Field trips offer children adventure, exploration, and discovery as they see different places, people, and things. Why not use field trips to teach children about foods and nutrition? Field trips provide hands-on, sensory experiences that are perfect for enhancing and extending the nutrition education activities you may already have in place in your daily curriculum.
Nutrition field trips need not be elaborate or costly. A short walk to explore a neighboring vegetable garden may be one of the most meaningful field trips you take with young children. Picnics give children the chance to eat outdoors and try a new snack or meal experience with little expense.
Where Does Food Come From?
When considering food and nutrition thematic units, think about local agricultural products. Many preschool food and nutrition themes have at least one potential field trip that corresponds to the concepts in a unit.
Does your area have strawberry fields or citrus groves? Are blueberries, mangoes, or pecans produced locally? Are the children learning about harvesting? You might plan a trip to a farm or an orchard for a fun, food-related field trip.
Children may feel differently about eating bread after they see the big combines used to harvest wheat and other grains. Eating an apple is a new experience after you have walked through an orchard and picked one for yourself. Visiting a field filled with pumpkin vines and picking the right pumpkin is quite different from buying one from the neighborhood store.
A preschool unit on dairy foods gains added meaning when children have a chance to visit a dairy farm. Children will delight at seeing eggs being gathered, cows being milked, or milk pouring into cartons; and their understanding of where those foods come from will increase.
Many farmers welcome the opportunity to show children their crops and talk about growing food. Small, family-operated farms often are the best option for seeing a variety of crops or animals. Your local Cooperative Extension office may be able to link you to a farmer who is willing to host the children.
Food Distribution and Preparation
A visit to a supermarket or a local produce stand can help children learn how foods move from the farm to the public. Grocery stores sometimes offer tours to groups of children. For a nutritious focus to the trip, request that the tour emphasize the healthier departments of the store (such as produce, dairy, breads, and meats) and spend less time in the snack, candy, and soda aisles. A behind-the-scenes look at the storage area and loading dock will give children a different view of the grocery store and how food arrives there.
A bakery offers sensory delights for children, too. Consider a trip to a local bakery to learn about bread products and how they are made. Children who are accustomed to loaf bread will be amazed at the variety a bakery has to offer!
A visit to a food bank or soup kitchen can give children a sense of the different ways people obtain food and also help them develop positive social skills like sharing and helping others. Ask the manager of the facility if the children could be involved in simple tasks like distributing napkins at a meal site or helping to sort canned goods at a community pantry.
If the children are learning about community members, people such as cooks, chefs, waiters, waitresses, farmers, butchers, and others employed in the food industry can share information about their daily work with the children during a field trip. If your diversity curriculum includes incorporating foods from different cultures into meals and snacks, you might consider a field trip to an ethnic restaurant. The sights, sounds, smells, and tastes may be quite different from anything the children have experienced before!
More Activities
Field trips tend to fit best in the middle of a thematic unit. For example, if you are planning a dairy foods theme, a trip to a dairy farm could be sandwiched between preliminary activities, like tasting different dairy foods and reading books about cows and dairies, and summarizing activities, such as an art project that depicts the children’s adventure at the dairy farm or a circle time activity of songs and finger plays about farms and cows.
Another possibility is to incorporate the trip into your dramatic play area. Empty food boxes easily convert a bare shelf into a grocery store. Serving trays added to the housekeeping area can transform it into a restaurant or cafeteria. A large piece of fabric and a basket make an indoor picnic possible.
Depending on location and time constraints, you might consider bringing a short story book to share with the children during the trip. Could there be a more appropriate place to read a story about Johnny Appleseed than in an orchard? Many delightful and well-written children’s books focus on food. Check with your local children’s librarian about books that could serve as story take-alongs for your trip.
If the children will be eating a snack during the trip, try to plan one that coordinates with the destination. String cheese complements a dairy trip, while applesauce might conclude an afternoon in the orchard. Depending on the specific field trip, snacks may be available on-site. Check with your contact at the site about snack possibilities; and be aware of food safety, choking, and allergy considerations.
Standard field trip safety procedures would apply to the field trips suggested here. Parents and families may be involved in your nutrition and food field trips by chaperoning, assisting with trip snacks or story times, or helping with trip arrangements.
Field trips can be welcome additions to your curriculum that enhance and expand children’s learning about all aspects of food and nutrition.
Marna Holland, Parent Educator, Asheville, NC, City Schools Preschool
Field Trip Resources
The Seattle and King County Public Health site offers a field trip safety checklist and a personal safety checklist for children on field trips, including considerations for children with special needs. www.metrokc.gov/health/childcare/fieldtrip.htm
This site gives practical ideas for planning a field trip with preschoolers. The site shares considerations for organizing a developmentally-appropriate field trip. www.preschoolbystormie.com/fieldtrips.htm
Lists of Children’s Books About Food
Books for children about a variety of foods: www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/N3617.pdf
Children’s books that focus on a variety of foods: www.asfsa.org/childnutrition/education/kidbooks.asp
Internet Resources
Child Care Nutrition Resource System, www.nal.usda.gov/childcare
Farmer’s Market Coloring Book, www.ams.usda.gov/directmarketing/farmersm.pdf
Healthy Childcare®: Food Safety for Field Trips, www.healthychild.net/articles/na5tripfood.html
Healthy Childcare®: Nutrition Education for Preschoolers, www.healthychild.net/articles/na15educate.html
My Pyramid for Kids, www.fns.usda.gov/tn/kids-pyramid.html
Nutrition Central, spec.lib.vt.edu/culinary/Nutrition.Central
Virginia Cooperative Extension Service,
www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/preschoolnutr/348-651/348-651.html
Resources
American Dietetic Association, 120 S. Riverside Pl., Ste. 2000, Chicago, IL 60606-6995;
800-877-1600; www.eatright.org
National Food Service Management Institute, University of Mississippi, Jeanette Phillips Dr., PO Drawer 188, University, MS 38677-0188; 800-321-3054; www.nfsmi.org
USDA’s Team Nutrition, 3101 Park Center Dr., Rm 632, Alexandria, VA 22302;
703-305-1624; www.nal.usda.gov/Childcare
