Nutrition and Physical Activity Education in the Child Care Setting

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Nutrition and Physical ActivityEducation in the
Child Care Setting

• 2011 CACFP Summer Training

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Creating Your Own Curriculum

• Integrate nutrition and physical activity into
  daily activities and lesson plans
• Small changes beneficial
• Assess your program
• Implement policies on nutrition education
• and/or physical activity
• Ensure that all program meals meet CACFP
• guidelines and are appealing to children
• Provide education on healthy eating and
• physical activity concepts to
• Children
• Parents
• Caregivers
• Providers
• Make connections with community wellness
  activities

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Creating Your Own Curriculum

• Utilize Resources
• Introducing
• Healthy Bites
• A Wisconsin Guide for Improving Childhood
  Nutrition
• Active Early
• A Wisconsin Guide for Improving Childhood
  Physical Activity
• Both guides will be available in October 2011
• http//dpi.wi.gov/fns/cacfpwellness.html
• See resource list for additional curriculums

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Remember!

• All children are capable and competent
• Early relationships matter
• Learning and development
• Multidimensional
• Various rates
• Through play and active exploration
• Range of skills and competencies

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F.I.B. approach

• Fun
• Engage as well as educate
• Children more apt to listen and
• retain information
• Integrated
• Into other learning activities
• Link nutrition and physical activity to the home
  environment
• Behavioral
• Real experiences with food
• Real-life, reachable goal

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Reach Out to Parents

• Newsletters/Fliers
• For ideas refer to Nibbles for Health
  http//www.fns.usda.gov/tn/resources/nibbles.html
• Center Displays
• Email list or Website
• Health Council
• Send home a list of
• Healthy snacks
• Ideas for physical activity
• Provide menus with tips on physical activity and
  eating healthy on back
• At parent nights or open house nights serve
  healthy snacks
• Invite parents to come

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Top ways to get kids involved in healthy cooking
How can kids help? How can kids help?
Mean Green Cleaning Machine Let children wash fruits and vegetables when preparing for cooking or eating
Pick a Peck! When shopping, let them select a new fruit or vegetable to tryor several!
Make it Snappy! Let them snap green beans, snap peas, or break flowerets from broccoli or cauliflower
Tear it Up! Let them tear the lettuce for salads and sandwiches
Measure Up! Let them measure frozen vegetables before cooking
Peel Slice Older children can peel and slice carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, etc.
A Sprinkle a Day Let them sprinkle herbs or other seasonings onto vegetables
Monster Mash! Pull out the potato masher!
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Encouraging children to eat healthy foods

• Serve foods in a simple form
• Sit with children and eat the same foods
• Express enjoyment of foods

• Offer new foods several times per month
• Be patient
• Serve foods that are easy to handle and chew

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Practice Tip

• Formal Nutrition Education
• When?
• Circle time activity
• Incorporate into daily schedule
• Alphabet activities
• Art activities
• Games
• Teach how to identify foods by talking about
• Where it comes from
• Its color
• How it promotes healthy bodies
• Read a book with positive nutrition messages
• Before or after meals

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Practice Tip

• Informal Nutrition Education
• When?
• During meal times or free play
• Investigate foods during meal times
• Textures
• Colors
• Sizes
• Tastes
• Smells
• Shapes
• Teach children about appropriate portion sizes
  through family style dining
• Include healthy food models in the dramatic play
  area

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Gardening with Children

• Involve children in
• Growing
• Purchasing
• Preparing
• Serving
• Ideas
• Start a garden at your center
• Participate in a community garden
• Share in a gardening experience at a nearby child
  care site
• Why?
• Helps children learn where food comes from.
• When taking part in the entire process, children
  learn to incorporate more fruit and vegetables
  into their diets.

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Gardening with Children

• How?
• Contact your local UW Extension office
• www.uwex.edu/ces/cty/
• Create ownership
• By Involving children and staff in all stages of
  the gardening process
• Incorporate a garden curriculum
• Got Dirt? Garden Toolkit
• Find gardening tips, e.g.
• Seeds tools needed
• Garden timeline
• Wisconsin gardening examples
• View and download at http//dhfs.wisconsin.gov/hea
  lth/physicalactivity/gotdirt.htm
• Got Veggies? Garden-based nutrition education
• Learn about nutrition in the garden
• Seven full lesson plans

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Practice Tip

• Pleasant and Positive reactions towards
• healthy foods
• Facial expressions
• Verbal responses
• Body language
• Serve foods in an attractive manner
• Read stories and plan activities
• Ask children who like newly introduced foods to
  explain why they like it
• Respond to negative comments in a positive manner

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Goals of Nutrition Education

• Form positive attitudes
• Learn to accept a wide variety of foods
• Establish healthful eating habits
• Learn to share and socialize at meal time
• Be ready to continue learning

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Physical Activity

• Important for healthy growth and development
• Teach the health benefits of physical activity
• Teach in a manner appropriate to age level
• Remember it is for everyone
• Reinforce through a childs innate desire to move
• Should be fun!
• How much? (For age-specific recommendations refer
  to handout)
• Total of 60 minutes each day minimum
• Aim for 1-2 hours each day
• 2-3 active times per day

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Infant Physical Activity

• Tummy Time
• What
• Supervised free play on their bellies in open and
  safe places
• While infant is awake and alert
• When
• Several times throughout the day
• Where
• On a solid surface on the floor
• Why
• Encourages infant to
• See
• Touch
• Feel
• Move
• Place favorite toys just out of reach
• Strengthens

• Remember infants need activity too!
• Get down on the floor to help infants
• Increase body awareness
• Build strength and coordination
• Learn valuable social skills with peers
• Explore their environment
• Develop motor skills
• Avoid overusing baby equipment

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Outdoor Activities

• Daily supervised outdoor play
• Offer every day when the weather permits
• For every hour spent in a quiet activity (i.e.
  reading), ten minutes or more should be spent in
  activities that involve active movement
• Plan and organize
• Active, noncompetitive games (handout)
• Owls and Mice
• Foxes and Rabbits
• Kicking and Throwing
• Station Activities

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Outdoor Activities

• Running
• Walking
• Jumping
• Hopping
• Climbing
• Riding tricycles
• Playing catch
• Skipping
• Playing tag
• Sledding
• Frisbee
• Jump Rope

• Playing on an obstacle course
• Doing gymnastics
• Taking hikes as a group
• Building something from sand or snow
• Collecting items such as leaves, nuts, and stones
  for an art project
• Clean up an area with brooms or snow shovels

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Active Inside Play

• Music
• Movement
• Balancing
• Hopping

• Running
• Crawling
• Dancing
• Yoga

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Active Inside Play

• Large-motor play bins
• Throwing and Catching
• Lightweight items
• Scarves colorful nylon, bandanas, any piece of
  light fabric
• Streamers two- to three-foot-long strips of wide
  ribbon
• Shakers small plastic containers filled with
  dried beans or rice
• Parachute sheet

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Active Inside Play

• Coordination and Body-Space Awareness

• Small plastic hoops
• Uses
• Stand inside
• Spin
• Pull over bodies
• Throw soft items into or through
• Run, jump, march, or hop from one hoop to another

• Home-made balls
• Clean white cotton adult tube socks rolled into
  balls
• Scrunch paper or tissue into balls
• Uses
• Throw through plastic hoops
• Catch
• Play a pretend snowball-throwing game

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Active Inside Play

• Non-competitive relay race
• Keep it simple
• Small groups of two or four
• Example
• Children move across the classroom balancing a
  beanbag or another item on a spoon without
  dropping it.
• Tunnel
• Provide a cloth, spring-supported tunnel
• Allow children to crawl through or play games in
• Example children can pretend to be moles
  crawling into a hole.
• Teachers can call the childrens names as they
  crawl out or guess which child will come out next

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• Available to download for free at
• http//www.sesameworkshop.org/initiatives/health/h
  ealthyhabits/
• http//kidshealth.org/classroom/index.jsp?Gradecc
  Sectionhhfl
• Clip from Sesame Street
• http//www.sesameworkshop.org/initiatives/health/h
  ealthyhabits/

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Questions