teaching pre-schoolers about nutrition?

Question

i am in a child psych class and need to teach a class of pre-schoolers about nutrition... basically i need a lesson...any ideas would be great, thanks!

Answer 1

Tell them the healthy foods and about 5+ a day. Tell them about bad foods they shouldn't be eating.

Answer 2

laminate pictures of fruits, veggies, meats, dairy, grains, and sweets. Try to have four or five of each one....and put velcro on the back (or magnets or sticky tape, depending on which kind of display board you have) On the board you'll have things divided up into columns, with each one labeled.

After reading a book about eating (whatever your favorite may be...my kids always liked "I knew an old lady that swallowed a fly"
Then talk about which items belong in which column. Children by this age should know if things are fruits or veggies, meat or dairy. If they stumbled over something, you can talk about why it belongs in a certain group, and place it in that column. For fun you COULD put in some pictures from the book you read, when we did that the children thought it was hilarious to put the horse and dog in the 'meat' category. I was surprised at their insight.

After this, you can simply say that doctors say it is important to have a certain number of each group for us to grow healthy and strong. Have a laminated pyramid, and let them see how the food fits into the spaces (use the old food pyramid, btw, not that new PC one from the FDA), it's very apparent when you do that that not very many sweets fit in the top, whereas many many grains fit into the bottom.

It works because it's visual, it's interactive, and the kids have a modicum of control. Good luck

Answer 3

The easiest nutrition class for preschoolers is showing them the Food Pyramid

Answer 4

You can be creative. Maybe create or buy magnetic or velcro pieces or plastic food and get them to sort them into groups. Maybe give each child a food and get them to come up and place it in a pile under each section (vegies &fruits, carbs, meats, and thing you eat on special occasions like sweets, ice cream chips etc).

Another thing is to actually bring real food that they would see everyday (taking in allergies and intollerances) and talking to them about it, getting them to taste vegies and fruits and asking about the meals they have at home.

You could also talk about five servings of fresh fruit and vegies and getting them to select five healthy foods from a pile of food.

Little children need stimulating and a good song or dance about fruit or vegies if you can find one would be great for getting their attention.

Answer 5

If you are teaching the food groups you can sort foods in groups. You can use plastic food that most preschools have or use pictures. For younger students I would limit to 2 or 3 groups.

Answer 6

read aloud the Milk Makers and serve cold milk and have a variety of milk products for tasting available like yogurt and cheese
be sure to check for students with milk allergies
or read aloud the Little Red Hen and make bread in a bread machine or have different types of bread ready to taste
or read aloud Eating the Alphabet and have a few different foods from the book to taste

Answer 7

Try Sesame Street, they have a great program about eating a rainbow of foods, here is a link to the song

http://pbskids.org/sesame/songs/hhs_songpage_ietcotr.html

Answer 8

food groups would be confusing at this point. start with simple things. one food group. example: meat. show them a picture. explain that meat is a protein that helps develop muscles. ( they like that). ask them if they can name other meats. or you can use beans or peanut butter as examples.
bring some beans to look at. serve some peanut butter crackers. place some candy, beans, and peanut butter crackers out and ask them to choose which doesn't contain protein.

Answer 9

you could even have some snacks (healthy) brought in and show them healthy food tastes good too...best to start them off well than train them when they speak for themselves

Answer 10

View this websites:
http://www.kidschalkboard.com/
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr061.shtml