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Nutrition Education for Preschoolers
For many preschool age children, obesity, anemia, dental caries, and growth retardation are nutritional concerns. These are issues that require direct intervention involving the parents or guardians, caregivers, and nutritional and/or health care professionals. One way to address these issues is through nutrition activities in the childcare setting. Nutrition education can help young children develop healthy eating habits that will carry into their adulthood.
By leading children in a variety of simple and fun nutrition activities, caregivers can teach basic nutrition concepts. Caregivers are role models for healthy eating and facilitate healthy decision making by offering children nutritious choices for snacks or meals served in the childcare settings. The inclusion of health education activities revolving around nutrition topics reinforces this healthy learning.
Learning About Nutrition
Preschoolers are very curious and eager to learn about the foods they eat. Examples of appropriate nutrition fundamentals include the names and sources of different foods; the need to eat a variety of foods; the fact that some foods are healthier than others; and that foods have different textures, shapes, colors, smells and tastes. Most three-to-five-year-olds can learn to identify foods easily. Many four-and-five-year-olds can understand basic concepts about energy and that good foods help the body fight germs and keep the heart healthy.
There are many different methods for teaching nutrition education concepts to preschoolers. The preschool-aged child learns by physical manipulation of the environment. Consider including activity-based teaching that encourages interaction with objects and includes age-appropriate activities offering children first-hand experiences and active participation. Activity-based learning might include art projects, songs, games, stories, field trips, role playing, pictures, food models, puzzles, and computer lessons.
Food experiences are one of the best ways to teach children about food and nutrition. Meal and snack times provide important and effective opportunities for encouraging positive eating behavior. Children are more likely to choose specific foods if they are able to look at and taste them on a frequent and consistent basis. Food-based activities which have been successful in increasing children's food preferences include vegetable and fruit gardens, food preparation, tasting parties, engaging the five senses with food and eating healthy meals and snacks with peers and adults.
Learning at Home
Nutrition education for preschoolers also takes place in the home, so parent involvement is important. Encourage the parents' interest in nutrition while introducing the child to a variety of foods and healthy eating habits.This increases the likelihood that the desired nutritional behavior will be continued at home. When parents and teachers work together, the nutrition education experience is more meaningful. Invite parents to your program to participate in hands-on nutrition activities with their children or write letters to parents explaining what their children are learning and provide instructions for activities to implement at home.
Resources for the Childcare Setting
There are a number of single-topic (such as dairy or apples) and multi-topic nutrition programs and curricula (see Resources) that may be used in your childcare setting. When examining the activities and materials used in these resources, carefully consider safety issues (such as choking hazards and food allergies) and appropriateness for the age and developmental level of the children in your program. You also may want to examine the number of new activities and ideas offered versus the price of the program, as well as additional resources that might be included. These resources, along with other materials such as comprehensive health education curricula, can add great activities to the childcare program while introducing health concepts.
Teaching young children about nutrition and healthy eating and healthy choices can be fun as well as educational. The childcare setting is a great place for beginning a long life of healthy nutritional habits.
Here are three fun and simple activities for children:
Basket Targets This activity integrates nutrition education with color and shape recognition and motor skill development. Tape a picture on the front of several baskets, such as different colors or shapes. Next, take several old white socks and help children wad each one into a ball. Using pictures of foods which children have found in magazines, use tape or a rubber band to attach one food picture to each sock-ball. Encourage children to toss the food socks into the appropriate basket, such as all the "green foods" (broccoli, green gelatin, pears) into the "green" basket. All the socks having "round foods" (apples, oranges, pumpkins, potatoes) go into the "round" basket. As children advance, make the choices more difficult, such sorting fruit and vegetables from meats or breads.
Fruit Cup Turkey Encourage children to try different foods by making fun snacks which look like different things. Cut a large orange in half and scoop out the center of each half. Dice the fruit and place it in a small bowl. Assist children with using small plastic knives to cut softer fruits like bananas or pears into smaller pieces. (Avoid whole grapes for small children as they could become a choking hazard.) Add these to the orange pieces and fill the orange half with the diced fruit mixture. Add a pretzel stick to the orange for a neck, and use half an apple slice for the head. Insert celery leaves into the back of the cup for feathers. Place a lettuce leaf on a plate to make a bed for the fruit cup turkey. (Serves one child, 3 to 6 years old.)
Surprise Bag Game Introduce shapes and textures of foods with this game. Place one or two different fruits or vegetables into a small brown lunch bag. Give each child a bag. Have the children take turns reaching into their bag without looking inside and describe how it feels (soft, hard, rough, smooth, round, etc.). Encourage them to guess what it is, then take it from the bag to reveal what it is.
By Chris Stevens, RD, LD
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