Early Years Public Health Programme
The Early Years Public Health Programme is a 6 week programme in which settings can take part in, to consider what is already being promoted for the health and well being of children and their families and how practise can be developed further in order for everyone to benefit the outcomes of the programme.
Stanton Drew and Pensford preschool took part in this programme to support balanced packed lunches, providing children and their families with fun packed, interactive activities and information to further support understanding and knowledge in regards to what a balanced packed lunch may look like and for children to experiment and try new fruits and vegetables they might not have before.
We were provided with resources to support each week of the programme, both for families and the setting which we shard with parents/carers via our blog and email. We had a fantastic response from children and their families, in response to each weekly activity and it enabled us to try new things at the setting such as making fruit kebabs at snack time which because it went so well staff have agreed to continue this once a term.
Week 1; The Eatwell guide- Food wheel
Week 1 supported children, in an age appropriate way to recognise different foods, which food group they belong to and in what proportion to other foods should they be eaten. It enabled them to begin to understand that there are some foods we should eat plenty of and some foods we should eat a little of not so often to make a balanced diet. We used different coloured sticker dots to help children understand which food group the contents of their lunch box were from, sticking each dot onto their pots/packets. We had great feedback from this and it didn't take long before the children were telling us which types of foods belonged in which group.
Week 2; Food and where it comes from
Week 2 continued to explore and recognises food beginning to understand which food group it comes from and that there are some things we should eat lots often and some foods we should eat a little of not so often. To help children to understand this we explored 1 type of food at a time, allocated it to a food group and discussed if we ate that food would it make us run very fast or would it make us slow. Lots of foods belonging to fruit and vegetables and protein gave our bodies lots of energy to run whereas food from the purple group is ok to have in small amounts but it would make us run a little slower.
Week 3; Labelling
Week 3 looked at the labels we see on our food packets. We explored labelling in order for children to begin to understand how to use the ‘traffic light’ labelling system on food packaging and how in links in with our eat well plates. First of all we explored each of the different colours printed on different packaging. For children to understand in an age appropriate way we explained;
Children also made their own hand held traffic lights, painting a big circle for the green which meant we should eat lots of green things, a medium sized yellow dot and a small red dot. "I love my food traffic lights"
Week 4; How much does it cost
Week 4 of our Early Years Public Health programme explored how much food costs. To explore this we created our very own shop at pre-school with real produce, tills, money and mark making to create our very own shopping lists. All of the children enjoyed selecting different foods and produce to fill up their baskets with, engaging in detailed conversations about why they have chosen specific things. They also demonstrated brilliant knowledge and understanding of the different food groups which we explored in week 1, telling each other which food group they thought some of their products came from "This is fruit so that will be green stickers, green things are good for our eyes".
We also explored and made our own money, using mathematical language related to money to talk about the value of different notes and coins and how much things might cost. To extend some of the children's mathematical skills adults were asking about how much change they might need if they paid for something with more money than the cost e.g. "If I pay with £5 and it costs £4 how much change will I need?".
Week 5; Looking after our teeth
Week 5 explored our dental hygiene. The adults spent time speaking to the children about why we need to brush our teeth, when to brush , how we brush teeth, looking at toothpaste and talking about its texture and taste and who we need to visit if we have any problems with our teeth. The children all demonstrated great understanding of how to brush their teeth and the importance behind this and have shared their experiences at the dentist with us "We have some special water we wash our mouth out with its pink" "After the dentist has checked your teeth, they give you a sticker to say well done".
The children were given a new toothbrush each to take home, to keep up the great cleaning of their teeth, like they were already doing.
Week 6; Recipes/ cooking
Week 6 allowed us to explore new recipes and make some yummy snack at preschool. We asked the children about which fruits they might like to explore at snack time and they responded with watermelon, grapes, raisons etc so we decided to make our own fruit kebabs. Some of the children helped to prepare the snacks where they engaged with practitioner about where that fruit came from. We then set up a bar style snack where children could come up and make their own fruit kebabs for snack. We had very positive feedback from this and the children had a fun interactive snack time.
We also made raisin flapjacks following an eat well recipe to do so. The childr3en prepared the ingredients, weighed them out, mixed them together and once they were baked, were able to take home a yummy piece of flapjack!
Stanton Drew and Pensford preschool took part in this programme to support balanced packed lunches, providing children and their families with fun packed, interactive activities and information to further support understanding and knowledge in regards to what a balanced packed lunch may look like and for children to experiment and try new fruits and vegetables they might not have before.
We were provided with resources to support each week of the programme, both for families and the setting which we shard with parents/carers via our blog and email. We had a fantastic response from children and their families, in response to each weekly activity and it enabled us to try new things at the setting such as making fruit kebabs at snack time which because it went so well staff have agreed to continue this once a term.
Week 1; The Eatwell guide- Food wheel
Week 1 supported children, in an age appropriate way to recognise different foods, which food group they belong to and in what proportion to other foods should they be eaten. It enabled them to begin to understand that there are some foods we should eat plenty of and some foods we should eat a little of not so often to make a balanced diet. We used different coloured sticker dots to help children understand which food group the contents of their lunch box were from, sticking each dot onto their pots/packets. We had great feedback from this and it didn't take long before the children were telling us which types of foods belonged in which group.
Week 2; Food and where it comes from
Week 2 continued to explore and recognises food beginning to understand which food group it comes from and that there are some things we should eat lots often and some foods we should eat a little of not so often. To help children to understand this we explored 1 type of food at a time, allocated it to a food group and discussed if we ate that food would it make us run very fast or would it make us slow. Lots of foods belonging to fruit and vegetables and protein gave our bodies lots of energy to run whereas food from the purple group is ok to have in small amounts but it would make us run a little slower.
Week 3; Labelling
Week 3 looked at the labels we see on our food packets. We explored labelling in order for children to begin to understand how to use the ‘traffic light’ labelling system on food packaging and how in links in with our eat well plates. First of all we explored each of the different colours printed on different packaging. For children to understand in an age appropriate way we explained;
- Green labels – we should eat a lot of these foods, often as they are low fat and/or low sugar (and low salt)
- Yellow labels – we should eat some of these foods, sometimes as part of a balanced diet
- Red labels – we should eat only a little bit of these foods and not very often
Children also made their own hand held traffic lights, painting a big circle for the green which meant we should eat lots of green things, a medium sized yellow dot and a small red dot. "I love my food traffic lights"
Week 4; How much does it cost
Week 4 of our Early Years Public Health programme explored how much food costs. To explore this we created our very own shop at pre-school with real produce, tills, money and mark making to create our very own shopping lists. All of the children enjoyed selecting different foods and produce to fill up their baskets with, engaging in detailed conversations about why they have chosen specific things. They also demonstrated brilliant knowledge and understanding of the different food groups which we explored in week 1, telling each other which food group they thought some of their products came from "This is fruit so that will be green stickers, green things are good for our eyes".
We also explored and made our own money, using mathematical language related to money to talk about the value of different notes and coins and how much things might cost. To extend some of the children's mathematical skills adults were asking about how much change they might need if they paid for something with more money than the cost e.g. "If I pay with £5 and it costs £4 how much change will I need?".
Week 5; Looking after our teeth
Week 5 explored our dental hygiene. The adults spent time speaking to the children about why we need to brush our teeth, when to brush , how we brush teeth, looking at toothpaste and talking about its texture and taste and who we need to visit if we have any problems with our teeth. The children all demonstrated great understanding of how to brush their teeth and the importance behind this and have shared their experiences at the dentist with us "We have some special water we wash our mouth out with its pink" "After the dentist has checked your teeth, they give you a sticker to say well done".
The children were given a new toothbrush each to take home, to keep up the great cleaning of their teeth, like they were already doing.
Week 6; Recipes/ cooking
Week 6 allowed us to explore new recipes and make some yummy snack at preschool. We asked the children about which fruits they might like to explore at snack time and they responded with watermelon, grapes, raisons etc so we decided to make our own fruit kebabs. Some of the children helped to prepare the snacks where they engaged with practitioner about where that fruit came from. We then set up a bar style snack where children could come up and make their own fruit kebabs for snack. We had very positive feedback from this and the children had a fun interactive snack time.
We also made raisin flapjacks following an eat well recipe to do so. The childr3en prepared the ingredients, weighed them out, mixed them together and once they were baked, were able to take home a yummy piece of flapjack!
Quotes from children during our programme
"That was the best snack time ever, the fruit was so yummy and the kebabs were fun. I wish we could do snacks like that everyday"
"Watermelon was so yummy, I could eat lots of that"
"Green things and stickers give you lots of energy to run around really fast and so does drinking water".
"That was the best snack time ever, the fruit was so yummy and the kebabs were fun. I wish we could do snacks like that everyday"
"Watermelon was so yummy, I could eat lots of that"
"Green things and stickers give you lots of energy to run around really fast and so does drinking water".