Healthy Eating: Fun with Fruit and Shrivelled Spuds!

As part of my level 3 course, I was given the task to plan activities around healthy eating for the children which was assessed by my tutor when she recently visited to observe me. As such, I thought I would just share with you a few of the activities I did with the children and why it is important to encourage healthy eating in very young children. The importance of our role in promoting this in preschool has been proven over many years.

The minister for Children and Families, Robert Goodwill, has said:

“A good early education is vital to set every child on the path to fulfilling their full potential, and getting healthy, balanced food during the day is an important part of high-quality childcare.

Teaching and promoting the importance of healthy food and exercise in preschools, is very critical for an individual’s health throughout life. Nutritional experiences at a young age influence our dietary habits in adulthood.

The government recommends all children aged 6 months to 5 years are given vitamin supplements containing vitamins A, C and D every day and The EYFS statutory framework states “Where children are provided with meals, snacks and drinks, they must be healthy, balanced and nutritious”.

The Short and Long-Term Impact of A Poor Diet

According to Unicef (The State of the World’s Children 2019: Children, food and nutrition), at least 1 in 3 children under five – or over 200 million – is either undernourished or overweight. This is very worrying as poor diets in children have many long and short-term effects.

Long-term effects for children are many and lead to the development of health problems and complications in adulthood, e.g. osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases and infertility. An unhealthy diet can increase the risk of some cancers; overweight and obesity are associated with at least 13 types of cancer, including endometrial (uterine) cancer, breast cancer in postmenopausal women, and colorectal cancer. A child eating foods high in fat, sugar, and salt can increase their risk for obesity, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, anaemia, developmental problems, malnutrition, a weakened immune system, chronic fatigue, and high blood pressure, to name a few. Children eating a poor diet also put themselves at risk of poor brain development, low immunity, increased infections and, in many cases, death.

Short-term effects of an unhealthy diet in children can lead to mood swings, bigger emotional responses, poor concentration, increased stress, tiredness, and an overall lower sense of well-being.

Preschool Activities

I designed my activities by trying to make it as hands on as I could for the children because according to Bandura's child development theory “…observation plays a critical role in learning” and Vygotsky believed that "children learn actively through hands-on experiences".

Shrivelled spuds!

First, I carried out an experiment with the aim of showing the children how eating too much salt in our diet can affect our body. I did this by putting salty water in one bowl and just water in the second bowl. A potato was then placed into each bowl, and it was left there for a while. Too much salt can make our heart and kidneys work harder and can make us very thirsty. When we went back to the experiment, the potato with salt started to shrivel and it was explained to the children that that was why we become thirsty when we have too much salt in our diet, it draws the water out of our bodies. The children were very interested in the potato experiment and loved the fact one potato was called Julie and the other potato was called Jane!

Picture round!

We then played a game where the children (one at a time) pulled a photo out of a bag, which they then had to say if they thought the item on the photo was healthy or unhealthy. The children enjoyed this game, and many were good at saying whether they thought the food was healthy or unhealthy!

Rocket fruit kebabs!

Each child was given a piece of fruit to cut with a knife (fine motor skills) – we had strawberries, melon, grapes, bananas, apples, and oranges. The children had to take turns and needed to wait to use the knife. The prepared fruit was then put into the centre of the table for the children to share the fruit to make their rocket kebabs. The children were encouraged to try the fruit to eat, to smell the fruit, to describe the shape and colour of the fruit and to count how many pieces of fruit make up their rocket. We talked about where fruit comes from and the reasons why it’s important to eat healthy foods. We made the rocket fruit kebabs at the end of last term when our theme was Space, so they fit in well! All the children loved this activity; they enjoyed cutting up the fruit and putting them on the skewers. All children tried the fruit, and it was lovely to see some of the children who are not too keen on the fruit find something they liked. One little girl found she really liked melon!

Strategies That Our Setting Uses to Promote Healthy Eating

Every morning at snack time, the children are given wholemeal toast, apples, bananas, raisins and oranges to eat, with a choice of water or milk. In the afternoon, the children are given a small snack of foods such as, carrots, cucumber, breadsticks and popcorn.

We try to promote healthy eating by asking that the children do not bring in crisps, chocolate or biscuits for their lunch. We sit with the children at lunch time and eat our lunches together; we try to lead by example, and we talk about the food we are eating. If the children do bring crisps, etc., they are asked to eat the healthy food before the unhealthy and in most cases, they are then too full to eat them.

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