Preschool Nutrition is just one part of the equation for healthy children. Are also important. I was not surprisedor adolescents grow up to have adult obesity issues. However, the results of a recent study about preschoolers did surprise me: 1 in 5 preschoolers is obese. That is such a high number. As early childhood educators, we have a great opportunity and responsibility to work with families to help preschoolers learn about nutrition and making healthy food choices.

It is my hope that we can help our children and families become more aware of healthy food choices that will help them to become healthy adults. This Theme page is filled with preschool activities and ideas for all areas of your classroom. It includes activities for nutrition and the food groups.

Let the Theme Planning Begin! For my Exercise & Fitness Theme to go along with your Nutrition Theme!

Jan 28, 2014 - Adults should supervise all tooth brushing activities to ensure safety and that all toothpaste is. Nutrition Education for Early Childhood Education List. ¼ cup cooked beans or peas (kidney, pinto, lentils).

Preschool Nutrition Theme Art Healthy Food Collage Materials Needed: Magazine and catalog pictures of healthy foods, scissor, glue, paper Have the children cut out pictures of healthy foods. Discuss the foods they see and why they are or are not healthy. EXTENSION: You could have the pictures precut for them so that you can discuss them as they work on their collage rather than have them cut them out. EXTENSION: You could also use this as a sorting activity.

See the manipulatives section of this page for Food Picture sorting activity. Food Group Plates After talking about the food groups, have children choose food pictures from each food group and glue them onto precut dish shapes! Paper Mache Foods Materials Needed: newspaper, masking tape, wallpaper paste (or your favorite homemade paper mache glue); paint Help children shape newspaper into their favorite healthy food. Tape shape with masking tape. Cover with several layers of newspaper dipped in mache paste (precut newspaper into strips of approximately 1 X 4-6 inch strips). Let dry, then paint and display!

Preschool Nutrition Theme Block Center Ideas Harvest Time Materials Needed: Add tractors, play vegetables and other farm items (equipment and animals). The children can harvest their farms! Preschool Nutrition Theme Circle Time Ideas Circle Time is such a great time for children to learn the social skills of being together as a large group AND to learn more about your Preschool Nutrition Theme! Berry, Berry Funny Preschool nutrition and fun! Where did a boysenberry or strawberry get its name?

Hmmm.ask the children and record what they say! Bring a bunch of different types of berries to circle area and ask them!

You could make a class book out of their answers! I read somewhere that there are actually several theories about how strawberries got their name! It has been said that they got the name 'straw' berries because they are grown in mulch made with straw or because they were once hung on pieces of straw for decoration. Also, did you know there are berries that are WHITE when they are ripe? I've never seen one, but wouldn't that be cool to show the children?!! Srawberry Song Yummy, yummy strawberries, So red and sweet and plump. When I see them in my bowl, It makes me want to jump!

I eat them very carefully, I savor every one. Sweet, delicious strawberries, To me, they're number one! One Potato, Two Potato Lead the children in this rhyming poem, holding up the appropriate number of fingers as they go along: One potato, two potato, three potato, four. Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more! Food Pyramid Teach your preschoolers about nutrition by introducing the food pyramid. Install deb package on arch linux screenshots. In advance, make a large pyramid. The top triangle is for 'Fats' (butter, sugar, etc.); the next row is cut into 2 equal parts (1 for dairy and one for protein--remember that eggs go with protein not dairy!); The next row is also in 2 equal parts- 1 for fruits and one for vegetables; and the bottom row is for Grains (breads, pasta, cereal, crackers, rice).

Explain that we need foods from each of the food groups to stay healthy. Provide pictures of foods from magazines and ask them to place them in the food pyramid chart where it belongs. VARIATION: Here's a picture of a Food Pyramid that my co-teacher made at circle time! She gave each of the children some play food.

After discussing the pyramid, they each had a turn identifying their food and where it would go on the pyramid and then placed it there! Strawberry Song Investigate strawberries at Circle Time, learn this song and then have a taste test! Yummy, yummy strawberries, So red and sweet and plump.