By

 Learning Together Joyfully: All About Food

Educators, parents/caregivers and grandparents – it is good to meet again! During these days of enforced lockdowns and restaurant restrictions many of us have been spending more time at the grocery store and in the kitchen. This can be an ideal time to involve children to learn about food budgeting, shopping for food, meal planning, and food preparation. Learning more about food, can prepare young children for a lifetime of healthy eating by equipping them with the beginning skills to grow, select and cook food. Kids who COOK are kids who TRY new foods.⁠ They develop positive attitudes about food as they touch, smell, play, taste, and create mouth-watering meals with their family or in the classroom. The following nutrition activities will hopefully assist you to teach our children the importance of fueling their growing, playing, learning bodies and savoring healthy food.

1.  Read, Sing and Cook together 📚 

Young children form food preferences early in life. The more children read and understand about food, the more likely they are to understand the importance of a healthy diet. Sharing entertaining and informative books about food can initiate positive discussions with children about trying new foods, food allergies, food preferences of different cultures, and create a positive association between the joy of cooking, eating and reading together. Consider purchasing or borrowing these books from your school or public library

  • Piranhas Don’t Eat Bananas by Aaron Blabey. You don’t want to miss this mischievous and entertaining rhyming story  about Brian the piranha who loves peas and fruit but his friends prefer knees, feet and …bums over plums. 
  • Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle. Before Jack can enjoy his pancake breakfast he goes on a mouth watering journey to the mill for flour, to the black hen for an egg, to the spotted cow for milk, and then has to churn butter from fresh cream, and find firewood for the stove.
  •  What’s Cooking at 10 Garden Street? By Felicita Sala This delightfully illustrated children’s cookbook offers a global menu of dishes and explains how each dish is prepared or produced.
  • A Day with Yayah by Nicola Campbell. This book, set in Okanagan, BC, is about a First Nations family foraging for herbs and mushrooms. Grandmother passes down her knowledge of plant life to her young grandchildren.
  • The Welcome To Kindergarten Book List from The Learning Partnership. You may wish to download this book list, then go to the library or bookstore, and create a classroom collection or home library of recommended fiction and information books about food, cooking and healthy nutrition.
  • Share and read these recommended books together by clicking on the video links below:  
    • Little Pea by Amy Krause Rosenthal. (3:17 mins.) An amusing reversal story appropriate for picky-eaters. If Little Pea doesn’t eat sweets, there will be no vegetables for dessert! 
    • How did that get into my lunchbox? By Chris Butterworth. (9:49 mins.) This book highlights where foods commonly used in lunches are grow or produced.
    • Aiden the wonder kid who could not be stopped: a food allergy and intolerance story by Colleen Brunetti (6:57 mins.) Aiden shares many children’s experiences, worries and wonderings about food intolerances, allergies, and sensitivities and he learns there are many in the world just like him.
    • Dragons love Tacos by Adam Rubin (5:31) A funny story about dragons who love tacos – especially spicy ones!

SINGING AND LEARNING ABOUT FOOD

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin

2. Create together: Puzzles, Crafts, Drawing, Building and Cooking 🧩

Involving children in real life experiences related to cooking can greatly enhance their development. When preparing foods children can create a grocery list, go to the grocery store to select products and then assist in preparing the food. Reading a recipe, following instructions and measuring ingredients support their learning in many academic areas. All these activities can be reassuring for children who require special diets as they learn more about how to prepare appropriate foods that will keep them healthy. Of course, all the stirring, scrubbing, sorting, slicing ( the 4 S’s) associated with food preparation, build small muscles, finger control and fine-motor skills.

“Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits and the ancestors.” – Early Learning Framework; First Peoples Principles of Learning

3. Explore together 🌍

When children garden, pick berries, visit a local farm or farmer’s market, they have a greater appreciation for and understanding of the food they eat on a daily basis. They learn where their food is grown and produced. Activities that encourage experimenting with food, such as making pancakes with different ingredients or by planting an indoor herb garden or growing foods in containers, all contribute to children developing positive attitudes about food and healthy nutritional habits. Children who have an opportunity to discuss these projects or characteristics of the food and recipe they are creating, enhance their communication skills and strengthen relationships as the family works together in the kitchen.

ACTIVITIES TO DO ANYWHERE 

  • After reading Eric Carle’s book Pancakes, Pancakes, cook breakfast together, and incorporate a science lesson into your family breakfast.  Have your family act as food critics as they sample and test your Pancake science experiment.
  • Food Critic Activity. Whether in the classroom or with family at the grocery story, have children select an unfamiliar fruit, vegetable or recipe to sample and taste. Using the template, they rate the food based on the texture and how it looks, smells, and tastes.
  • Click on this short Sesame Street video to encourage children to try new foods. (39 sec.) or have fun planting a virtual garden.

ACTIVITIES TO DO AROUND THE LOWER MAINLAND:

  • Go Berry Picking at Krause Berry Farms in Langley during the spring and summer months! They also have a yummy waffle breakfast or you can make your own breakfast topped off with the berries you picked!
  • Visit Granville Island – take a friend, enjoy the water park, browse through Kids Market, shop at the market to create a picnic and take the small ferry to your final destination. Read more about exploring Granville Island and enjoy perusing the different fruits, vegetables and seafood at the market.
  • Visit local Farmers markets on Saturdays. These farmer’s markets located around the lower mainland make for a great family weekend outing. 
  • Farm tours are a fun family activity and highlight where our food is grown. Check out this list of Lower Mainland Farms and the products they sell. Interested in visiting some Alpacas? You will find it here.

4. Engage and Interact: 👭

Focusing on healthy nutrition not only addresses food choice, eating, and feeding, but it also contributes to emotional well-being and positive family relationships. As children experience hands-on learning in the kitchen, and receive your praise for how much they are learning, time can also be spent discussing behaviours that make eating together enjoyable for the whole family.

ACTIVITIES TO DO ANYWHERE:

Canada Food Guide

5. Reflect: Thoughts of the Day about Healthy Nutrition and Learning 💭

  • As the Canadian Food Guide sets out: “Make water your beverage of choice.” For further information about tips to encourage children to drink water considering reading Why Water – Healthy Kids.

“There is more to healthy eating than serving. It is important to consider role modeling, offering a variety of foods, getting children involved, making food fun, providing color and choice, and remembering the physical component. When eating, children learn language and socializing skills, math (counting), science (nutrients), and social studies (foods of the world).”   Centre for Education Research Translations, University of PEI

FOOD LITERACY CAN ENHANCE EARLY YEARS DEVELOPMENT

  • Social/emotional skills – eating together, taking turns, serving self, learning table manners, etc.
  • Creativity/exploration –exploring new foods, making a personal size pizza, building a fruit yogurt parfait, etc.
  • Physical activity/active play – gardening, field trip to orchard or farm
  • Communication skills – talking about food (colour, shape, taste, smell, feel, crunchy, etc.); sharing food stories, working together in the kitchen, etc.
  • Culture/diversity – trying foods of different cultures, stories about food culture. Appetitetoplay.com

Upcoming May 28 Blog –  Healthy Living: All About Movement

2 Replies to “Healthy Living: All About Food”

    1. Good Morning Lynn – I am wondering if you are finding the February blog of interest? Thinking of you and others, I purposefully included a section on Grandparents and activities that I hope you will enjoy with your family. Many thanks for your ongoing support and any feedback you have is greatly appreciated! Patricia

Comments are closed.