Research shows that what children learn about food at an early age is what they take forward in thinking about food as they get older.
Our mission is to educate as many children between 3 and 10 about food, how it makes them feel and how it affects their health. These really are their formative years. If we teach them what real food is whilst they are young, and lead by example, then that’s what they will know food to be.
This month, I have been taking a cut down version of the Mad Food Science™ Program out to pre-schools. I call this class for pre-schools a Rainbow of Foods.
For the pre-schools, the program helps them teach children to:
- Get to know their body
- Understand food can make them feel different ways
- Promote healthy eating
- Encourage them to talk to their mums and dads about food
For the children there are 2 main messages:
- Fruits and Vegetables come in all the colours of the Rainbow. Each colour helps your body grow healthy in different ways and this is why it’s so important to eat as many colours of the rainbow as possible.
- Things that don’t look yummy, can actually taste yummy.
To help the children understand these messages, we first talk about how food can make you feel happy, sad, angry, tired and give you energy.
Next we look at different fruits and vegetables, their colours and how different colours help different parts of their body. This is why eating a rainbow of colours of fruit and vegetables every day is so important. To reinforce this message, at morning tea time, children take a fruit and vegetable from every colour from the Rainbow Plate (shown above), and they to use them to create a bit of art on their plate before they try eating each colour.
Here are two of the plates from one Pre-School. How beautiful are they?
When I asked the children whether they normally eat foods such as capsicum, celery and snowpeas, most said no. I love seeing their little face light up when I tell them their mum will be so proud of you for trying. I would then remind them about what parts of their body they were helping with those colours and asked them to remember to tell mum.
After morning tea, we played a board game I created. Essentially each child is given a board piece which is a fruit or vegetable. Then they have to put it on the matching colour of the rainbow and we again say what part of their body they are helping. Each pre-school gets to keep their copy of the board game so they can play it at different times to continue to reinforce the messages of how their body works, how their body feels and about healthy food.
To get the final message across about things that don’t look yummy can still be tasty, we made a Green Smoothie. Every single child except one tried it, and they all loved it. We spent time talking about how even though it looked green and yukky, it actually tasted like banana and was really yummy. I asked them to make sure they told mum about how something that looked yukky was yummy and to promise to keep trying new foods that they think look yukky.
Praise
Here’s some wonderful words that have been said about the pre-schools Rainbow of Foods Class.
“Wonderful informative experience for the children (and adults). They were all keen to try the ‘green smoothie’ and enjoyed making their faces with the fruit. The game helped to reinforce the concepts learnt and all were attentive.”
– Educator / Teacher
“There isn’t anything that I would have changed. It was age appropriate, interesting, the hands-on involvement was great and I think they learnt alot from it.”
– Educator / Teacher
“I absolutely loved the session. You interacted so well with the kids and kept their attention which isn’t the easiest thing to do, especially a group of that size. The program is well thought through and you execute it so beautifully that it is hard to find any areas to improve! ”
– Parent
“Thanks so much for making the trip to Newcastle to share your program with the kids. We feel very lucky to have been a part of it. We have continued the conversation at the dinner table with our son, so hopefully one day he can just rattle off the parts of the body each colour/fruit and vegetable helps. What great knowledge to have : )”
– Parent
It’s praise like this that inspires me to keep rolling out The Mad Food Science™ Program, including The Rainbow of Foods.
If you have a child that attends a pre-school or day care centre and you’d like me to visit them and teach this class, please introduce the class to the centre director know about it.
Please also contact me on 0401 649 289 or belinda@therootcause.com.au with details of the director and I will make contact with them once you’ve introduced the class.
Your support in getting the mission of Transforming Children’s Health, One Lunch Box At At Time is very much appreciated.
You may also find this blog useful:
Your kids eat what you let them eat
You can train your brain to prefer healthy foods