Early Childhood - Connecticut State Department of Education

Nutrition And Health Chapter 11
5. Promote Physical Activity
Young children need at least 60 minutes of physical
activity daily. An important part of good health, physical
activity complements good nutrition practices and helps
children to maintain a healthy weight. Participating in
healthy physical activity is one of the goals of Connecticut’s
Preschool Curriculum Framework (1999). To accomplish this
goal, preschool programs should provide opportunities
for a wide variety of gross-motor activities that are both
Instructional Strategies
Help families understand general child health,
nutrition, hygiene and safety.
Encourage family/home involvement in preschool
nutrition education activities.
Promote family involvement in providing healthy
foods at the preschool and at home.
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child-selected and teacher-initiated. More information
can be found in Chapter 9.
6. Engage Families In Healthy Nutrition
And Physical Activity
Children’s eating habits are strongly influenced by
family behaviors and interactions. Preschool programs
can improve the success of nutrition education by
actively engaging families and providing education,
resources and support.
Suggested Experiences
• Provide basic nutrition, health and safety
information in the preschool environment (e.g.,
posters, bulletin boards and artwork).
• Send nutrition information home with children
(e.g., handouts, brochures, “Dear Family” letters,
articles, newsletters).
• Set up a nutrition resource center with materials
that families can borrow.
• Discuss children’s food likes, dislikes, cultural
preferences, food allergies and diet-related
problems as part of the enrollment process.
• Discuss children’s eating behaviors at both school
and home.
• Inform families of daily nutrition education
activities. Suggest other simple activities that
families can use at home to reinforce key messages.
• Ask families to share special food traditions and
family recipes for a tasting party or class cooking
activity.
• Invite families to participate in nutrition education.
• Display or distribute menus of meals and snacks.
• Provide information on the food program,
including approaches to feeding children and
nutrition policies.
• Invite parents to eat lunch with the children.
• Provide ideas and recipes for nutritious foods
when meals, snacks or party foods are brought
from home.
• Relate nutrition education activities to healthy
recipes for families to try at home. For example,
send home child-friendly vegetable recipes when
teaching children about vegetables.
• Ask parents to send in healthy recipes to compile
and share with all families.