits and regular physical activity play a key role in child health. A regular meal pattern with higher amounts of fruits and vegetables is recommended for children to support favorable growth patterns and promote optimal health and well-being. Fruits and vegetables are important in the diet because they are nutrient-dense, offering few calories and lots of vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients.

Iowa HHS created the Pick a Better Snack Program for children ages 5 – 9 years to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables and encourage active lifestyles. The program offers many benefits to children, including:

  • Exposure to new foods in a safe, supportive environment
  • Positive experience with fruits and vegetables through hands-on activities
  • Taste-testing new and familiar fruits and vegetables
  • Education about where food comes from and how it grows
  • Opportunity to add minutes of physical activity to the day

Pick a Better Snack Lessons

The Pick a Better Snack lessons support Iowa's Academic Standards for Health Education and Science. The specific standards are listed in each lesson. Learn more about the connections to the science standards and health education standards.

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Classroom Physical Activity

Children need at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity every day to support overall health. Most children fall short of this goal. Lack of physical activity can impact a child's ability to do well in school. It can affect their memory, attention span, school attendance and grades.

Each Pick a Better Snack lesson includes a classroom physical activity break. These activities may be swapped out for other classroom physical activity breaks, such as those included in the booklets below. The booklets are also intended as a resource for classroom teachers or others looking for short physical activities for youth. 

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Family Newsletters

Monthly newsletters are sent home with students to give families ideas for eating healthy and staying active on a tight budget. Newsletters are based on the produce featured in the monthly Pick a Better Snack lessons.

  1. Year 1 (Use these newsletters with the Year 1 Pick a Better Snack Lessons)
  2. Year 2 (Use these newsletters with the Year 2 Pick a Better Snack Lessons)
  3. Year 3 (Use these newsletters with the Year 3 Pick a Better Snack Lessons)
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Stickers

Print these 1.5-inch, round stickers for each student to receive with the lesson. They can help students talk to their parents or caregivers about the food they tried in class. 

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Coloring Pages

Have fun with these fruit and vegetable coloring pages! The coloring pages support the Pick a Better Snack monthly lessons. Nutrition educators can use them in the classroom to ease transition times or with after-school and summer nutrition education sessions to reinforce healthy messages. A nutrition educator may choose to just send the pages home, too. The pages were designed to encourage parents and children to color together!

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Fact Sheets

Fruit and vegetable fact sheets are available for many of the featured and alternative produce items. These can be used in the classroom with the Pick a Better Snack Program or as part of other programs, such as the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. 

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