The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday reminded teachers that the federal government has a slew of classroom aides they can use next month to get kids learning about how to eat better, including pages and pages of songs they can sing about healthy food.
“Teachers can find #free nutrition lessons, handouts, songs, posters, games & more at TeamNutrition.usda.gov,” USDA tweeted.
Teachers can find #free nutrition lessons, handouts, songs, posters, games & more at http://t.co/sfvOaDhGww
— ChooseMyPlate.gov (@MyPlate) August 14, 2015
Links to the songs are at USDA’s bureau of Food and Nutrition Service. Here’s the song USDA thinks kids should sing to the tune of “Ode to Joy”:
USDA also makes healthy use of the classic George Gershwin song Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off. While that famous tune makes fun of the different ways to pronounce the word “tomato,” the USDA song ignores that age-old question, and says however it’s pronounced, kids should eat them.
USDA also has songs ready to the tune of The Ants Go Marching and Billy Boy. The tune from Up on the Housetop is used to sing about broccoli, and spinach also gets its own song.
Elsewhere, Frere Jacques becomes a song about carrots. Bingo becomes a song about apples. Kookaburra is cleverly twisted into a song about cauliflower.
And the classic Baa Baa Black Sheep is altered so kids end up asking the black sheep not for wool, but for plums.
