Always and Sometimes Snacks
My last official and pretty fun project was doing a lesson on what a healthy snack is with Kindergarten and Grade 1. Since there are multiple Kindergarten and Grade 1 classes I got to teach the lesson 7 times.
The goal of the lesson was for kids to understand what healthy food is, and what âhealthyâ means. I also wanted them to realize that in a healthy lifestyle, no food is forbidden, but food has a rank which is determined by what it is and is made of. There are healthy foods (veggies, whole grains, protein, fruits) and thus snacks, that can be eaten every day (I called them âalways snacksâ) and then there are the high sugar, high fat foods that taste amazing but should only be eaten sometimes like at birthdays or holidays (âsometimes snacksâ). By giving food a rank like this, it take the pressure off of having to have a perfect diet or trying to achieve unattainable standards and making kids feel like it is a sin to eat an ice-cream cone or piece of cake. I didnât want them to start feeling guilty about food, which can create a very weird relationship with food, which is not healthy at all.
How do I go about creating and implementing a lesson?
Step 1. Brainstorm: After I knew that the topic was healthy snack I made a brainstorm session on anything related to that. I thought about food, materials, season, allergies, books, time limit, budget, learning theories ect. I highlighted the things that seemed most relevant.
Step 2: Contact the teachers to find out if any of the kids have any allergies or religious restrictions. This is to make sure that all kids can participate.
Step 3: Obsess over which version of the lesson plan would be best. Settle on one after 2 weeks. Finalize the lesson objective.
Step 5: Create the materials using things you already have on hand. I prefer working on the floor to do this.
Step 6: Shop and prep the food. I made sure to shop for the food each day before the lessons. I was not sure if the planned amount of food was enough or too much and so to reduce the amount of food waste and the money needed for this project, I waited to do my first lesson and then adjust my subsequent purchases accordingly. This tactic helped me save about 100dkk.
Step 7: Teach the lesson. I started out asking them what their favorite snack was. I didnât give their answers any qualifiers such as âoh that is healthyâ or âthat is not healthyâ. I just let it stand. I wanted them to make the connection themseleves about whether their favorite snack is healthy or not after we had done the lesson. Having them make the connection themselves is so much more powerful for change than me telling them. Then we discussed what the word âhealthyâ means. The grade 1 had many good answers, the kindergarten struggled a bit more with that. But most of them understood at the end of the discussion what it was about (food containing vitaims and minerals and energy for optimal bodily functions). Surprisingly, all the classes ended up naming Coke as the number one antethesis of healthy :-)
Then we put together a healthy plate with some colors and pictures for the kids to learn what can be eaten on a healthy diet.
Next we played a little game where each kid got to uncover a turned down picture of a snack food and decide if it should to in the âalways snackâ bag or âsometimes snackâ bag. I made sure to point out that always snacks are what we call healthy and sometimes snacks are things that taste good but contain a lot of sugar and fat and should only be eaten on things like birthdays or holidays. The kids were very involved and all of them know which food went into what. Some asked about ânever foodâ. I told them that the only foods that are ânever foodâ are poisons and if someone has an allergy to something like dairy or peanuts, then for that person, that is a never food.
Finally I unpacked the veggies and hummus that I had prepared and we ate that together. I encouraged the kids to at least try something if they had never eaten it before. The school gives that the term ârisktakerâ. I had many kids be risktakers and try new things! Some ended up not liking a certain veggie, but that is ok. Requiring kids to like all veggies is just plain unrealistic. Even we as adults donât like all foods, so kids certainly are allowed to not like one or two things. Also, it takes about 10 tries of a food before the kid will end up liking it. So the important things is for the child to always try the food.
(this is what one plate for each kid looked liked. They got to pick out the food themsleves from the tupperware of stuff I had brought.)
Step 8: Reflect on each lesson and improve where needed. Get feedback from techers, kids and parents if you happen to meet them.
Doing the lessons was a lot of fun.I had fun, the kids had fun and I could tell that they were very interested and engaged in the topic. They loved the food and many were brave and tried the hummus or even a vegetable they didnât necessarily eat that often.
One mother told me that her girl threw out the sugary cearal at home after I had done the lesson with the grade 1 :-)
Some of the kindergarteners used words like âawesomeâ, âfunâ and âfantasticâ when I met them a few days later and they wanted to talk to me about the lesson we had done. Seeing the kids so excited about simple, healthy food is really encouraging for me as a health professional. I just hope they stay excited and it doesnât wane.
