Healthy Me, Healthy You
Projects Term 3, 2013 Bumblebee Room
This term our focus will be on, keeping ourselves safe, healthy and respecting our environment. As part of our sustainability policy and preschool philosophy we will be looking at ways we can look after our world, encouraging reduce, reuse, recycle……rethink!
WEEK 1
This week the Bumblebee educators explained to the children about The 3 R’s
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) says an easy way to start a recycling program with your kids is by practicing these three R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Reduce waste by throwing away fewer items and by only purchasing items you really need, that last a long time and that come with less packaging material. Using paper bags instead of plastic and using nude food containers instead of plastic bags and packaging.
NUDE FOOD = Healthy Food + Healthy Planet
Reuse by finding ways to use items again, repairing broken items or creating new ways to use items. For example instead of putting used yoghurt pots in the bin we can wash them and use them as glue/paint pots or in craft.
Recycle by collecting and separating recyclable items to be picked up or take your recyclables to a recycling centre where they are processed to create the same, different or new products.
In the Bumblebee Room we love to recycle our food scraps to feed our chickens or banana skins in the worm farm, making worm wee to feed our veggie garden.
Recycling and Sustainability – OUTCOME 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world: Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment: demonstrate an increasing knowledge of, and respect for natural and constructed environments.
WEEK 2
This week in the Bumblebee room we talked about where our waste goes – explaining about landfills and recycling plants.
We played lots of games about sorting our waste – at group time Gaynor placed 4 bins onto the felt board – red, yellow, green and worm bins. Then gave everyone an item e.g. milk bottle, juice carton, garden waste, glass bottles, banana skins, newspaper etc.
The children then had to decide which bin their item would go in. They did a fantastic job. Throughout the term is has been great hearing the children asking the Bumblebee educators “which bin does this go in?”
At the end of each day this week we weighed the waste in the red bin and will repeat this next week for nude food and record our findings.
Thank you to Sienna T and her Mum for bringing in some used birthday/Christmas cards so we can recycle them in our craft area.
“If we are to go on living together on this earth, we must all be responsible for it” Kobi Annan
WEEK 3
Nude Food Week – This week we really encouraged our preschool families and staff members to pack low waste lunch and morning teas. It was wonderful that the children were so keen to show the educators the lunch boxes saying “Look I’ve got nude food!”
National Nude Food Day/Week is an event created by Nude Food Movers that encourages individuals to make their lunch a healthy, nutritious and environmentally friendly meal by filling it with fresh food and eliminating all unnecessary wrapping!
Nude Food Day aims to change the eating habits of Australians and New Zealanders by empowering them to make better choices when it comes to packing food for lunch, while also drawing greater attention to the amount of land fill that is generated from food packaging.
Again we weighed our waste every day this week and it was awesome to see that our preschool rubbish was dramatically reduced by nearly 40% each day!
OUTCOME 2: Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment: develop an awareness of the impact of human activity on environments and the interdependence of living things.
WEEK 4
As part of our sustainability programme, this week we are focusing on cooking using left over foods. Gaynor cooked cheesy omelettes using fresh eggs from our chickens and herbs from our garden. We enjoyed a fresh juicy watermelon, using the left over skin to feed our chickens later in the day. We also make pumpkin pie and used the seeds to plant in our garden and fed the chicken with the scraps. Nerri had some left over veggies from the night before and using some more of our chicken eggs makes some yummy veggie quiches.
Thank you to everyone for your recipes and suggestions regarding leftover foods. A very useful link we have found is: www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/category/books/save-with-jamie
Check it out for some amazing recipes to turn left overs into a delicious nutritious meal!
As we were using leftover foods it was paramount that we stored and refrigerated the leftovers safely and correctly as to avoid cross contamination.
Before handling the foods the Bumblebee educators observed that some of our children when asked to wash their hands were not washing them properly i.e. just rinsing their hands under the water or putting the soap onto their hands then rinsing it off before rubbing it into the skin.
So next week we will talk to the children about the importance of washing our hands, when we need to wash them and how to wash them.
WEEK 5
Over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the children independent self-help skills - demonstrating the preschool procedure for safe hand washing.
Learning outcome 3 - CHILDREN HAVE A STRONG SENSE OF WELLBEING.
“As children become more independent they can take greater responsibility for their health, hygiene and personal care and become mindful of their own and other’s safety. Routines provide opportunities for children to learn about health and safety”
We took the bumblebees into the bathroom and they watched as the teachers washed their hands learning the step by step procedures.
*Wet our hands*Apply the soap*Rub the soap all over our hands, front and back* Count to 10* Rinse (and Repeat if necessary) and then dry thoroughly*
At group time Gaynor introduced the children to a new app on the I Pad called Pepi’s Bath. We used the app to look at independent self-help skills discussing when do we need to wash our hands? Lots of the children answered when we go to the toilet, touch the chicken, before we eat or start cooking.
We also talked about why we should wash our hands explaining that the best way to prevent the spread of germ is by washing our hands.
Washing hands helps to physically remove germs by friction, and to rinse them down the drain.
Before lunch we lined up at the bathroom and Fe watched as all our bumblebees washed their hands and dried them correctly. We are so proud of our children that we gave them each a “Lather Up for Good Health” certificate.
Week 6
This week we are still looking at self-help skills and will be talking about brushing our teeth and dental hygiene.
We downloaded another app on the ipad called ‘Nurdle’ the apps main focus is showing the children the correct way to brush your teeth and has a fun song they can listen to for the length they need to brush them for.
The Bumblebee teachers discussed with the children the most important time to brush is before going to bed. Because less saliva is emitted during sleep, teeth are more susceptible to tooth decay. Also it’s important to brush after breakfast and whenever possible after eating.
Using a giant toothbrush, a giant set of teeth and the Nurdle app Gaynor asked the children to brush the teeth, side to side, up and down and round and round. The children did a fantastic job and they all received a toothpaste pack to take home.
At group time we also discussed bringing healthy foods to eat at preschool and leaving ‘sometimes foods’ which have a high sugar level in them, at home. We also encouraged the children to bring water in their drink bottles as after the children have something to eat we are promoting the ‘swish and swallow’ technique in accordance with our preschool dental hygiene policy.
This week we organized a visiting from a dental technician from ‘Pacific Smile’.
She brought along with her some dentist equipment to show the children what happens when you go to the dentist – explaining about the different procedures, instruments used and sounds you might hear.
Later the children got a chance to be a dentist – putting on gloves and masks to clean Kevin the kangaroo’s teeth.
Weeks 7 & 8
As the children have showed an interest in the foods they’re bringing to preschool we decided to continue learning about healthy choices for our lunch boxes.
Looking at which foods are ‘Good foods’ and which are ‘Sometimes Foods’?’
Around the classroom there are lots of opportunities, with which the children have to sort ‘food types’. On the craft table we have put out some cooking magazines and paper plates and encouraged the children to find good foods to glue onto the plates. On the felt board Fe had brought out the story of the hungry caterpillar and sat with the children discussing ‘if the caterpillar was going to preschool, what foods would be good to go in his lunch box?’ On the puzzle table we put out some food pyramid jigsaws and fruit sorting and in the home corner we had real apples and oranges.
In group time this week we looked at the different food types and what they did to our bodies.
Healthy eating means eating a wide variety of nutritious foods from all of the food groups. These foods contain lots of vitamins, minerals and fibre. Eating a wide variety of foods from all food groups will help you grow.
Some foods contain too much sugar or fat and not many vitamins or minerals. These are foods we should only eat sometimes.
The foods you eat have been divided into three groups according to how nutritious they are. These make up what is often called the ‘food pyramid’. You can use these groups to help you decide which foods to eat more of and which to eat less often.
Group 1: Eat these foods most of the time
You should try to eat lots of:
· Fruits and vegetables
· Breads
· Grains such as rice and pasta
· Beans and lentils.
You can see that these are all foods that come from plants. These foods all contain vitamins, minerals and fibre. Try to eat a wide variety of these foods. Try not to choose just one of these foods (such as fruit) to eat all the time. Eating plenty of all foods from this group will help you stay healthy.
Plant foods contain thousands of nutrients (small parts), which can help to prevent serious diseases. This is why it is important to eat a variety of different types of plant foods.
Group 2: Eat these foods moderately
These foods are important for health, so you should eat them in medium amounts:
· Dairy products such as milk, cheeses and yoghurts (sometimes low fat ones should be chosen)
· Lean meat
· Chicken (without skin)
· Fish
· Nuts.
These foods are all good sources of protein. Protein helps build strong muscles and can repair our body when we hurt or injure ourselves. Some of these foods also contain some important minerals, such as the calcium found in dairy foods (for strong bones) and the iron found in lean meats (to give us energy).
Group 3: Eat these foods sometimes
These foods don’t give us very many nutrients and are really just ‘extras’. They may contain lots of sugar or fat (or both) but often don’t have many vitamins, minerals or fibre. It’s OK to have these ‘sometimes foods’ if you are healthy, active and not overweight. Most of the time they are better left for occasions like birthday parties.
An example of one serve of these foods includes:
· Sweet biscuits (2 small)
· Chocolate coated bars (1 bar)
· Potato chips (30g)
· Ice-cream (2 scoops)
· Lollies/chocolate (30g)
· Cake or muffin (1 medium piece).
Healthy eating means eating a wide variety of nutritious foods. Healthy foods contain all the energy, minerals, vitamins or fibre you need to grow. You should try and eat lots of healthy foods like fruits, vegetables and bread. Small amounts of foods like cakes and lollies are fine to eat too, as long as you don't eat them all the time.
This term as we have been looking at ways to keep ourselves safe and well, we have been finishing each rest session with some soft yoga stretches before packing our sheets away. After the children have put on the hats and shoes and reapplied their sunscreen we have encouraged the children to join in with the move and groove exercise programme – warming up our muscles before going to play outside. The children have responded really positively to this part of the day and now request their favourite warm up and stretch.
Weeks 9-10
Over the next two week at group time we will be discussing with the children the importance of road/traffic safety.
Really focussing and encouraging the children to - HOLD MY HAND
Learning about why and when we should hold a grownups hand, talking about playing in the driveway, where is a safe place to cross the road? Etc.
We spoke to the children about keeping safe in our car park – using the HOLD MY HAND sign as a visual prop for the children to understand the meaning. Taking the children outside to the car park and finding our ‘Hold my Hand’ sign.
In week 10 it was wonderful to see and hear of so many of our children holding a grownups hand and asking to hold hands.
Next we discussed the dangers of walking or running behind a car that is reversing. Gaynor showed the children a photo of a little girl running at the back of a car and she explained to the children, when they see the white lights on the back of a car go on, its ready to move backwards and that the driver cannot see over the back of the car so it makes it really hard for the driver to see the little girl.
We also talked about keeping safe inside cars too. Making sure that we wear a seatbelt when travelling in a vehicle and not opening it until an adult says it’s safe.
Then we deliberated when do we need hold an adults hand? Here are our answers:
v When we are in a car park
v When we are near water
v When we are crossing the road
v When we are in a busy place, such as a train station or bus stop
Judy set up a traffic light game – the children had to watch as she held up 3 coloured discs, red, yellow and green.
The children had to pretend to be cars and when Judy held up each disc they had to do the appropriate action:
Green – Go, go, go
Yellow – slow down and get ready to stop
Red – Stop and keep very still
“The essence of childhood, of course, is play, which my friends and I did endlessly on streets that we reluctantly shared with traffic”.
