National Nutrition Week is a wonderful opportunity to help children explore food, where it comes from and the role it plays in our everyday lives.
For early learning centres, schools and OSHC settings, nutrition learning doesn’t need to be complicated. Through play, gardening, cooking, sorting, storytelling and simple hands-on experiences, children can begin building a positive relationship with food while developing skills across many areas of learning.
Here are seven easy Nutrition Week activities educators can introduce into their learning spaces.
1. Create a Pretend Fruit and Veggie Market
Transform your dramatic play area into a colourful fruit and vegetable market.
Provide pretend fruits and vegetables, baskets, shopping bags, play money, scales and signs, then encourage children to take turns being shoppers and shopkeepers.
Children can sort produce by colour, type or size, count items into baskets and practise simple conversations such as asking for quantities or prices.
This type of play supports early numeracy, communication, social skills and imaginative play while encouraging children to become familiar with a wide variety of foods.
Extend the learning: Invite children to create their own market signs, shopping lists or price tags.
2. Explore Where Food Comes From
Helping children understand the journey food takes before reaching their plate can open up plenty of interesting discussions.
Choose familiar foods such as apples, carrots, milk, eggs or bread and talk about where they originate.
You could match foods to pictures of farms, gardens or animals, create a simple “farm to plate” sequence, or explore how wheat becomes flour and eventually bread.
For younger children, keep the activity visual and hands-on. Older children can investigate food production in more detail and discuss how food is transported from growers and producers to shops and homes.
Extend the learning: Choose one food each day during Nutrition Week and investigate its journey together.
3. Start a Mini Herb or Vegetable Garden
Growing food is one of the easiest ways to help children make the connection between nature and what appears on their plate.
Herbs such as basil, parsley and mint are ideal for small spaces, while lettuce, cherry tomatoes or beans can work well where more growing space is available.
Children can help plant seeds, water plants, observe changes and measure growth.
Gardening also introduces conversations about caring for the environment, seasons, insects, weather and sustainability.
Extend the learning: Keep a simple garden diary where children draw what they notice each week.
4. Sort, Count and Compare Foods
Food-themed resources can turn Nutrition Week into an engaging early numeracy activity.
Provide a collection of pretend foods and ask children to sort them in different ways.
They might group them by:
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Colour
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Shape
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Size
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Fruit or vegetable
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Where they grow
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Foods they recognise
Children can then count each group, compare which has more or fewer items or create simple patterns.
There doesn’t always need to be one “correct” way to sort. Allowing children to choose their own categories encourages reasoning, language and problem-solving.
Extend the learning: Ask children to explain why they grouped particular foods together.
5. Set Up a Café or Kitchen
Kitchen and café role play is a natural way to explore food while encouraging creativity and collaboration.
Children can prepare pretend meals, take orders, design menus, serve customers and clean up their café when they finish.
Add aprons, utensils, plates, bowls, cookware, pretend food and notepads to make the experience more immersive.
This kind of imaginative play supports communication, turn-taking, sequencing and fine motor development.
Extend the learning: Ask children to design a menu for their café using drawings, pictures or words.
6. Cook Something Together
Simple cooking experiences provide opportunities for children to practise measuring, counting, sequencing and following instructions.
Depending on your setting, this might involve making fruit skewers, preparing a simple salad, mixing ingredients or assembling a no-cook snack.
Encourage children to notice colours, smells, textures and changes as ingredients are combined.
Cooking together can also introduce mathematical language such as full, half, more, less, heavier and lighter.
Most importantly, keep the experience positive and exploratory rather than focusing on particular foods being “good” or “bad”.
Extend the learning: Create a picture recipe showing each step and let children put the instructions into the correct order.
7. Explore Food, Family and Culture
Food is also closely connected to families, traditions and cultures.
Invite children to talk about foods they enjoy at home or meals that are important to their family.
Educators could read stories featuring foods from different cultures, explore pretend foods from around the world or invite families to contribute a favourite recipe.
This creates opportunities to celebrate diversity while helping children understand that families and communities may enjoy many different foods and traditions.
Extend the learning: Create a classroom recipe book containing recipes, drawings or food stories contributed by children and families.
Making Nutrition Learning Positive and Playful
Nutrition Week provides a great starting point, but learning about food can continue throughout the year.
Gardening, dramatic play, books, sensory experiences, cooking and early maths activities all give children opportunities to explore food in a relaxed and meaningful way.
By focusing on curiosity, enjoyment and hands-on experiences, educators can help children build knowledge and confidence around food while also supporting broader learning in literacy, numeracy, science, communication and imaginative play.
Explore Food, Cooking and Garden Learning Resources
Looking for ideas to bring food-based learning into your centre, classroom or OSHC program?
Explore Edu-21's range of kitchen and cooking toys, pretend food, dramatic play resources, gardening equipment, early numeracy resources and educational activities designed to make hands-on learning engaging and fun.
