School Lunch Coloring Page

This school lunch coloring page looks straight down at a lunch tray on a cafeteria table. The tray has six sections, holding a sandwich cut in two, apple slices, carrot sticks, a bunch of grapes, a round cookie and a small carton of milk. A folded note from home sits next to it, with a heart on the cover.

A fork, a spoon and a napkin lie along the side. Two more friends' trays peek in from the edges of the table. Ages 4 to 9 can finish this easy page in about 20 minutes.

Build a better lunch on your school lunch coloring page

Kids love to decide what they eat, so start by asking what they would swap. Would they trade the carrots for peas? Is the sandwich peanut butter, turkey or cheese? Let them draw the filling, and it becomes their own lunch. Young kids who are picky can often be talked into a new food after they have colored it first.

This is a calm way to get ready for a new school too. If your child will be eating in a cafeteria for the first time, walk through what will happen. Where do they get a tray? Who helps open the milk? A short talk can head off a lot of worry.

Real food colors, and one wild card

Food colors are easy for children, because they already know them. Keep the apple peel red and the flesh pale cream. Color the carrots orange, and the grapes either green or purple. Bread looks best in a light tan with a slightly darker crust.

For the tray, pick one calm color like light blue or pale green, and the food will look bright against it. The milk carton can be anything you like. Give it a cow, a stripe or a child's name.

Save one wild card. Let your child color the cookie any way they want, even if it's blue with green sprinkles. Every lunch needs a fun part.

Filling in small food shapes

• Do each grape on its own, and leave a small white spot for shine.
• Use short lines on the carrots to show the ridges.
• Color the tray last so you can go around the food.
• Keep a sharp crayon for the writing on the note.

Lunch at school, then and now

The United States passed the National School Lunch Act in 1946. It set up a program that gives low cost or free lunches to children at school, and millions of kids still eat through it every day. The rules ask schools to serve fruit, vegetables and milk. This article on the School Lunch Act has the full history.

Before that law, what a child ate at school depended a lot on where they lived and how much money their family had. Kids may find it interesting to hear that their lunch line has a long history behind it.

Sort the tray

Here is a good task for a health lesson. Have your child draw a small circle around the fruit, a square around the vegetable and a star by the grain. Which food has protein? Which one comes from a cow? Older students could write down one thing they would add to make the meal stronger, then explain why.

You might also try a counting game. Count the grapes and the apple slices, then take away two of each. How many are left? Food makes math easy to picture, and it's easy to check with a real snack.

Write a lunch box note

The little note on the school lunch coloring page gives you a sweet idea. Tuck a real one into your child's bag on the first day. Keep it short, with one line and a small drawing. "You've got this." "See you at three." Even kids who can't read yet will know it's from you, and it can help with a shaky first week.

Older kids can write one back. Leave some paper in the lunch bag, and see what comes home at the end of the day.

Food and school pages to pair

Get out the door on our school bus page, or bring something for the teacher with the apple drawing. For more, see our back to school collection.

Questions