Gopher Exclusive Product
NutriPlay Food Beanbags
Bring healthy lifestyle principles into any beanbag activity!
Combine Education and Physical Activity
Get students more engaged in nutrition education with health games for students! Fun games involve students tossing beanbags onto the correct food group in the pyramid, getting students out of their seats and actively learning!
Quality Bags
Each 4" sq beanbag has a soft yet sturdy vinyl cover that is water-resistant to ensure it lasts both indoors and out. An overlock stitching style uses looped threads to prevent the bag from unraveling.
The complete set of 24 nutrition beanbags includes 4 foods from each of the 6 food groups from the Food Pyramid. Each beanbag features a food image so students can easily identify the foods and the group they fit in. The included durable nylon storage bag easily holds all of the beanbags for easier storage and transportation.
15 Fundamental Movement Skill Activities Using NutriPlay Food Beanbags
The NutriPlay Food Beanbags set provides a creative and tactile way to teach fundamental movement skills (FMS) through nutrition-themed play. These beanbags are shaped and labeled as healthy food items, making them perfect for cross-curricular learning in both physical education and health. With their durable, easy-to-grip design and fun, recognizable food shapes, these beanbags engage students in movement games that promote physical literacy while reinforcing healthy eating habits. Below are 15 unique, skill-focused activities using these beanbags to develop locomotor, non-locomotor, manipulative, and body control skills for students of all ages and group sizes.
1. Beanbag Buffet Dash: Students perform different locomotor skills (skipping, hopping, galloping) across the gym to collect a full "plate" of food by grabbing one NutriPlay Food Beanbag at a time and returning to their team's hoop. First team to collect all five food groups wins.
2. Toss-and-Tell Taste Test: Students stand in a circle and toss a NutriPlay beanbag to a classmate. The catcher must say the food's name, describe its food group, and perform a twist or bend before tossing it to someone else, reinforcing nutrition knowledge and non-locomotor skills.
3. Food Group Frenzy Relay: Use the NutriPlay beanbags and five cones labeled with food group names. Teams race to sort foods into the correct dome using running and accurate underhand throws.
4. Healthy Plate Hoppers: Place beanbags around the gym. Students must hop to a beanbag, identify the food and its group, then hop to the correct section of a giant food plate drawn on the floor with Gopher Rainbow Floor Tape.
5. Slide to the Salad Bar: In this side-slide relay, students move laterally to collect beanbags from one side of the gym and slide them on the floor to teammates who are building a "healthy salad" at the finish line. Emphasizes sliding and teamwork.
6. Balance Your Breakfast: Students balance a NutriPlay beanbag on their heads while walking along a straight line. They must identify the food and share a healthy breakfast idea to earn points.
7. Salad Spinner Sprint: Students run to pick a random beanbag, spin three times (turning), then run it to a team salad bowl. Repeats until each team has a full salad. Promotes turning and sprinting.
8. Power Plate Pitch: Students underhand throw food beanbags into hula hoops labeled with food group names. Add distances for increased challenge and work on throwing accuracy and strength (power movement).
9. Fruit-n-Veggie Freeze Tag: When tagged, students freeze in a stretch pose holding a NutriPlay beanbag. Another student must jog over and name a healthy food to unfreeze them. Teaches dodging, jogging, and healthy habits.
10. Meal Match Movers: Scatter matching pairs of food beanbags across the gym. Students perform locomotor movements (leaping, skipping) to find matching pairs, collecting one item at a time to complete a healthy meal.
11. Dodge the Donut (but Keep the Kale!): Use NutriPlay beanbags and add a few non-healthy “decoy” beanbags (optional substitutes). Students must dodge incoming throws and collect only healthy food beanbags to earn team points.
12. Rainbow Recipe Relay: Teams are assigned a “recipe” (e.g., rainbow salad). Students run or gallop to gather the correct color-coded beanbags to match the ingredients in their assigned meal.
13. Stack the Snack Tower: Students gently toss or place beanbags from each food group on their partner’s back as they balance in tabletop pose. Great for non-locomotor balancing and precision stacking.
14. Swing Into Soups and Smoothies: Hang ropes or use jump ropes tied to a beam. Students swing across a “river” and toss food beanbags into a “soup pot” hoop below. Focuses on swinging and tossing accuracy.
15. Chef Says Shimmy: A twist on “Simon Says.” The “chef” calls out moves like “Chef says twist like spaghetti!” or “Chef says hop like a hot potato!” using the beanbags as inspiration for movements.