Partnering with Virginias Family Nutrition Program - Stephanie - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Partnering with Virginia’s Family Nutrition Program

• Stephanie Diehl, MS, RD

Program Manager, SNAP-Ed

LEAP Curriculum

For children 3-5 years of age and their families

Reading to young children is the single most important factor in academic success

Literacy Eating Activity for Preschool

What do you do to make reading fun for children?

Program Goals

 Expose the children to different fruits

and vegetables they could try at home and school

 Encourage more physical activity  Boost reading skills

Benefits of the LEAP Curriculum

LEAP Lessons address:

 Literacy  Activity levels  Healthy food choices

Easy to Teach Program

 Facilitator Guide  Age appropriate books  Reinforcement activities  Family newsletter

Lessons Include

✓ Book to read ✓ Food experience ideas ✓ Physical activity and craft suggestions ✓ Parent newsletter

Facilitator’s Guide

Suggested book Brief Summary Concepts Objectives Suggestions for Facilitator Discussion Questions Materials Needed Reinforcement Activities Curriculum Matrix

The Gigantic Turnip

By Aleski Tolstoy & Niamh Sharkey

Theme

Children learn about the turnip and how it grows underground. They see the characters in the book make and enjoy turnip soup after their hard work growing and harvesting this vegetable.

Activities

 See, touch, taste and smell a

turnip and other veggies

 Carve turnips to make stamp

art

Healthy Bits For Families Backpack Newsletters

Send these home with the children

Parent Newsletter

OrganWise Guys

 Nutrition education & incorporated physical

activity for elementary schools

 Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade  6 required lessons

Meet the Organs!

Food Experiences

Not required, but encouraged

What is the Extension Agent’s role?

Provide the teaching materials Provide support to teachers, if needed Collect demographic and lesson dates from

site managers

Report data to the USDA grant to ensure

funding for future programming!

What is the Teacher’s role?

Report class demographics to site manager Report the month and date of lessons to site

manager

Deliver the lessons - reading the book and

discussing health messages

 Use the suggested activities to provide food experiences,

physical activities, and crafts, or create your own activities! Send each student home with newsletters, if

applicable

Exploring Preschool Nutrition Education Curricula

• Camille McGuire, MS

Curriculum Support

Learning About Nutrition through Activities (LANA) & Harvest for Healthy Kids

 LANA  Harvest for Healthy Kids

LANA

Learning About Nutrition through Activities

LANA – Overview

 Hands-on approach  Easily adaptable  Researched and tested

 Study showed that children involved in the LANA program2:

 Ate more vegetables at lunch  Ate more total fruits and vegetables throughout the day  Became less picky and had reduced fear of trying new foods

LANA - Overview

 Helps children learn to eat more fruits and vegetables

by:

 Increasing opportunities for kids to taste and eat them  Providing hands-on experiences with fruits and vegetables  Creating a supportive environment  Providing children with role models who eat fruits and

vegetables

 Connecting classroom activities with the home environment

LANA - Materials

LANA – 6 Types of Program Activities

1.

Menu Changes

 Frequency: Daily

2.

Cooking Activities

 Frequency: Weekly

3.

Tasting Activities

 Frequency: Weekly

4.

Curriculum Theme Units

 Frequency: Monthly

5.

Family Resources

 Frequency: monthly

6.

Special Events



Frequency: Bi-monthly

LANA – Curriculum Theme Units

1.

Eating the Alphabet

2.

Vegetarian Animals

3.

Our Senses Teach Us

4.

Inside Outside

5.

Growing Things

6.

Foods for Everyone

Harvest for Healthy Kids

Harvest for Healthy Kids - Overview

 Promotes healthy eating among preschoolers through

repeated exposure to a variety of fruits and vegetables

 Curriculum was developed using a community-based

participatory research process that involved Head Start administrators, food service personnel, teachers, and parents

 Research-tested

 Study showed there was a positive association between the

intervention and the willingness to try and liking for target foods among children participating in Head Start centers1

Harvest for Healthy Kids - Materials

 13 activity kits for different

fruits and vegetables that also teach science, math, and literacy

 Each kit contains:

 Hands-on activities with

different fruits and vegetables

 Colorful picture cards  Newsletters for families  Background information for

adults

References

1 .

• LearningZoneXpress. Research Findings. Learning About Nutrition through

Activities 20 1 1 ; http:/ / lananutrition.com/ ?page_id=69. Accessed October, 20 1 9. 2. Izumi BT, Eckhardt CL, Hallman JA, Herro K, Barberis DA. Harvest for Healthy Kids Pilot Study: Associations between Exposure to a Farm-to-Preschool Intervention and W illingness to Try and Liking of Target Fruits and Vegetables among Low-Income Children in Head Start. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 20 1 5;1 1 5(1 2):20 0 3-20 1 3.

Brain Storming Session

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