Free Nutrition Printables for Schools

Every printable on this page is free. No email address, no account, no form. Click, download, print as many copies as your class needs. Use them this year and next year.

Teachers, school nutrition staff, extension educators and after-school leaders asked for activity sheets that work across grade levels without a lot of prep. These are ours. Each one prints on standard letter paper in black and white or color, and each one is built around a lesson that holds up: what goes on a plate, what a label actually says, and why color on the tray matters.

Fair warning: we add new sheets often. If you want them as they come out, there is a subscribe box at the bottom of this page. It is not required for anything here.

Grades K through 3

Color Your Plate

A coloring sheet built on a divided plate. Children color each food in the group it belongs to, which quietly teaches the five food groups while they think they are just coloring. Good for early finishers, indoor recess and family nights.
Download Color Your Plate (PDF)

Food Group Sort Activity

Cut-and-sort cards with a plate mat. Children place each food where it belongs and explain why. Works as a whole-class activity on the floor, as a center, or one-on-one. Laminate it once and it lasts all year.
Download Food Group Sort (PDF)

Eat the Rainbow Chart

A tracking chart for a color-a-day challenge. Children mark off each color of produce they try during the week. Send it home on Monday and collect it Friday, or run it as a classroom competition.
Download Eat the Rainbow Chart (PDF)

Grades 4 through 8

Build a Plate Worksheet

Students plan a full day of meals on blank plates, then check their own work against the food groups. It surfaces the gaps without anyone being told they eat wrong, which is usually why it works.
Download Build a Plate (PDF)

Nutrition and Math Lesson

Real math on real food. Students work percentages, unit rates and simple ratios using nutrition facts panels and serving sizes. Pulls double duty as a math block and a health lesson, which is useful when the schedule has no room for health.
Download Nutrition and Math Lesson (PDF)

Read the Food Label Worksheet

A guided walk through the Nutrition Facts panel: serving size first, then calories, then the numbers that actually matter. Students practice on labels you bring in or ones they find at home.
Download Read the Food Label (PDF)

En Español

MiPlato: Arma Tu Plato

The Build a Plate activity in Spanish, using MiPlato. For bilingual classrooms, dual language programs and family nights where the handout needs to go home in the language spoken there.
Descargar Arma Tu Plato (PDF)

More Spanish materials: MiPlato collection and all Spanish and bilingual materials.

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We add printables throughout the school year and send them out when they are ready. No cost, and you can stop any time.

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Tips for using these in a classroom

  • Laminate the sort cards and the plate mats. One printing lasts the whole year across every section.
  • Print the coloring sheet on the back of the rainbow chart. One page, two activities, half the copier budget.
  • Send the rainbow chart home Monday. Families join in without you having to organize anything.
  • Pair the label worksheet with real packages. Ask students to bring in one wrapper from home. The lesson lands harder on food they actually eat.

More free resources

This page is the school and classroom set. For handouts, class tools and materials for clinics, worksites and community programs, see the full free resource hub, including the free MyPlate teaching pack, crossword puzzle maker, class certificate maker and quiz maker.

When you need more than paper

Printables carry a lesson. A visual carries a room. If you are teaching a whole grade, running a health fair or setting up a cafeteria campaign, these are what the same lessons look like in a form students can hold:

Schools order from us on purchase orders all the time. Shipping is free and we can put a quote together the same day. Request a quote.

Made by registered dietitians at Food and Health Communications. We served as a USDA MyPlate National Strategic Partner for more than 10 years. Print these freely for classroom, clinic and community use.