• Games are an ideal way to teach the importance of health.healthy foods image by Steve Lovegrove from Fotolia.com
  
  Health education is an important part of a school's curriculum. Through health education, children learn how to properly care for their bodies and stay healthy by eating well-balanced diets, staying physically fit and maintaining a hygienic lifestyle. Using games to teach about the importance of health helps children gain a greater comprehension of the subject in a fun and engaging way.
  
  

Fishing for Healthy Food

• In this game, children fish for healthy foods. Create fishing rods by attaching a magnet to a string and tying the string to a wooden dowel. Create or print out a variety of healthy and unhealthy food cards--make sure to include healthy foods that correspond to the food pyramid. Punch holes in the top of each card and place a paper clip through each hole. Spread the food cards out on the floor. To play, state aloud a category of the food pyramid. Using the fishing rods, players "catch" healthy food cards that belong to the food pyramid category you just read aloud. For each healthy food correctly caught, players earn a point. Keep track of points on a piece of paper or a dry-erase board. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. This game is ideal for two to four players.
  
  

Brush Away the Tartar

• Through this game, children practice brushing their teeth. Create or print pictures of a set of teeth. Using a pencil, lightly color in the teeth. Give players the colored-in teeth and explain that the pencil represents tartar. Provide erasers, which the children will use as toothbrushes. Tell the players that they need to use their "toothbrushes" to brush the tartar off the teeth. On your mark, players race to see who can brush their set of teeth clean the quickest. The player who first removes all of the pencil from his teeth wins. This is ideal for a small group or a whole class.
  
  

Crab Walk Race

• This is a fun game that gets players' blood pumping. Determine a starting and ending point and mark each point with masking tape. There should be at least 20 feet between each point. To play, participants sit on the starting line backwards, but with their hands behind them and raised up on their feet. To walk, players move on their hands and feet, like a crab. On your mark, players walk like crabs, as quickly as they can, trying to make it to the finish line. The first player to make it to the finish line wins.