Begin by having the students spread out in the playing area. Five students are taggers and will each hold one of the colored balls in their hands. The taggers will attempt to tag the other students gently with the ball. THE BALL CANNOT LEAVE THEIR HANDS. Choose a type of movement (running, skipping, galloping, sliding, etc.) for the students to do during the game.

If a student gets tagged, they must freeze in a position that represents the food group ball that they were tagged with.

Fruit (Red) = squating down with one arm hugging legs and the other hand making a stem on top of their head (an apple).
Vegetables (Green) = standing straight with arms extended above their head (a celery stick).
Dairy (Blue) = standing in the "I'm a Little Teapot" position. One hand on their hip and the other arm making a spout (a pitcher of milk).
Grain (Orange) = wide stance with legs and arms extended out (a slice of whole grain bread)
Protein (Purple) = standing and flexing their biceps (protein builds muscle).

In order for the students to be untagged, another player must come up to them and tell them a food that belongs in that food group. They cannot say whatever the freeze position food is. They need to come up with a different type of food. For example, if someone is frozen as fruit, they could not say "apple".

Switch taggers and ways of moving to keep it interesting. If you have a small class or small space you can do one or two food groups at a time.

*You could also add in the Fats or Oils category and talk about what foods belong in those.
*If your school has a lunch program you can use the menu for that week and incorporate those foods so that when the students are at lunch they can see what food groups they are eating from.

Feel free to change the freeze positions!

To assess the students' knowledge and understanding of the food groups you could change the rules so that the students must come to you when they get tagged and tell you 3-5 foods that belong in the group they were tagged by. Use a list of the students' names and check off each time they come to you with a new food group.

You could also use pictures of foods and have the students categorize a certain number of foods each time they are tagged.