National School Meals Week 2005 consists of various activities for different age groups based around the idea of a day of healthy eating.

This website contains several different activities for different aged children.

For Reception and KS1 children there is a quick and simple day of eating activity, which uses illustration, voice overs and interactivity to explore what we eat and why we need to eat. It has been designed to be used as a teaching resource for KS1, but would be fun for younger children and parents. For lesson plans click here.

For older children there are separate activities for breakfast, breaktime, lunch, hometime and evening meal, together making up a whole day of eating. These activities are:

The Breakfast Activity is an interactive about ingredients in food, looking at what exactly is in the average breakfast. It also talks about food groups and a varied diet.

The Breaktime Activity is a computer game where the student has to guide a character through a school to a tuck shop to buy a healthy breaktime snack of fruit, avoiding junk food 'baddies' on the way. This is more of a fun activity, but could be used as part of a discussion on food and health.

The Lunchtime Activity is an interactive about processed foods which asks the questions 'What is Processed Food' and looks at the history and daily reality of the processed foods in our diet. There is also mention of different food groups and a varied diet.

The Hometime Activity is a reprise of the Breaktime Activity using the same computer game engine, but this time the pupil guides the character home from school, avoiding the temptation to snack on junk food.

The Evening Meal Activity is a computer game where the pupil plays a character at the supermarket and has £10.00 to get a bag of shopping for an evening meal. This game is about recognising foods from different food groups.

On the homepage of the site the children will be asked to choose their school year. This will give them a version of the activities that are targeted to their level of learning and Key Stage from the National Curriculum.

To help teachers use these games and activities in a constructive way we are providing lesson plans and ideas for incorporating into lessons and the National Curriculum.

General Notes

The online interactives are best used as a whole class activity. A whole class demonstration is useful as a lead up to the main activity (particularly at key stages 1 and 2). If there is a lack of facilities, the activities can be run as a demonstration by the teacher or by individual pupils. Those pupils with access to the internet outside of lesson time can play the activities on their home computers.

Lesson Plans