Our country celebrates Nutrition Month  every July and the Department of Education (DepEd) advise all schools to participate in the celebration of Nutrition Month by engaging into activities that will promote the importance of health and nutrition. “Gutom at Malnutrisyon, Sama-sama Nating Wakasan.” is Nutrition Month 2013 theme.

Every year, my kids’ school celebrate Nutrition Month with a parade where in the kids wear anything with vegetables or fruits followed by a simple program. A nutritionist or a doctor speaks in front of the students and tell the importance of good health and nutrition. Also inline with the celebration, a dental check up is scheduled for the students.

They also have poster making contest, short cooking contest and sometimes singing and dancing contest. I’m sure a lot of schools are looking for Nutrition Month Celebration Ideas, so here are some that I can think of:

Dental Check Up. You organize a dental check up for the students but aside from the usual check up where the students line up, you can make this activity an opportunity to discuss proper tooth brushing, how sweets affect the teeth and the diet (with a little background on the food pyramid).

To keep the dental organize and to ensure that all the students can hear the discussion, you can do this by Grade Level. While the other section lines up for the check up, the next section can attend the discussion. It would be better to have the discussion in a smaller group of students.

Poster Making Contest. Ask every students to create a poster from the said theme as an elimination process. In this case, every students get to participate on the activity. Choose 2-3 students per Grade level to represent their level to the contest.

Talk from a Nutritionist. Make sure that you will get a Nutritionist that can capture the students’ attention and also make sure the Nutritionist talks about things that can easily be understood by the students. You can also ask the speaker to talk about a certain topic, like the food pyramid or the Go, Grow Glow food.

Class Report. You can ask the students to prepare a report about Nutrition. Prepare a simpler topic for lower grade level. You can assign this as a project and include it in Values subject or HELE.

Cooking Contest. If your school does not have the facility to hold this kind of contest, you can still have one by choosing ingredients that does not need to cooked. You can have a sandwich making contest, salad making contest.

Acrostic writing contest. This contest is best for higher level students. Ask them to form an acrostics from the word NUTRITION, here is an example:

N- nuts are important! a great source of protein!

U-ube or purple yum for carbohydrates!

T- tomato makes your skin glow!

R- Rice to give us energy!

I-Ice cream is good but not too much!

T-Tuna is a fish and we can eat that!

I-Ice pop is another treat, but too much will break your teeth!

O-Orange, the fruit we need for Vitamin C!

N-Nachos with lots of veggies and some cheese makes a good meal!

For Nutrition Month Celebration Costume Ideas, here are some:

For girls: white blouse and skirt and let them carry a small basket with fruits or veggies.

For boys: white shirt and shorts with a hat decorated with fruits or veggies.

You can even create vegetables or fruits costume.