Munch & Move

Hi I'm Melinda and I'm the director of

Fit Kidz Learning Centers at Vineyard.

Last year we decided as our team that

how we were implementing Much and Move

could be improved, so we worked together

to come out with strategies of how we

can do this and get our families

involved. We decided that we'd introduce

Munch and Move as a part of our daily

routine, and to make sure that all

children were given the opportunity to

grasp these movement concepts and

explore the foods that we were

introducing, we wanted to have this focus

for a whole month. We also sent home

information to families so they can

implement it at home as well. We've seen

really great changes through the

children as a result of this, and the

feedback we've received from families

has been really positive. Our children

are now wanting and asking for fruits

and vegetables that they’d refused to eat

previously. Our families are loving the

changes in the children that they're

seeing at home as well, especially in

regards to trying new foods. Empowering

children to make healthy food choices

lays the foundation for the choices

they'll make later in life. Providing

children with nutritious meals also

assists with children's behaviour and

concentration, which allows them to gain

the most out of the day. Encouraging

children to independently make healthy

food choices is essential, and we

encourage this every day, to allowing

children to serve their own lunch. They

harvest from our garden, they collect

eggs from our chicken, and not only does

our wonderful chef Ryan make delicious

and healthy meals for our children, but

also do cooking and food preparation. Hi

my name is Miss Tina and I’m the room

assistant in the preschool room.

Throughout the year

we explore different fruits and

vegetables, so each month we focus on

a different fruit or vegetable. So this

month we are focusing on apples. With the

apples we explore different types of

apples and we also encourage the

children to try and taste each apple as

well. So with garden club we incorporate

lots of different fruits and veggies

throughout the year, doing various

activities, so we incorporate gardening

cooking games and craft. With our

gardening we like to incorporate

different fruits and veggies so they see

the different types of seeds, and they

also get to experience planting the

seeds, watering them and talking about

how we keep them nice and healthy. We

also do cooking experience as well with

the children, so we might be learning

about zucchinis that

week, that month. So with the zucchinis we

make zucchini slice, or we might make a

zucchini pasta. With games we might do a

game of memory, we might be matching the

different types of fruit and veg. So we

might have a poster of a whole different,

a whole lot of fruit and vegetables. We

might match the cucumber or ask the

children, can you see the capsicum. So we

also do cooking in our garden club. When

we are cooking we like to get the

children with their hands on. So they

might be making zucchini muffins or they

might be making carrot cake but we also

let the children mix it, grade it, help

them get involved in the actual

experience. So once a week we also

encourage the children to come out and

harvest with us. They might choose to

harvest a lettuce, they might choose to

harvest celery or they might even want to

harvest different types of herbs. Kids

get very curious and want to know

exactly what they're harvesting, so

letting them know that they've got

little signs in front to say what they

are actually harvesting and what they're

collecting to bring into the kitchen.

Encouraging children to make healthy

lifestyle choices from an early age is

fundamental in shaping their choices in

the future.