Real Life teens get a nutritional surprise!

Everyone knows how much fun we like to have at Real Life. The best part is, everything has an educational twist! Dannon was incredibly generous enough to donate yogurt for each of our eight after-school refugee mentoring sites. A parfait party sounds great, right? Well, why not also play some games and learn more about the nutritional benefits of yogurt?

A Peer Mentor at each site facilitated this activity. They prepared by cutting out different strips of information about yogurt and putting them into a balloon. The balloons were blown up and numbered, then placed along a line on the ground. Each student would then roll two dice. If they rolled a number of one of the balloons, they got to pop the balloon and read the small piece of information to the rest of the group!

Teens had a blast thinking of creative ways to pop their balloons (sitting, stomping, pulling). Every once in a while we would hear a particularly loud “POP!” and all jump! This certainly commanded everyone’s attention while the proud culprit read aloud the contained information. We learned that yogurt contains live and active cultures, including probiotics. It helps with lactose digestion, contributes to a balanced and healthy lifestyle, builds solid bones, and contains essential amino acids!

After all of the balloons were popped, the real fun began! Yogurt parfait time! What do you like to put in your parfaits? At Real Life, we had strawberries, blueberries, granola, and graham crackers! The teens loved being able to pick and choose what they wanted to add. The yogurt was a complete hit! Thanks to Dannon for their delicious donation!