4-H Fun with Foods!1
4-H Fun with Foods! (4H FNL 20) is a food and nutrition publication that is for children ages 5-8. These children will learn about the food guide pyramid. They will also learn about how certain foods contribute to their individual health and well being. This leader's guide is supported with a member piece (4H FNM 10).
In EDIS this publication is DLN 4H 148.
Visit the 4-H Youth Development Curriculum Web site for more information on related project material.
Click here to view a sample of the project.
CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
4-H FUN with FOODS was developed through a team effort of the Department of 4-H and Other Youth Programs and the Department of Home Economics including the Expanded Food and Nutrition Program. These are now known as the 4-H Youth Development Program and the Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences.
This curriculum package was created by Linda D. Cook, Associate Professor and EFNEP Coordinator, Department of Home Economics and M. Joy Jordan (Cantrell), Associate Professor and 4-H Youth Development Curriculum Specialist, Department of 4-H and Other Youth Programs, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Technical review and assistance was provided by the following members of the Cooperative Extension Service Food, Nutrition, and Health Design Team (FL51): Linda B. Bobroff, Associate Professor and Extension Foods and Nutrition Specialist; Mark L. Tamplin, Associate Professor, Food Safety; Patricia A. Wagner, Associate Professor and Extension Human Nutrition Specialist; and Glenda Warren, Associate Professor and EFNEP Nutritionist.
We wish to acknowledge the incorporation of selected materials from the Eating Right is Basic 2 Series produced by Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Service.
Special acknowledgment of contributions and thanks are also extended to Joyce Lottinville, Artist, with the Department of Home Economics and Expanded Food and Nutrition Program for graphic illustrations and to Nancy Stuart, Department of 4-H and Other Youth Programs, for the word processing and computer graphics.
A Food, Nutrition, and Health Education Curriculum for 5-6 Year Olds
The new Florida 4-H Individual and Family Resources curriculum, OUR PERSONAL WORLD recognizes that personal values and goals are central to acquiring, managing and using resources. Among the significant resources that are basic to each individual is food. Therefore, one of the key components of the curriculum is Food, Nutrition and Health.
4-H FUN with FOODS is a portion of the 4-H Food, Nutrition and Health curriculum that is designed to help 5-6 year old children understand importance of food choices for good health. Additional curriculum packages are being designed for youth in other age ranges and for sequential advancement in food, nutrition and health. The Florida 4-H Food, Nutrition and Health curriculum has four major foci:
General Dietary Guidance
Weight Management and Fitness
Health Risk Reduction
Food Science and Safety
To the informed Florida citizen, it is not surprising that food, nutrition and health and fitness is a priority within the total 4-H Individual and Family Resources curriculum. An investment in young people's knowledge, understanding and attitudes about food and nutrition affects their personal health and can not be ignored now or in the future.
In FUN with FOODS, we are particularly interested in helping young people develop a personal eating and fitness plan to impact their overall health.
About FUN with FOODS...
The development of this 4-H Food, Nutrition and Health Education Project was driven by two basic principles:
Learning about nutrition can be fun! The project guide provides simple and inexpensive, yet fun activities that teach youth about major nutrition concepts, including the daily food choices, importance of breakfast, simple food preparation, food safety, production, and the relationship of diet and fitness.
4 -H volunteer teaching activities must be ready-to-use. This project includes storybooks, flashcards, games and activity sheets needed to conduct nutrition education activities into an easy-to-use format. It was designed to be teacher friendly and takes much of the guesswork out of teaching this subject.
AGE OR GRADE LEVELS
This project was developed for youth ages 5-6. Both group and individual activities encourage participation and action in all aspects of nutrition education. Teachers and volunteers are encouraged to select learning activities that are most suitable to their youth. The overall intent is to facilitate learning and to spark creativity in both teachers and youth.
CONTENTS
The following are components of FUN with FOODS project:
LEADER'S GUIDE - This three-ring notebook contains a complete, easy-to-read outline for lessons. Each lesson provides a variety of activities that can be conducted depending upon the time frame devoted to this project. Each lesson is prefaced with a lesson outline to BACKGROUND BASICS help you focus on the overall concepts and desired outcomes. Each lesson concludes with a discussion questions for youth to REFLECT and APPLY.
FUN with FOODS ACTIVITIES - storybooks, flashcards, puppet cut-outs, and coloring sheets are just a few of the activities found in the leader's guide.
4-H FUN with FOODS WORKBOOK - contains activity sheets for youth that correspond to each lesson. A variety of activities including puzzles, word searches, connect-the-dots, and other instructional activities make up this fun booklet.
POSTERS - laminated “Daily Food Choices Pyramid” posters are available in English and Spanish through the County 4-H Office. Originals for making posters are included in the Leader's Guide.
TAKE HOME ACTIVITIES - additional activities designed to involve the entire family on a specific food practice. Activities such as “5-A-Day,” “FIND the FOODS” and others allow youth to investigate their food practices at home. A simple “check-list” of these activities are at the back of the workbook.
LESSON PROFILES
A brief description of the eight FUN with FOODS Lessons:
LESSON 1 - DAILY FOOD CHOICES - The importance of our daily food choices and the number of servings needed daily are the foci of Lesson 1. The effect of our everyday food choices is introduced in the story “On the Right Track” and reinforced with the “Daily Food Choices” Song. Lesson 1 provides a foundation for learning about a healthy diet using the food pyramid that Lessons 2-8 expand upon.
LESSON 2 - VARIETY COUNTS! - Variety as the key to healthy eating is the theme of Lesson 2. A simulated experience of “Making Lunch” and the Food Variety Clown game are fun, hands-on experiences for youth to discover the process of choosing a variety of foods for their diet. “Wise Snacking” allows youth to test their snack selections for variety!
LESSON 3 - BREAKFAST - Breakfast provides our bodies with “Energy Foods” to start our day. Children can discover that any food can be a “breakfast food” in the activities. Making a simple breakfast provides them with firsthand skills in meal preparation.
LESSON 4 - FOOD PRODUCTION - Understanding where our food supply comes from and identifying individual food sources is important. Lesson 4 provides active experiences for children to identify and discover the basic food sources.
LESSON 5 - TRADITIONS AND FOOD - Tradition often comes from a family's cultural heritage. Discovering more about traditions and foods within a child's family is the first step to understanding and accepting cultural differences. Family celebrations of birthdays and holidays are their first “discoveries” in Lesson 6.
LESSON 6 - PREPARING FOOD - Practicing kitchen safety while preparing simple snacks introduces children to the danger spots in the kitchen. Eating the results is always the highlight of food preparation but practicing “mealtime manners” is also very important! Children are introduced to actions that make mealtime pleasant for everyone!
LESSON 7 - DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY & FITNESS - Good health includes getting regular exercise in addition to eating right. Children cannot be fit if they sit, sit, sit. Lesson 7 introduces the relationship between food, fitness and physical activity.
LESSON 8 - FOOD SAFETY - There are many things we can do to food to make it safe or unsafe to eat. Cleanliness and food storage are the basic topics that children can “experience” in activities included in this lesson.
Instructional Materials Needed for Learning Activities
Crayons, scissors, tape, glue and paper should all be part of the instructor's permanent Preschool Kit. Old magazines or other sources of food pictures are also important resources.
Some activities require pasting/gluing. A recipe for past is found on page 8. Page 8 also has a recipe for homemade playdough. Playdough can be used to make food shapes, or used with cookie cutters, etc. It can be a great activity for any age child.
The following list provides you with a quick summary of all the supplies needed to conduct the multiple activities in the lessons. Specific requirements for each activity are listed within each lesson.
For all Lessons:
crayons/markers
blunt scissors
tape
glue sticks
Other Items by Lesson:
Lesson 1:
basket/bowl/box food cutouts
stick or pole, string, magnets
Lesson 2:
paper plates, food models/pictures
newsprint/poster board
napkins
snack foods, Activity 4
Lesson 3:
finger paints
brown paper
ingredients for cheese toast
toaster oven
Lesson 4:
pictures of foods
basket/box
four coffee cans
Lesson 5:
paints
brown paper
push pins or tape
Lesson 6:
ingredients & equipment for peanut balls
ingredients & equipment for fruit crush
Lesson 7:
chalk/masking tape
newsprint for scoresheet
watch with second hand
pencils
brown paper
Lesson 8:
paper (8 ½ x 11)
pencil
2 popsicle sticks
basin, water, soap, towel
food pictures
A portable hook board would be a useful addition to the instructor's materials. This can be made from a sturdy 8 ½ x 11 inch piece of cardboard or wood. Place four cuphooks on the wood or four stick-um picture hangers on the cardboard. This size would be easy to carry, although it could be made larger. Pictures to be used on the hookboard should have a hold punched in them. Food models, or reinforced magazine pictures may be used. The hookboard can be used in any lesson for a child to select food by color, textures, food groups, sugar content, likes and dislikes, etc.
Additional things to do...
Make Playdough
2 Cups Water
½ Cup Salt
2 Tbsp. Alum
2 Tbsp. Oil
2 Cups Flour
Food coloring
Boil water, then add salt and food coloring (if you want more than one color, add food coloring after playdough is all done). Stir until salt dissolves. Remove from heat and add alum and oil; stir. Add flour and mix thoroughly. Cool and then knead for five minutes or until smooth and lump free. If too sticky, add more flour. If too dry, add a small amount of water. Keep in plastic, airtight container.
Make Paste
2 Parts Flour
1 Part Water
Mix Together
Lesson Materials Available in County Teaching Kits
The following materials are available for loan through the County Cooperative Extension 4-H Program.
Contact ________________ at (___)___________ to reserve the kits for your use.
Lesson 1:
ON THE RIGHT TRACK Storybook
FISHING FOR DAILY FOOD CHOICES game set
COMPLETE THE FOOD PYRAMID Blank Poster
Food Pyramid Poster
Sample Set of FINGER PUPPETS
“Daily Food Choices” Large Song Sheets
Lesson 2:
EACH DAY I NEED .... Storybook
Food Pyramid Blank Poster
Lesson 3:
THE LITTLE ENGINE WHO COULDN T Storybook
Food Pyramid Blank Poster
Lesson 4:
WHERE DO GROCERIES GROW? Flashcards
Food Pictures
FOOD FROM FARM TO TABLE Large Song Sheets
Lesson 5:
Lesson 6:
Happy & Unhappy Posters
THE SQUARE THAT LIKED TO BE MESSY sample
Lesson 7:
WE ARE BREADS & CEREALS Flashcads
“Things To Grow” Large Song Sheets
Lesson 8:
Sample of HAND PUPPETS
HANDWASHING STEPS Poster
“Clean Hands” Large Song Sheets
Sample of STORE IT RIGHT!
The Experiential Process... Steps and Techniques
The 4-H Program has a long history of providing for a cooperative teaching-learning process between adults and youth. The activities in each "Adventure," or project lesson, strive to involve young people in experiences that require them to interact, analyze, question, reflect and transfer what they have learned to personal application. The activity comes first, the "learning" comes from the "discovery" of new knowledge and skills as a result of the experience. This is the 4-H "learn-by-doing" process. However, to end with the experience without building upon it through REFLECTING and APPLYING does not help the young person understand the significance of what he/she saw, heard, or did. It is the transfer of this significance from one experience to another that helps young people apply their "learning" in future situations.
DO Each "Adventure" or lesson topic identifies the activity or series of activities to DO involving youth in a common EXPERIENCE.
REFLECT At the conclusion of the activity(ies), allow time for the youth to REFLECT (share and process) what they learned from the experience. Each lesson guide outlines some key questions to assist you in this process.
APPLY Help youth to APPLY their new knowledge and skill to real life situations. You can do this by helping them to identify key principles that are important for future decisions or personal action. Again, each lesson has outlined a few questions to direct this process.
Steps
This model illustrates the cooperative teaching-learning process that is the goal of 4-H curricula. A further description of the steps in the process may be helpful as you become an active participant in Energy Encounters.
Experience - Begin with concrete experience. This can be an individual activity or a group experience, but it involves "doing something." The learning experience will most likely take place when the experience is unfamiliar or a first-time activity for the learner; pushes the learner beyond any previous performance levels; is uncomfortable; and includes the risk of failure.
Share - Next, get the participant(s) to talk about the experience. Share reactions and observations. Let the group talk freely. Acknowledge ideas; listing them visually is helpful. Allow time for volunteers to share responses. Encourage group members to answer questions posed by others. Avoid having the leader answer questions.
Process - Discuss how themes, problems and issues are brought out by the exercise. Speak to specific problems and issues that the group discovers from the exercise or recalls from personal experiences. Look for recurring themes and write them on the newsprint. Have small groups discuss and report back, have a panel discussion, or generate ideas individually on 3" x 5" cards.
Generalize - Find general trends or common truths in the experience. Draw out and identify the principles that are important - that apply to "real life," not just the activity. This focuses on the key messages. List key terms that capture the lessons. Identify situations where the principles apply.
Apply - Concentrate on how the new learning can be applied to everyday situations. Discuss how issues raised by this activity can be useful in the future. Describe how more effective behaviors can grow out of what is learned. Write personal goals for behavior changes, take turns solving problem situations in groups of two or three, or role-play situations that show how new behavior is learned. Each individual should feel a sense of ownership for what is learned.
Experiential Learning Model
Techniques
DO....Use a Variety of Activities
Tips for “NUTRITION EXPERIENCES” for PRESCHOOLERS
When teaching “nutrition” to preschoolers, keep it simple. They can learn that food comes from animals, plants, and trees, that food have different jobs to do within the body, and that foods have many textures, shapes, colors, and smells. This is the first step to later nutrition lessons.
Simple questions at mealtime about shapes, colors, and texture help the child learn new meanings.
As children learn colors, they can identify green in green beans, lettuce, peas, broccoli, grapes, and many other fruits and vegetables. In the same way, children can discover many other colors. Ask, what color is the tomato? What other foods can you name that are red? They can discover that some foods are one color on the outside and another color on the inside (melons, apples, eggs). The child can name colors on packages or help make decisions when asked to pick a green vegetable for a meal.
Children can learn about shapes-square, round, oblong, and long. Round foods are coconuts, tomatoes, oranges, grapefruit, carrot circles, and melons. Some oblong foods are lemons, watermelons, and eggs. Green beans are long and skinny. Many slices of bread are square. Ask the child to describe the shapes of the foods.
Children's fingers can sense the rough surface of coconuts or oranges; the smooth egg shell or apple skin; the different textures of cereals and pasta before and after cooking.
Heat and cold change the texture and form of food. Children can put water in the freezer to discover that it freezes to ice in very cold temperatures.
While children are learning how foods feel, they can be learning different tastes - most fruits are sweet, but some are sour. Other tastes are salty and bitter.
The smell of bread baking, of baked beans cooking, or food burning may be familiar aromas. Children can often guess what is for dinner by the smell of food cooking.
Familiar sounds associated with food are fat spitting in the frying pan, popcorn popping, water boiling, or the crunchy noise when chewing raw celery, carrots, or crackers.
As children learn to identify colors, shapes, and textures of fruits and vegetables, they can compare garden foods and packaged foods - fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato juice, tomato catsup, and tomatoes in soups, stews and other dishes. In the grocery store, the kitchen, or the garden the child can begin to distinguish quality by looking for bruised or wilted spots on vegetables and fruits, dented cans or bulging cans, frozen foods that are soft, or packages that are broken.
Reading stories to children introduces ideas about people-how they live, what they eat, where food comes from, and simple concepts about growth and energy.
Children love to tell stories and to talk about what is happening around them. Use story books, magazine pictures, or snapshots to have the child tell what about the people in the picture - who are they? How old are they? What are they doing? How do they spend their day? Ask the child to name foods that various people in the pictures might eat. They may realize that babies and children need more milk than grownups; and that all age groups need the same kinds of foods.
Picture recipes are useful for four-or-five year-olds who are developing pouring and measuring skills. Illustrate amounts by drawing measuring cups and spoons with marks to show how full to fill them. Children can follow the pictures to collect the ingredients and to figure out how much to use to prepare the recipe.
Reflect and Apply.... Develop Questions to Ask
The types of questions asked will vary with the activity, some questions may relate to the content but must go beyond it. If a specific life skill is to be enhanced, then the youth should have the opportunity to become as involved with understanding the life skill as understanding the subject related skill. Questions to help move in this direction may be as straightforward as these examples:
Sharing Questions
What did you do?
What happened?
How did you feel?
How did it feel to...?
What was most difficult? Easiest?
Processing Questions (Use data generated from sharing questions)
What problems or issues seemed to occur over and over?
What similar experiences have you had?
Generalizing Questions
What did you learn about yourself through this activity?
What did you learn about (life skill, i.e., making decisions)?
How do the major themes or ideas relate to real life and not just the activity?
How did you go about making your decision?
Applying Questions
How can you apply what you learned ( making decisions) to a new situation?
How will the issues raised by this activity be useful in the future?
How will you act differently in the future as a result of this activity?
Each of these general questions could be enhanced by adding specific language referring to the experience in a particular project.
About Working with Preschoolers....
TIPS FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN WORKING TOGETHER
Children need to feel that they are important and have something worthwhile to give to the family. If a child feel good about him/herself then s/he wil be more helpful, easier to get along with, and happier.
Try giving a child “positive” attention when s/he has done something that you like (i.e. say thanks and/or give a hug). Positive attention can help a child feel good about him/herself and prevent him/her from trying to get your attention in “negative” ways (i.e. whining or having a temper tantrum).
Children like to be praised. If you praise a child when s/he helps you s/he is more likely to want to help again.
Let the child do as much as possible by him/herself. Children learn faster by doing it themselves than watching or listening to an adult.
Be nearby to offer assistance. Failure is frustrating and can be avoided by an observant adult.
Talk to the child about decisions they've made, what they think, how they feel. For example, “Where do you think apples come from?” What kind of sound do you make when you eat a carrot?,” “What did you make on your mealtime picture?”
Be a good role model so the child will copy your manners, behavior, and what you eat. If it's good for them, it's good for adults, too.
Allow a child to make decisions whenever possible. “Should we have peaches or pears for dinner tonight?” Never allow a child to make a choice if it's not going to be carried through.
Use a child's natural curiosity for learning activities. When a child asks “What's that?,” explain.
Have realistic expectations for each child (a 2 year old can't color like a 4 year old and all 4 year olds don't color the same).
Learning can occur through “play activities,” such as pretending to cook for dinner, feed the doll, etc.
Children are open, flexible, and eager to learn. Every aspect of life is an adventure for a preschooler.
Footnotes
This document, is 4H FNL 20 of the Florida 4-H Youth Development Program, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Reviewed January 2009.
Linda D. Cook, associate professor and FNEP coordinator, M. Joy Jordan, associate professor and 4-H youth development curriculum specialist, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal
Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational
information and other services only to individuals and institutions
that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed,
color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital
status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations.
For more information on obtaining other extension publications,
contact your county Cooperative Extension service.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service,
University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative
Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy,
Interim Dean.
