Kids' daily caloric requirements

Factual Questions
1

Hello all,

I’m running a digestion/nutrition unit for 5/6th grade kids. While I can find tons of material on the food label and pyramid, I am stumped when it comes to teaching my students about caloric intake.

What I need is a rough number I can start with - how many calories does an 11 or 12 year old child need to consume in a day. We will be covering things like obesity and balanced diet, but I need a place to start. The sites I’ve been to will calculate caloric need for grown men and women, but not for kids.

Can anyone help me out?

2

Here’s a start:

3

More links, since you can’t just come to my library and borrow my Nutrition Kit for middle-schoolers!

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/spotov.html

http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/Educators/yourself.html

http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/resources/kids.html

http://classroom.kidshealth.org/

4

That’s exactly what I needed. Thanks!