- Created 5/27/03
- Approved by Policy Council: July 10, 2003
Policy
Staff will provide children with opportunities to learn and practice the importance of physical activity and good nutrition.
Procedure
Staff will engage children in enjoyable physical activity that is moderate to vigorous intensity in order to improve the health of children.
To promote physical activity, staff will:
- Model healthy physical activities.
- Provide outdoor playtime in the part-day program for 30 minutes and for school-day provide 60 minutes per class day.
- Provide children toys that encourage physical activity like balls, trikes, hula hoops, jump ropes and other materials.
- Encourage children to try new physical activities;
- Plan and provide indoor physical activities at least daily. Activities may include dancing, yoga, balancing or other fitness building activities;
- Limit or avoid screen time. Televisions are not used during classroom hours unless specifically related to the curriculum. Videos that promote physical activity are allowed.
- Provide resources to families about physical fitness and healthy nutrition for young children.
Physical Activity Definitions
- Moderate physical activity: movement that increases heart rate and breathing like walking, playing on play equipment, swinging, or climbing.
- Vigorous physical activity: movement that uses large muscle groups, causes rapid breathing and increases heart rate like running, hopping, galloping, jumping, dancing, or skipping.
Two Kinds of Physical Activity
- Structured: Organized, quick, and intense activities led by adults.
- Unstructured: Free play to stimulate creativity and use the imagination; activities
led by
children.
Teacher will add physical activities to lesson plans. For example: outdoor times,
transitions, group times,
small group times and learning center times.
Examples of this:
- Have children act out a story as you read it
- Encourage children to move like different animals during transitions from one activity or room to another. For example: "hop like grasshopper", "jump like a cat", "fly like a butterfly".
- Use props to help children move and identify shapes, colors, and numbers
- Mix up the usual ‘hokey pokey’ and ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’ with a dance party or obstacle course
Nutrition
To promote good nutrition and healthy eating, staff will:
- Serve nutritious, well-balanced meals daily (refer to NUTRI 3a and NUTRI 3a 1):
- Encourage families to bring healthy snacks for classroom celebrations as an alternative to sugary treats;
- Model healthy eating practices during meal times;
- Talk about good food choices and how food can fuel the body for optimum growth;
- Include cooking and nutrition activities in the classroom curriculum.
- EHS-Provide food that children are developmentally and physically able to chew and swallow, as determined by the parent and/or caregiver.
- Other Strategies to Consider:
- Seat children with different food preferences next to one another so they are exposed to peers enjoying a range of healthy choices.
- Create and maintain a mealtime routine—and allow children to help.
- Make a point of having at least one meaningful interaction with each child during every mealtime.
- Listen to children when they say they are full. Young children will eat the amount they need. Toddlers have a strong sense of hunger, appetite, and fullness, so they are likely to stop eating when they are full rather than when the food is gone. And, children's appetites can vary ‐ sometimes they won't eat much and other times they will want seconds
- Offer opportunities for children to share foods they like and dislike through graphing, webs, and drawing, etc.
- Provide sensory experiences of food-taste, smell, touch, texture.