Staff Workshop:

Food Experience Discussion and

Activities

By: Alissa Burge

Dietetic Intern

Benedictine University

Food experiences are important to the children for a va-

riety of reasons beyond that of nutrition. Children de-

velop certain skills and learn about a different subjects

while working with nutritious foods. Here are certain

ways in which a child can learn.

Math

1. Measuring--tablespoon, teaspoon, cup

2. Counting

3. Measurements--dozen, pound, weight

5. Sequencing--recipe directions

6. Classifying foods--food groups, colors, shape

Science/Discovery

1. Planting and how all things grow

2. Solids to liquids, liquids to solids (making ice cubes with whole fruit pieces inside or freezing yogurt with fruit pieces inside for a snack)

3. Heat and cold

4. Sense awareness--development of a sense of smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing

5. Nutrition awareness

Art

1. Making a food collage

2. Drawing pictures of the food prepared

3. Illustrating a recipe

4. Molding food into sculptures--candy, cookies and bread dough

5. Observing color, texture and form

Language Arts

1. Listening skills--following a recipe

2. Sequential learning--repeating recipe steps in order

3. Dictating a recipe to the teacher and watching it being written down

4. Letter recognition--isolating letters in a recipe

5. Word recognition--isolating words in a recipe

6. Adjective growth--increase of descriptive terms

7. Formation of a cookbook

8. Dictating stories about favorite foods, least favorite foods

9. Following directions

Creative Dramatics and Music

1. Role playing--parents' cooking role, children's role, restaurant visit

2. Dancing--get the feel of the ingredient and act it out

3. Making up or learning songs about the ingre-dients

4. Practicing rhythms--stirring and kneading

5. Leaning new sounds

Social Studies

1. Learning about the different ways the same food is made in different areas

2. Learning about food from different cultures--the discovery of new tastes, food patterns and other lands.

3. Learning how to work together, share and co-operate

4. Learning how to plan with one another

5. Learning about community helpers who pro-vide food for us to buy and eat

Edible Art: Use several kinds of vegetables that are commonly eaten raw and toothpicks. Make sure they are pre-washed. The children put together creations from sliced cucumbers, carrots, broccoli florets, cauliflower tops. Then they can eat their creations. (children are more likely to eat vegetables they normally refuse) Frozen Fruit: String chunks of fruit, like strawberries, orange chunks, grapes, pineapple onto a cocktail straw and freeze them. At snack time put the straws in a glass of water for the children. The water is sweetened by the fruit and the fruit is their snack. Kids love it and they seem to drink more water this way and they can make their own patterns on the straws. Science Experiment with Apples: Have the children experiment with two plates of sliced apples. On one plate have them pour lemon juice on top and on the other use no lemon juice. Leave it to sit for 30 minutes and go back to see the results of their experiment. Relate this to brushing their teeth, if they don’t brush their teeth after meals they can change color over time like the apples do. Apple Smiles: Cut a red apple into slices. (these are the lips) Have child spread peanut butter or cream cheese on apple slice. Place mini marshmallows (these are the teeth) on top of peanut butter and top with other apple slice. Stuffed Apple: Have adult core apple. Children can stuff middle with peanut butter, raisins, dried cranberries, bananas, and other fruits. Then eat. Fruit Kabob Creatures: You will need: watermelon or melon balls, sliced bananas, grapes, or any fruit of choice. Start with a blank canvas (flat plate) and have a child create a worm or caterpillar by lining fruit in a row. Then put the fruit together by poking a short straw or a straw cut in half through your fruit. You can also the attach the fruit together with peanut butter or cream cheese or just line them up in a row on the plate. Bagel People: Spread cream cheese on a half of a bagel and let child create a face with fruit pieces or cut up vegetables. You can use coconut, peanuts, or chow mein noodles also. Let their imagination soar. Let's go Fishing Snack: Use a pretzel rod or long sticks for a fishing rod. Place peanut butter on the end for bait and dip your fishing rod in a pond of fish. (fish crackers in a bowl) River Fish: Celery stalks cut twice or three times, cream cheese, blue food coloring, fish crackers In a bowl add one or two drops of blue food coloring to the cream cheese. Fill celery sticks with cream cheese. Add fish crackers to the top of the sticks to resemble fish swimming in the river.

Food experiences can be a variety of different things whether it be trying a new type of food, using

foods to make different edible creations, games, short stories about healthy foods, ect. Below are

some ideas to incorporate healthy foods for edible snacks. What are your ideas?

Game Ideas

Food Group Game - Name a Food Circle Game

This is a great game to play with the entire class. The children might not be able to add many foods at first,

but by listening to what the older members of the class add (including teachers), they are learning about

how foods go together.

Step 1: Announce a food group. Choose a formal food group - fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, dairy - or

choose another grouping that might be more familiar to the children - drinks, breakfast cereals,

sandwiches, foods made from milk.

Step 2: One person in the group starts by naming a food that fits into the category. Then each person takes

a turn naming another food in that group until someone can't answer.

Helpful Hint: By playing this game at snack or meal times, the children can have visual hints of foods that

fit. For example, point to various fruits in the fruit bowl when it's their turn and they don't know how to

answer.

Food Group Game - Guess My Food Game

This game can be played anywhere. Play it with the children as they wait in line, have a snack, or during

lunch.

Step 1: Choose a food group, then ask the child to guess what food you are thinking of - "Guess my fruit!"

Just like the circle game, you can choose easy categories like breakfast cereals or harder ones, depending

on your preschooler's knowledge.

Step 2: Let the children guess away to see if she can guess what food you are thinking of.

Helpful Hint: If the children are familiar with letter sounds, after 10 wrong guesses give a hint about what

letter your food starts with. Or, you can name traits about the food after a few wrong guesses. Give away

the color of the food, then the shape of the food, then the place in the kitchen where you keep the food,

etc., until the children can guess the food.

Resources to Use

-http://www.first-school.ws/theme/nutrition.htm : nutrition lessons and printable activities

-http://www.fruitrhymes.com/ : fruit stories, rhymes, recipes, and coloring pages

-http://www.vegetables-for-kids.com/ : vegetable stories and healthy recipes

-http://www.choosemyplate.gov/preschoolers/index.html : healthy eating habits, physical activity, and

safety

-http://school.fueluptoplay60.com/tools/nutrition-education/view.php?id=23945657