Antioxidant Story for Children

Items:                                                                                                                    
a) Child-size outline on paper on the floor                                                   
b) Checkers- black for free radicals & red for antioxidants

We’re going to learn about how these damaging molecules, free radicals, are created and where we get the antioxidants that can take all the fight out of those bad guys. An antioxidant is a good guy that can turn a lion into a lamb.

Here on the floor we have Orville. He got up in the morning and ate a bowl of cereal with a Toast‘um Pop-up. Sugary junk food creates bad guys.  Place a black checker on the figure.

Orville’s mother also gave him an orange. Fruit has the good guys, antioxidants. Place a red checker on the black one.

Orville is late getting out the door – the bus is already at the corner down at the end of the block! Run, Orville!! He barely makes it. That was close, whew! The exercise and the stress created more free radicals.  Another black checker…

Snack time - Orville eats some grapes and goldfish crackers. What does fruit have in it? Right!  Red checker…

Orville has to go up to the chalkboard and do a math problem. He didn’t do his homework last night and can’t remember how to solve it. He feels so embarrassed! He is stressed out and guess what stress creates? Right!  Black, black, don’t talk back…

It’s time for P.E. and everyone goes out to run relay races. Orville loves outdoor games and his team wins – Yea! But all that exercise and the ultraviolet rays from the sun create guess what? Right, and this time he got a double dose.  2 black checkers…

It’s lunchtime and Orville is really hungry. His mom has made him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he buys chocolate milk to go with it. He also has some Fritos and a small package of Skittles. How many black checkers do you think he gets for all that sugar and junk food – 2 or 3? Those free radicals are piling up. This is getting scary; I’m worried about him!

Orville has an after-school meeting and he gets a ride home with a friend. His friend’s mother is smoking a cigarette and the windows are rolled up because it has started raining. By the time they arrive at his house, he’s almost ready to vomit from that cigarette smoke. Any kind of smoke, automobile exhaust, and chemical fumes creates…..? You know it!  Add a black one…  Look at all those free radicals – they can accumulate so easily.

Well, Orville’s mother had a bunch of ladies over that afternoon and she had prepared a platter of fruit and veggies with dip. There’s a lot left over so she invites Orville to have some for his after-school snack. He has some apple slices (red checker), baby carrots (another red), fresh pineapple (red), and some broccoli with spinach dip (red).

Later that evening he created more free radicals when he got into a fight with his brother, but his mom made a really good dinner with black beans, brown rice, cole slaw, and sweet potatoes so Orville went to bed in good shape with all the bad guys covered. (Hand checkers to individual children to put down as you talk.)