Teaching Good Nutrition
5 ways educators encourage healthy eating with food-free activities.
BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE
Good food choices are vital for children’s healthy growth and development, and early learning services do an excellent job of familiarising under-fives with nutritious food.
They cater to all five food groups at mealtimes, and involve children in growing and harvesting crops, but sometimes the best way to teach littlies about healthy food doesn’t involve food at all!
Food-themed, rather than food-based, activities are a great way to introduce different kinds of fruit and veg to cautious eaters, without the pressure of a taste-test.
Leanne Elliston, Senior Dietitian at Nutrition Australia ACT says, “Studies show that engaging children in food-themed activities supports healthy eating habits and attitudes,” and we know that littlies are much more likely to try broccoli, beans and other body-boosters if they’ve formed a positive association with them first.
To this end, here are five non-food activities that educators can use to make healthy food more fun, friendly and flavoursome for early learners.
1. Storytime
Books help to make big topics more manageable for little people, and Leanne says, “Studies have found that reading children books featuring vegetables can have a meaningful impact on the amount of vegetables they consume.”
Stories with vegetable-packed pages familiarise children with the weird and wonderful shapes, colours and sizes that veggies come in, and repeated exposure to this printed produce normalises each vegetable and increases kids’ confidence in trying it.
Leanne says, “Books featuring fruit are great too, and the Nourishing Little Minds program has a whole list of fun and engaging books that contain healthy food messages for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.”
She also recommends the See & Eat e-book library, which introduces young readers to 24 different vegetables, showing each one’s journey from farm to fork!
These British titles talk about ‘courgettes’ and ‘peppers,’ instead of ‘zucchini’ and ‘capsicum,’ so they’re a great way to expand children’s veggie vocab as well.
2. Music and movement
Singing and dancing is great for under-fives’ learning and development, and educators throw healthy food messages into the mix, with the help of home-grown artists and international acts.
The Wiggles have been championing healthy food since long before Emma joined and left the group, and Fruit Salad and Vegetable Soup are two classic tunes that put the groove in healthy food.
Watermelon by Justine Clarke is another hit for little learners, and Leanne says there are lots of fun rhymes that educators can sing with children, without a back-up band.
Five Fat Peas counts peas as they pop, pop, pop, and Jbrary.com has action-based rhymes that familiarise children with pumpkins, bananas, zucchinis, apples and other munchables.
3. Educational games
Card games are a great way to teach literacy and numeracy, and they also make healthy food fun.
Leanne says, “Fruit and vegetable-themed cards can be used to play Snap and Memory, and there are lots of different designs to match up and remember.”
Flashcards put nutritious names to pictures, and children’s learning can be extended further, with games that include bush foods or bilingualism.
Educators might also like to make-their-own cards and puzzles by printing and laminating food photos; and store-bought board games, like Orchard Toys’ Lunch Box Game and their Shopping List Game with extra fruit and veg, load up preschoolers with lots of healthy food choices.
4. Pretend play
Play kitchens, cafés and market stalls are another great way to put good food choices on the childcare menu.
While little ones are pretending to slice, dice, serve and sell pretend food, there are opportunities to talk about the five food groups and invent healthy recipes.
Educators provide positive role-modelling when they join in the fun, and Leanne says, “Pretend play allows children to get hands-on with foods they may not know or trust, such as plastic asparagus and wooden lemons, without any pressure to eat them for real.”
5. Art and craft
Creative projects also make healthy food appealing, and children practice important skills as they paint, cut and glue.
For instance, an apple may be marble painted, threaded with a cute worm or stuck onto a cardboard tree, and once real food is incorporated into arty activities, apple halves can double as paint stampers.
Collaborative projects are enriching, too, and Leanne says, “Groups can cut out or print off pictures of different foods, then make them into a fruit and vegetable rainbow poster full of purple, blue, red, orange, yellow, green, brown and white produce.”
“This provides children with a visual reminder of the amazing variety of foods that they might have eaten before or are yet to try, and it’s fun to hide some food pictures under others and make a game of finding and naming them.”
You can read more about rainbow eating here, and now’s the time to work with your educators to instil healthy food habits.
Your little one needs good food to learn, grow and develop well, and Leanne says, “Many studies have found that food preferences established in childhood continue into adulthood.”
Food-themed activities at childcare – and home – definitely help to sow the seeds for a positive attitude around good food, and National Nutrition Week (16 to 23 October, 2022) is a great time to reinforce healthy food messages and put a few new recipes to the (taste) test.
