Early Childhood - Connecticut State Department of Education

Nutrition And Health Chapter 11
2. Provide Hands-On Sensory Experiences
Instructional Strategies
Young children learn best through hands-on sensory
experiences—tasting, smelling, feeling, seeing and hearing.
Provide hands-on experiences that help children learn about
foods using their five senses.
Coordinate nutrition education activities with the preschool
food service program.
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Suggested Experiences
• Have a tasting party. Let children choose foods to cook
based on shape or color.
• Help children compare the taste and texture of raw and
cooked fruits or vegetables.
• Have children break, snap, tear or chew foods and listen
to the sounds.
• Have children close their eyes and identify foods by
smell, sound or feel.
• Have children close their eyes and guess what made the
sound – biting an apple, pouring milk.
• Have children reach into a “mystery bag” to feel foods
of different sizes, shapes and textures. Have them
describe what they feel, and identify the food.
• Ask children to identify foods by smell. Foods that are
easier to identify include onions, garlic or citrus fruit,
such as oranges or lemons.
• Take field trips to the local grocery store, fish market,
bakery or nearby farm to see items before they reach the
table.
• Sprout seeds or grow vegetables in the classroom.
• Identify parts of a fruit, e.g., skin, rind, meat, seeds.
• Section fruits, count the parts, and discuss concepts of
whole and part.
• Teach about size, smell, shape, color and growth as
children “explore a potato.”
(Sources: National Center for Education in Maternal and
Child Health, 1997; American Dietetic Association, 1999.)
• Take children on a “field trip” of the kitchen to learn
about preparing healthy meals.
• Incorporate multicultural learning experiences with the
menu, e.g., children are learning about a country, and
ethnic foods are featured on the preschool menus.