Staff Development Kit (SDK) modules

This kit is designed to help staff in Early Childhood Education and Care services (ECECs) build their knowledge of the Munch & Move program and how to implement it in their service, as well as the healthy eating and physical activity needs of children.

SDK: program overview

29:44

Module 1: Program overview

Read transcript
Video transcript

Module 1: Program overview

Hello everyone, welcome to the Munch and
Move Staff Development Kit. The Munch and
Move Staff Development Kit is a seven
module training tool designed to upskill
your colleagues at your early childhood
education and care service in the Munch
and Move program. There is one training
module for each of the six Munch and
Move key messages, highlighted in the
poster on this slide. It is important
that you start with this module, program
overview, to help your service understand
what the Munch and Move program is, why
we need Munch and Move and why we need
your assistance with embedding Munch and
Move into New South Wales early
childhood education and care services.
Upon completing module one program
overview, you can decide which order you
will then choose to complete the other
six training modules to best meet the
Munch and Move training needs of your
service. Each of the seven training
modules of the Munch and Move Staff
Development Kit follow the same
structure. Related statistics or research,
this is a great way to get our minds
thinking about current practices.
Information about the specific module,
including a green activity box with a
short discussion or brainstorming
activity for your team to undertake. A
reflective practice task, and Munch and
Move resources that your early childhood
education and care service can access to
assist with embedding the Munch and Move
program into your setting. Each module
will run for approximately 20 minutes,
with extra time perhaps being spent on
the reflective practice task or the
viewing of related Munch and Move
resources on the Healthy Kids website. At
the end of each module please fill in
the record of completion to ensure that
you have formally documented your
serviceís participation in the Munch and
Move Staff Development Kit. Now that we
understand how the Munch and Move Staff
Development Kit works, itís
time to start our Munch and Move journey.
Munch and Move is a New South Wales
Ministry of Health Program. New South
Wales Health places a high priority on
promoting healthy eating and active
lifestyles, and preventing children from
becoming overweight or obese, and as a
result has developed the Munch and Move
Program. Munch and Move is a fun, play-based
program that promotes children's healthy
eating and active play, and limits
small screen recreation. The Munch and
Move program aims to support early
childhood education and care services
and their educators to promote healthy
eating and physical activity for
children birth to five years of age,
increase the healthy eating
opportunities provided to children,
including increasing the number of
healthy eating related learning
experiences that children participate in,
increase the amount of physical activity
that children engage in, with a
particular focus on developing
children's fundamental movement skills,
and the program also aims to reduce
small screen time; time spent watching TV
and DVDs, playing computer games and
using handheld devices at both the
service and at home. The great thing
about the aims of the Munch and Move
program is they acknowledge that
educators are already undertaking many
positive practices to encourage
children's healthy eating and physical
activity within their early childhood
education and care services, and the idea
is to build on these current practices
and to inspire and support educators to
continuously move forward with promoting
children's healthy eating and physical
activity using the Munch and Move
program as a framework.
To help early childhood education and
care services achieve the aims of the
Munch and Move program, Munch and Move is
based on six key messages: ëencourage and
support breastfeedingí, ëchoose water as a
drinkí, ëeat more fruit and vegetablesí,
ëchoose healthier snacksí, ëget active each
dayí, ëturn off the screen and get activeí.
Importantly these six key messages
provide the focus for early childhood
education and care services when
embedding the Munch and Move program into
the service, and promoting children's
healthy eating and physical activity.
Throughout the next six modules of the
Munch and Move Staff Development Kit, weíll
be exploring how these key messages can
be fostered and embedded into your Early
childhood education and care setting.
It's now time to share our first
statistics. As I mentioned earlier,
statistics are a great way to get us
thinking about current practices. One in
five Australian preschool age children
are overweight or obese, and one in five
New South Wales children are overweight
or obese at the time they start
kindergarten. I'm sure some of you may be
surprised by these statistics, but I'm
also sure that some of you may expect
these statistics. Studies also show that
obese children have a 25 to
50 percent chance of progression to
adult obesity. Obese children are at an
increased risk of developing the
precursors to cardiovascular disease,
including high blood pressure and
elevated cholesterol levels, and there's
also been a rise in type 2 diabetes in
Australian children. Although there's a
strong genetic predisposition to type 2
diabetes the risk is greatly increased
when associated with lifestyle factors
such as insufficient physical activity
and poor diet. I just want to mention
that although these statistics highlight
overweight and obesity, the Munch and
Move program does not focus on these.
Many children may not be overweight or
obese but have poor eating habits and
lead sedentary lifestyles, so what's
changed? We didn't have these statistics
when we were young children.
On the slide now are just some of the
reasons why these statistics now exist.
This list is by no means exhaustive. As
we know, lots of factors have contributed
to this high number of children being
overweight or obese, including poor food
choices and lack of physical activity.
You may agree that we now live in a
fast-paced, complex world. Well, just like
the picture on the slide suggests, the
merry-go-round of life is going too fast.
We need to slow it down and get back to
some basics.
Well everyone, don't despair. The young
boy at the top of the slide is smiling
for a reason. The great news is that
research tells us that healthy habits
start early because the key risk factors
for poor eating habits and sedentary
behaviours can be modified from a young
age through positive, health promoting
key messages and strategies, and that's
what Munch and Move is all about: six
positive health promoting key messages.
Research also tells us that children who
develop these healthy eating and
physical activity lifestyle habits from
a young age are more likely to continue
these habits into adulthood, and this is
exactly what we want to happen: ongoing
health and wellbeing.
So why is it so important that children
develop healthy lifestyle habits? What
are the benefits? This is your first
green activity box. Please follow the
directions in the box and take two
minutes to discuss the benefits for
children of developing healthy eating
and physical activity habits before
continuing on to the next slide. You may
like to press pause while you undertake
this activity together. Thanks everyone,
it's now time to come back together. In
your discussion you may have considered
some of the points listed on the slide.
You may like to press pause to discuss
these points. There are so many positive
benefits for children that eating
healthy and being physically active
provide. It's important that services
understand the benefits of healthy
eating and physical activity, so we
understand why it's so essential to
embed the Munch and Move program into
the early childhood education and care
setting. Early childhood education and
care services have an important role to
play in promoting healthy eating and
physical activity to children. As we know,
many children attend early childhood
education and care services from a young
age.
In fact the Australian Bureau of
Statistics identified that 268,600
children attended long day care
preschool and Family Day Care in New
South Wales in the week that they
collated and collected these statistics.
That's a lot of children and families. So
your early childhood education and care
service is the perfect place to promote
appropriate healthy eating and physical
activity habits to children and their
families, at a crucial stage in a child's
development
when habits can be modified and
developed, and we are making small steps
in the right direction,
as you can see indicated by the 4.5
percent drop from 2012 to
2016 in the percentage
of New South Wales children aged 5 to 16
who are overweight or obese. And by
promoting and supporting children's
healthy eating and physical activity,
early childhood education and care
services are not only meeting New South
Wales Health recommendations for the
Munch and Move program, but importantly
meeting early childhood education and care
services law, regulations, standards and
guidelines, which weíll now be exploring
in more detail. As mentioned previously,
embedding the Munch and Move program
into early childhood education and care
services will assist services in meeting
early childhood education and care law,
regulations, standards and guidelines; our
sector's National Quality Framework. Let
me use this diagram on the slide to
explain how. Early childhood education
and care services have a National
Quality Framework to abide by as well as
the Education and Care Services National
Law and Regulations. Flowing from the
National Quality Framework and its law
and regulations, we have the National
Quality Standard, which Munch and Move
assists services to meet the
requirements of, which in turn supports
the Healthy Eating Guidelines and
Physical Activity Recommendations within
Get Up and Grow, and the documents that
inform these guidelines and
recommendations. Also flowing from the
National Quality Standard is the Early
Years Learning Framework, which Munch and
Move supports the Practices, Principles
and Learning Outcomes of. Over the next
slides we will now explore the different
components of this diagram in more
detail.
Let's focus first on the links between
Munch and Move and the National Quality
Standard. Munch and Move supports all seven
Quality Areas of the National Quality
Standard, but most directly supports
Quality Area 2 Children's Health and
Safety, because flowing from Quality Area
2, as shown in the blue shaded boxes on
the left of the slide, Munch and Move will
assist your early childhood education
and care service in meeting the
requirements of Standard 2.1 Health, each
child's health and physical activity is
supported and promoted, and its related
Element, Element 2.1.3
Healthy Lifestyle, healthy eating and
physical activity are promoted and
appropriate for each child. Embedding the
Munch and Move program into service
operations is the perfect way to ensure
each child's health and physical
activity is supported and promoted. We
will explore this in more detail
together in later slides. Please look out
for these blue shaded boxes throughout
the Staff Development Kit as they
highlight possible links between Munch
and Move and the National Quality
Standard.
Munch and Move also supports all five of
the Early Years Learning Framework
Learning Outcomes, but as shown in the
red shaded box on the slide, it is
Learning Outcome 3, children have a
strong sense of wellbeing, that Munch
and Move has its strongest links with,
because through embedding Munch and
Move into your early childhood education
and care service, children will take
increasing responsibility for their own
health and physical wellbeing.
Munch and Move also reflects many
practices from the Early Years Learning
Framework, including play based learning.
Remember earlier in this module I shared
that Munch and Moves is a fun, play-based
program. We all understand that play
provides the best vehicle for young
children's learning.
Munch and Move also reflects the Early
Years Learning Framework practices of
intentional teaching and scaffolding. As
educators we need to intentionally plan
and implement with the children, healthy
eating and physical activity learning
experiences that scaffold their learning.
For example, intentionally teaching a
favourite song with more movement added,
as simple as that.
Again please look out for these red
shaded boxes throughout the Staff
Development Kit, as they highlight
possible links between Munch and Move
and the Early Years Learning Framework.
As noted on the slide let's now focus on
the documents that flow from the
National Quality Standard and inform the
Munch and Move program.
Get Up and Grow is a Commonwealth
Government document referred to in
Standard 2.1 Health of the National
Quality Standard, that provides Healthy
Eating Guidelines and Physical Activity
Recommendations for early childhood
settings. Importantly these Healthy
Eating Guidelines and Physical Activity
Recommendations inform the Munch and
Move key messages. Please look out for
the orange outline boxes throughout the
Staff Development Kit, demonstrating how
these guidelines and recommendations are
embedded in the Munch and Move program.
Listed on the slide now are the ten
Healthy Eating Guidelines. You may like
to press pause while you look through
these together. And listed on this slide
are the five Physical Activity
Recommendations. We will be exploring the
ten Healthy Eating Guidelines and five
Physical Activity Recommendations as we
go through the key message modules. The
Australian Government Department of
Health have developed the Australian
24-hour Movement Guidelines for the
Early Years, Birth to 5 Years. This
builds on the Get Up and Grow
recommendations and we'll be exploring
these throughout module three and four.
The Australian Dietary Guidelines are
referred to in the National Quality
Standardís Standard 2.1 Health,
specifically Element 2.1.3
Healthy Lifestyle, as shown in the
blue shaded boxes on the slide, where
there is also a reference to Get Up and
Grow. Also, as you can see in the orange
outline box on the slide, the Australian
Dietary Guidelines are referred to in
the Healthy Eating Guidelines. Shown on
the left of the slide is the Australian
Guide to Healthy Eating model, often
referred to as the healthy food plate. It
is based on the Australian Dietary
Guidelines and provides a basis for
healthy eating. The healthy food plate
shows the proportions of foods that
should be consumed each day from each of
the basic food groups. These foods are
positioned on the plate because they are
everyday foods that should make up the
majority of our daily food intake. It is
also recommended that we choose water as
a drink. The foods positioned outside the
plate in the bottom left-hand corner, we
are reminded to use only small amounts
of. The foods positioned outside the
plate in the bottom right-hand corner
are regarded as sometimes foods, as they
are lacking in nutritional value and are
not essential to provide the nutrients
our bodies need, and should only be
consumed sometimes and in small amounts.
The Australian Dietary Guidelines and
the healthy food plate inform the Munch
key messages.
Another resource that informs us about
healthy eating for children and guides
the Munch key messages is Caring for
Children Birth to 5 Years. This
resource reflects the infant feeding
guidelines of 2012 and the Australian
Dietary Guidelines of 2013, and also has
the Munch and Move program embedded.
Caring for Children Birth to 5 Years
includes menu planning and lunchbox
checklists, sample menus, recipes and
suggested learning experiences, making it
a valuable resource for your service, and
can be found via the Healthy Kids
Website. Now that we've discovered how
the Munch and Move program aligns with
and supports our sectorís National
Quality Framework, it's time to explore
what embedding Munch and Move into your
early childhood education and care
service actually means. When it comes to
embedding Munch and Move into your service
there are three key areas to focus upon:
everyday curriculum, role modelling and
families, which we'll explore in more
detail over the next slides. These three
key areas will ensure any Munch and Move
changes are sustainable and a whole of
service approach to Munch and Move.
Remember, embedding Munch and Move into
your early childhood education and care
service will help meet the requirements
of National Quality Standard, Standard
2.1 Health, each child's health and
physical activity is supported and
promoted. And importantly the Munch and
Move program is not a one-size-fits-all
program, so embedding Munch and Move must
reflect your serviceís children, families
staff, available resources and local
community.
Let's start with the everyday curriculum.
Munch and Move is not a program that sits
out on its own and only happens Tuesday
morning and Thursday afternoon, for
example. That's not embedding. Munch and
Move is for all children. ëEmbedí means
consistently, constantly. The idea is to
embed the Munch and Move key messages into
your early childhood education and care
serviceís every day curriculum so it
becomes part of everyday practices, and
as stated in the Early Years Learning
Framework red shaded box on the slide,
curriculum encompasses all the
interactions, experiences, routines and
events, planned and unplanned, that occur
in an environment designed to foster
children's learning and development. The
Munch and Move program resources provide
many ideas to assist services with
embedding Munch and Move into the everyday
curriculum, including ideas for play-
based healthy eating and physically
active learning experiences that
educators can use to intentionally plan
and teach Munch and Move related
learning experiences. Importantly, all
suggested Munch and Move learning
experiences within the Munch and Move
resources can easily be adapted to meet
the identity, interests and abilities of
the children, as the educators scaffold
the children's learning from the known
to the unknown. Educators need to be
aware of the spontaneous teachable
moments to promote Munch and Move, and
importantly when undertaking Munch and
Move learning experiences with the
children, educators must remember to link
discussions back to the program key
messages. For example, your service has a
vegetable garden which the children
created with you and you've
intentionally planned a Munch learning
experience to plant some vegetables,
which the children have shown a
curiosity about, for example spinach and
lettuce. While undertaking this learning
experience you link the conversation to
the Munch and Move key message, ëeat more
fruit and vegetablesí. Simple, and later in
the day it starts to rain, and you use
this spontaneous opportunity to make
links to the vegetable garden needing
water to drink, the same as we need water
to drink, linking to the Munch and Move key
message of ëchoose water as a drinkí. The
photos on the slide provide examples of
how the Munch and Move key messages can
simply but intentionally be embedded in
the program for children. Secondly, role
modelling. Role modelling is so powerful
and we know that children learn through
role modelling, and while the children are
in your early childhood education and
care service you are their role model
for healthy eating and physical activity,
and you're also role modelling to your
colleagues, families and anyone who
enters your service. The photos on the
slide are demonstrating role modelling in
action. You can encourage healthy habits
by practicing them yourself. You will see
in the blue shaded boxes on the slide
strong links between role modelling and
Element 2.1.3 Healthy Lifestyle.
Remember it's not just what you do that
counts but the way you say it and the
attitude that goes with it. Last but not
least, families. Families are the third
key area to focus upon when embedding
Munch and Move into your early childhood
education and care Service, and
supporting and promoting each child's
health and physical activity. Families
are the first teachers of their children
so it's important that we develop secure,
respectful and reciprocal relationships,
not only with the children in our care,
but also with their families. Early
childhood education and care services
need to work closely with families, so
they understand what the service is
trying to promote and achieve through
Munch and Move, and importantly why. This
is being respectful. If you understand
the reasoning behind something you are
much more likely to join in and
participate. The Early Years Learning
Framework Principle of Partnership
states it beautifully: learning outcomes
are most likely to be achieved when
early childhood educators
work in partnership with families.
So services need to establish true
partnerships with families about the
Munch and Move program. This way we can
hopefully encourage families to also
model the same messages and behaviours at
home. As we go through each of the Staff
Development Kit key message training
modules, we need to be mindful of how we
can communicate with families, involve
them as much as possible and support
them to change behaviours and practices
at home. For example, invite families to
participate in policy development and
review, invite families to participate in
Munch and Move activities, invite
families to share healthy recipes or
sports. Be excited and passionate about
Munch and Move. Excitement and passion is
infectious.
These are just some examples of how a
service can share Munch and Move with
families. Simple yet effective, it's all
embedding Munch and Move into the early
childhood education and care service, and
supporting and promoting each child's
health and physical activity. Be inspired.
For example, you could hold a healthy
eating and active play family
information session, using the resource
including handouts and presentation, on
the Healthy Kids Website. Also as you can
see on the slide there are many related
links to the National Quality Standard.
Throughout embedding Munch and Move into
your early childhood education and care
Service, just a reminder that at all
times we need to consider safety and
abide by all National Quality Framework
Requirements, some of which are included
on this slide. You may like to press
pause to look at these a little more
closely. At the conclusion of each key
message module we'll be undertaking a
reflective practice task. We know that
one of the Early Years Learning
Framework Principles is ongoing learning
and reflective practice. We need to look
Back, reflect so we can move forward with
what we've learned through our
reflection. That's why it's important to
honestly and critically reflect upon
what does healthy eating and physical
activity look like right now in everyday
practices in your early childhood
education and care service. These
reflections will give your service a
starting point for embedding the Munch and
Move program, and promote related
professional conversations, or if you
already have Munch and Move at your
Service, a starting point to reinvigorate
and keep moving forward with the Munch and
Move program. Once you have completed
your reflective practice task for each
of the key message training modules, you
can then transfer any identified areas
of improvement onto your serviceís
quality improvement plan, especially for
National Quality Standard, Standard 2.1
Health, and its related Element 2.1.3
Healthy Lifestyle. An action plan
template has been developed to help
services identify and plan the steps
involved in embedding the Munch and Move
key messages, and can be found with the
Staff Development Kit on the Healthy
Kids Website for your reference.
The Munch and Move program has many
fabulous resources that you can access
and use to embed the Munch and Move
program into your early childhood
education and care service. A selection
of these resources are displayed on this
Slide. You will also see the links to the
National Quality Standard exceeding
guidance for Standard 2.1 Health on this
slide. Your service already has a hard
copy of the Munch and Move Resource Manual
Birth to Five Years. There is also a
poster and fact sheets which are a great
way to promote Munch and Move to families,
as well as related brochures, information
sheets, a music CD and fundamental
movement skills cards and lanyards, as
well as the Fun Moves DVD. All Munch and
Move program resources can be downloaded
via the Healthy Kids website. The Healthy
Kids website is the host site for the
Munch and Move program. You'll find the
Healthy Kids web address on the back
cover of the Resource Manual, as well as
on this slide. Well, congratulations
everyone. You have completed module one
program overview. So what happens now?
Firstly, please ensure the record of
completion is finalised for this
training module. Secondly, now that you
have completed module one program
overview, you can select any of the six
key message training modules in the
order that best meets the Munch and Move
training needs of your service. Remember,
there is one training module for each
Munch and Move key message. Please
schedule a date and time to share your
next training module. Until next time,
enjoy Munch and Moving and take care.

SDK: encourage breastfeeding

9:14

Encourage and support breastfeeding module

Read transcript
Video transcript

Encourage and support breastfeeding module

Hello everyone, welcome to the Munch and
Move Staff Development Kit, and welcome
to the Munch key message training module,
Encourage and Support Breastfeeding. If
you are undertaking this training module,
your service has already completed
module one, Program Overview of the Staff
Development Kit. Let's get started with a
statistic on breastfeeding. Only 29% of
infants in New South Wales are
exclusively breastfed until 6 months of
age. There's a direct link between this
key message ‘encourage and support
breastfeeding’ and the Healthy Eating
Guideline in the orange outlined box on
the slide. It tells us, exclusive
breastfeeding is recommended, with
positive support for babies until around
six months. Continued breastfeeding is
recommended for at least 12 months and
longer if the mother and baby wish. It
appears our breastfeeding statistic is
falling well short of this guideline. Is
there scope to increase this statistic
through encouraging and supporting
breastfeeding at your early childhood
education and care service? Remember, even
if you do not have babies at your
service, you still need to encourage and
support breastfeeding for your service
families, for example mothers who are
breastfeeding siblings of the children
attending your service. Let's find out
more about this key message and discover
what it means for your service.
Research tells us that breastfeeding
provides both immediate and long-term
health benefits for both the mother and
her infant. To be able to encourage and
support breastfeeding at your early
childhood education and care service,
it's important that you understand what
the benefits of breastfeeding are. Please
follow the directions in your green
activity box and take two minutes to
discuss the benefits of breastfeeding
for both mum and her infant. You might
like to press pause while you undertake
this activity together. Thanks everyone,
it's now time to come back together. In
your discussion, you may have considered
some of the points listed on the slide.
You might like to pause the presentation
to discuss these further. There are so
many positive benefits of breastfeeding
for both mum and infant. Understanding
these breastfeeding benefits is the
first step to encouraging and supporting
breastfeeding at your service.
There are many strategies that services
can undertake to become a breastfeeding
friendly service. Firstly, register with
the Australian Breastfeeding
Association’s Breastfeeding Welcome Here
program. Your service could even become
an accredited breastfeeding friendly
workplace. If your service is already a
member of the Breastfeeding Welcome Here
program, where is your breastfeeding
welcome here sticker located, how do you
keep this sticker visible, and how do you
promote that breastfeeding is welcome at
your service? early childhood education
and care services play an important role
in encouraging and supporting mothers
who wish to continue breastfeeding when
their babies come into care. We need to
ensure mothers know that they can
combine work, child care and
breastfeeding. When mothers first
enquire about enrolling their baby at
your service, this is the perfect and
best time to mention that your service
is breastfeeding friendly and able to
support mothers to continue
breastfeeding. Mothers need to know this
well in advance of their baby coming to
the service, so they don't wean their
infant off the breast in the mistaken
belief that the service doesn't support
breastfeeding. Make sure mothers know
that the service provides a quiet,
suitable environment for mums to
breastfeed or express breastmilk. An
example of such a space is on the slide,
with its related link to the National
Quality Standard underneath, and as
required in National Quality Standard
Element 2.1.3 Healthy
Lifestyle in the blue box on the left of
this slide, inform mothers that the
service has policies and procedures in
place to correctly and safely store, heat
and handle expressed breastmilk.
Services also need to provide families
with practical breastfeeding information,
for example, information from the
Australian Breastfeeding Association, and
advice on how to safely store and then
transport expressed breastmilk to the
service. It is also important that
services work with families to develop a
suitable feeding management plan for the
infant, and that this plan is regularly
reviewed. You will find a sample
breastfeeding management plan and
breastfeeding policy in the Munch and
Move resources
on the Healthy Kids website. We
understand for some mothers that
breastfeeding is not possible, and
services need to also welcome and
support these mothers or parents who may
be feeding their babies infant formula.
As stated in the Healthy Eating
Guideline on the slide, if an infant is
not breastfed, is partially breastfed, or
if breastfeeding is discontinued, use an
infant formula until 12 months of
age. From 12 months of age, children can
then be transitioned to full cream cow's
milk if they have no allergies. Detailed
information on preparing infant formula
can be found in section 1 of the Caring
for Children Birth to 5 Years
publication and the Get Up and Grow
resources. As stated in the Healthy
Eating Guideline on the slide, solid
foods can be introduced to infants at
around six months of age. An infant's
first solid food is an important
milestone for the family as well as the
infant, so educators need to work closely
with families as babies transition to
solids, to ensure cultural and family
values are met. There are a number of
reasons why solids are introduced at
around six months of age, related to
developmental milestones as listed in
the green box on the slide. Also be aware
that when it comes to introducing solids
the Commonwealth Government's Infant
Feeding Guidelines summary in the dark
blue box on the slide now states that
foods can be introduced in any order,
provided iron-rich nutritious foods are
the first foods and the texture is
suitable for the infant’s stage of
development. Cow's milk products
including full fat yogurt, cheese and
custard may be given, but not cow's milk
as a main drink before 12 months.
Now that we've shared the Encourage and
Support Breastfeeding key message module,
please take five minutes to begin the
reflective practice task on the slide,
using the hard copy version of this
document. You may like to press pause
while you undertake this activity
together.
Thanks everyone, it's time to come back
together. Now you've completed your
reflective practice tasks for this key
message, please transfer any identified
areas of improvement onto your early
childhood education and care service’s
quality improvement plan, especially for
National Quality Standard, Standard 2.1
Health and its related Element
2.1.3 Healthy Lifestyle, and
remember the action plan template can
help with this planning. Resources
available to encourage and support
breastfeeding include the Munch and Move
Resource Manual Birth to Five Years,
Caring for Children Birth to 5 Years,
fact sheets and brochures, the sample
breastfeeding management plan, and the
breastfeeding sample policy and other
related resources accessible on the
Healthy Kids website.
Congratulations everyone, you have
completed the key message training
module, Encourage and Support
Breastfeeding. What happens now?
Please ensure the record of completion
is finalised for this training module.
Remember to link the reflective practice
tasks to your service’s quality
improvement plan, and please select the
next key message training module.
Remember there are six key message
training modules, and schedule a time and
date to share this together. Happy
Munching and Moving.

SDK: choose water as a drink

10:47

Choose water as a drink module

Read transcript
Video transcript

Choose water as a drink module

Hello everyone, welcome to the Munch and
Move Staff Development Kit and welcome
to the Munch key message training module,
Choose Water as a Drink. If you are
undertaking this training module, your
service has already completed module 1
Program Overview of the Staff
Development Kit. Let's start by sharing a
statistic related to this key message.
Did you know that 40% of New South Wales
children aged two to 15 years consumed
at least two cups of soft drink, cordial
or sports drink a day, and 21% consumed
six or more cups a day. That's a lot of
sweetened drinks, and if these children
are drinking all of these sugary drinks,
what aren't they drinking? Water.
So why water, and why is Munch and Move
promoting choose water as a drink?
Firstly, the Healthy Eating Guideline
states that we need to provide water in
addition to age-appropriate milk drinks,
and the healthy food plate also
recommends drinking water. There are so
many benefits of choosing water as a
drink including: drinking lots of water
keeps us well hydrated, water makes up
more than half of our body weight, 50 to
80 percent, every one of our body systems
depends on water and without it the body
cannot function, water assists in normal
bodily functions, such as regulating body
temperature and keeping our bowel
healthy, tap water contains fluoride,
which helps protect and strengthen
children's teeth, and water is free.
However while water is the obvious
thirst quencher for children and adults,
it competes with a broad range of
sweetened drinks that can tempt us away
from drinking water, as we just
discovered in the statistic on the
previous slide. We want children to
develop a palate for water rather than
sweetened drinks. Most children enjoy
drinking water if they get into the
habit from an early age. This habit is
then likely to continue throughout life.
It's all about developing healthy habits
for now and for the future, so make
drinking water the norm at your early
childhood education and care service.
Also remember to share with families the
many benefits of drinking water, so
families can choose water as a drink
away from your early childhood education
and care service.
Understanding how important water is for
children's current and ongoing health
and wellbeing, National Quality Standard
Element 2.1.3
Healthy Lifestyle mentions that assessors
may observe children having ready access
to water and being regularly offered
water throughout the day. Also, regulation
78 states children have
access to safe drinking water at all
times. You need to be able to show how
you are meeting these requirements at
your early childhood education and care
service. As educators we need to be aware
of children’s fluid intake throughout the
day and be vigilant about offering water
to children. We also need to be mindful
that babies and young children can
quickly become dehydrated, especially as
they tend to get too busy to notice they
are thirsty, or they can mistake their
thirst for hunger. So how much fluid each
day? And when we say fluid, fluid includes
water and milk because water and milk
are the drink choices for children. As it
states on the slide, toddlers need about
one litre of fluid a day, or four cups,
and preschool age children need around
1.2 litres a day, or
approximately five cups, and of course
more in hot weather or when they're
engaging in physical activity. Remember,
in a service children generally only
have a small amount of water in a cup,
and when they're self-serving at the
water station, sometimes the water
doesn't even make their lips.
Lastly, educators role-modelling water
drinking is essential.
While this key message focuses on
drinking water, it does extend to
drinking milk, as milk is such an
important source of nutrients for young
children: protein, calcium, zinc, vitamin A,
and as mentioned on the previous slide
water and milk are the drink choices for
children. As you can see on the slide, the
healthy food plate recommends that
children have one and a half to two
serves of dairy each day. This means
three quarters to one serve of dairy
during eight hours of care, or 50% of
their daily recommended dietary intakes.
Your service needs to ensure children
receive 50% of their daily dairy
requirements, either through a planned
menu or in the lunch boxes. It's
important that services are aware that
for children under two years of age it
is recommended they consume regular full
cream milk, as this is a time of rapid
growth and they need the extra energy
and kilojoules that is provided by the
fat in the milk. For children over two
years of age, the Australian Dietary
Guidelines recommend reduced fat milk, as
their growth has slowed down and they're
now eating a broader range of foods that
contribute to fat and kilojoules.
Importantly, reduced fat milk still
contains all the protein, calcium and
other vitamins found in full fat milk,
just with less fat and kilojoules.
Remember, drinking milk is not the only
way that children can meet their daily
dairy serves. Yogurt, cheese and homemade
custard are all sources of the same
nutrients found in milk.
We know that sweetened drinks aren't
good for children, but does this also
apply to fruit juice? Fruit juice is not
recommended as a regular part of
children's fluid intake for the
following reasons. While it does contain
some vitamin C, this vitamin is not in
short supply in a healthy diet.
It is easily gained from eating a
variety of fresh fruit and vegetables,
for example tomato, capsicum, strawberries
and rockmelon. A piece of fruit is a
healthier choice than fruit juice, as a
piece of fruit provides fibre, is more
filling, and the chewing involved helps
maintain oral health. We need to support
and encourage families to send water to
the service. Shown on the right side of
the slide is a Munch and Move table
called appropriate drinks for babies and
young children. This is a fabulous table
to support services and families in
providing appropriate drinks for
children. Why not put it up on display,
add it to orientation packs, link it to a
related policy. This table is on page 40
of the Munch and Move Resource Manual
Birth to Five Years.
Please follow the directions in your
green activity box and take two minutes
to brainstorm learning experiences you
could intentionally plan and teach the
children, promoting choose water as a
drink. Please use the headings as
inspiration. You might like to press
pause while you undertake this activity
together.
Thanks everyone, it's now time to come
back together. I'm sure that during your
brainstorm you gathered many ideas for
learning experiences to promote choose
water as a drink. Perhaps you considered
books such as Tiddalick or There's a Sea
in My Bedroom, or an experiment such as
observing a celery stalk drink
coloured water, or maybe a song such as
Running to the Corner and dramatising a
water break into the song. Remember, you
can also create your own resources to
promote this key message. The challenge
now is to intentionally plan and teach
these learning experiences with the
children.
Now that we have shared the Choose Water
as a Drink key message training module,
please take five minutes to begin the
reflective practice task on the slide,
using the hard copy version of this
document. You may like to press pause
while you undertake this activity
together. Thanks everyone,
it's now time to come back together. Now
you have completed your reflective
practice tasks for this key message,
please transfer any identified areas for
improvement onto your early childhood
education and care service’s quality
improvement plan, especially for National
Quality Standard, Standard 2.1 Health and
its related Element 2.1.3
Healthy Lifestyle, and remember the
action plan template can help with this
planning. Resources available to
promote choose water as a drink include
the Munch and Move Resource Manual Birth
to Five Years, the Healthy Eating
Learning Experiences resource, Munch and
Move CD, Munch and Move fact sheets and
other related resources accessible on
the Healthy Kids website.
Well done everyone, you have completed
the key message training module Choose
Water as a Drink. What's next?
Please ensure the record of completion
is finalised for this training module.
Remember to link the reflective practice
task to your service’s quality
improvement plan. Please select the next
key message training module your team
would like to complete. Remember, there
are six key message training modules, and
schedule a date and time to share this
together.
Have fun embedding choose water as a
drink.

SDK: eat more fruit and vegetables

8:29

Eat more fruit and vegetables module

Read transcript
Video transcript

Eat more fruit and vegetables module

Hello everyone, welcome to the Munch and
Move Staff Development Kit and welcome
to the Munch key message training module,
Eat More Fruit and Vegetables. If you are
undertaking this training module your
service has already completed module 1,
Program Overview of the Staff
Development Kit. Let's get started with
some statistics related to this key
message. As you can see on the slide, the
percentage of two to eight year old children
in New South Wales who eat the
recommended daily fruit intake is high,
96%, but we need to maintain this
percentage and even increase it if
possible. On the other hand, vegetable
intake is not as good as fruit, with only
54% of two to eight year olds in New
South Wales eating the recommended daily
vegetable intake. The great news is this
statistic has increased 11.2% in
the last eight years, some good small
steps in the right direction. Let's share
now why we need to encourage fruit and
vegetables and promote this key message.
On the slide you can see we have our
link to the Healthy Eating Guideline,
which tells us that we need to provide
nutritious foods consistent with the
Australian Dietary Guidelines, and we
have the ëeat plenty of vegetablesí and
ëeat moderate amounts of fruití segments
on the related healthy food plate. There
are lots of reasons why fruit and
vegetables are such an important part of
a healthy balanced diet.
Eating fruit and vegetables provide a
great source of vitamins, minerals and
antioxidants, dietary fibre and help
prevent constipation, opportunities to
explore textures, colours and tastes,
convenient and healthy snacks,
opportunities to develop skills such as
peeling and chewing, long term health
benefits such as prevention in a range
of chronic diseases, for example type-2
diabetes, heart disease, high blood
pressure and some forms of cancer. There
are so many positive benefits of eating
fruit and vegetables. They are an
essential part of healthy living. So how
much fruit and vegetables do children
need each day? As displayed in the blue
table on the slide, the current
recommendation is for children aged two to
three years of age, one serve of fruit and two
and a half serves of vegetables each day.
For children aged four to eight years
the current recommendation is one and a
half servings of fruit and four and a
half serves of vegetables each day. Early
childhood education and care services
need to ensure children receive 50% of
their recommended daily servings of
fruit and vegetables during eight hours
of care, either providing these serves on
the menu or supporting families to
provide these serves in the lunch boxes.
So what does this look like for your
service? For children two to three years of age
you need to be providing a half a serve
of fruit and one and a quarter serves of
vegetables, and for children four to eight years
of age you need to be providing three quarters of a
serve of fruit and two and a quarter
serves of vegetables if they're in care
for eight hours.
Children may like to eat more than the
recommended daily serves of fruit and
vegetables, and this is a better choice
than foods high in energy, fat, salt
and/or added sugar: sometimes food.
When it comes to meeting children's
fruit and vegetable needs, fruit is
usually well-liked by children because
of its natural sweetness. A piece of
fresh fruit is packed with natural
goodness, fibre, is unprocessed and comes
in its own environmentally friendly
packaging. Fresh fruit is a healthier
choice than fruit juice drinks and fruit
based snacks such as fruit bars and
fruit straps, and these products should
not be considered as a substitute for
real fruit. While dried fruit can be
counted as part of children's fruit
intake, it is more energy dense than
fresh fruit and tends to stick to
children's teeth, increasing the risk of
dental decay. It's also easy to over
consume dried fruit. It is recommended
that children consume dried fruit only
occasionally. When it comes to vegetables
it's a different story. Forty six percent of New South
Wales children aged 2 to 8 years are
falling short of the recommended daily
serves of vegetable. However as we just
shared on the previous slide, children
need to eat more than twice as many
vegetables to fruit each day. So we need
to provide children with plenty of
encouragement and lots of opportunities
to eat more vegetables, and just a tip:
it's always a great idea to start with
the sweeter vegetables like carrot,
capsicum and cucumber.
Please follow the directions in your
green activity box and take two minutes
to brainstorm how your early childhood
education and care service can maintain
children's fruit intake, and promote and
encourage children to eat more
vegetables. You may like to press pause
in the presentation while you undertake
this activity together.
Thanks everyone, it's now time to come
back together. I'm sure that during your
brainstorm you gathered many ideas on
how your early childhood education and
care service can maintain children's
fruit intake, and promote and encourage
children to eat more vegetables. Please
take a moment to explore the inspiring
ideas on this slide to encourage and
embed eat more fruit and vegetables at
your early childhood education and care
service. You might like to press pause
before you continue with the
presentation. Now that we've shared the
Eat More Fruit and Vegetables key
message training module, please take five
minutes to begin the reflective practice
task on the slide, using the hard copy
version of this document. You may like to
press pause as you undertake this
activity together.
Thanks everyone it's now time to come
back together. Now you've completed your
reflective practice task for this key
message, please transfer any identified
areas for improvement onto your early
childhood education and care service's
quality improvement plan, especially for
National Quality Standard, Standard 2.1
Health and its related Element
2.1.3 Healthy Lifestyle, and
remember the action plan template can
help with this planning. Munch and Move
supports the implementation of eat more
fruit and vegetables with resources such
as the learning experiences in the Munch
and Move Resource Manual Birth to Five
Years,
the fabulous Healthy Eating Learning
Experiences resource, factsheets and
songs, and more resources are available
on the Healthy Kids website.
Well done everyone, you have completed
the key message training module, Eat More
Fruit and Vegetables. Congratulations.
What's next?
Please ensure the record of completion
is finalised for this module. Remember to
link the reflective practice tasks to
your service's quality improvement plan.
Please select the next key message
training module. Remember there are six
key message training modules, and
schedule a date and time to share this
together.
Have fun embedding eat more fruit and
vegetables.

SDK: choose healthier snacks

9:12

Choose healthier snacks module

Read transcript
Video transcript

Choose healthier snacks module

Hello everyone, welcome to the Munch and
Move Staff Development Kit and welcome
to the Munch key message training module,
Choose Healthier Snacks. If you are
undertaking this training module, your
service has already completed module one,
Program Overview of the Staff
Development Kit. Let's get started with a
statistic related to this key message.
Sixty percent of preschool aged children's
lunchboxes in New South Wales contain
more than one serve of sometimes food and
drinks. That is a lot of sometimes snacks.
As the healthy food plate tells us,
sometimes foods and drinks are not
everyday foods and drinks. Sometimes
foods and drinks are generally lacking in
nutritional value and are not essential
to provide the nutrients our bodies need.
So why healthier snacks or mid meals, the
term used for snacks in the Caring for
Children Birth to Five Years resource? On
the slide you can see a direct link from
this key message, choose healthier snacks,
to the Healthy Eating Guideline, offer
meals and snacks at regular and
predictable intervals. Snacks are so
important for children. Children only
have small stomachs and cannot eat large
amounts at once, and snacks provide the
kilojoules and energy to keep children
going until the next meal, as well as
help meet children's daily nutritional
requirements. It is also important that
children get into a regular eating
routine, that is, three meals and two or
three snacks each day, not grazing all
day as this will not help them to
recognise hunger and prepare them for
school, when they will have set break
times.
The best choices for snacks are those
based on healthy, filling everyday foods
from the healthy food plate, that is,
fruit, vegetables, dairy and whole-grain
or wholemeal breads and cereals. The
Caring for Children Birth to 5 Years
resource provides guidance on meeting
children's healthy snack needs. The
snapshot on the slide is from the
checklist on page 92. This resource can
be accessed through the Healthy Kids
website. It tells us that dairy, bread and
cereals and vegetables and fruits should
be included during morning and afternoon
tea, or snack time, if it is necessary to
meet the recommended daily number of
serves. Remember, children need to receive
half of their daily nutritional needs
during eight hours of care. Also, children
are often hungry by morning or afternoon
tea so it is important that snacks are
substantial and balanced. A small piece
of fruit is not enough for an active
four to five year old. Snacks do not have
to be complex and time-consuming to make.
Often the simple snacks are the most
popular with children. It is a good idea
though to vary the snacks to keep
children interested and to introduce
them to new foods.
Referring to the reflective question
from National Quality Standard, Element
2.1.3 Healthy
Lifestyle, please follow the directions
in your green activity box and take two
minutes to brainstorm how your early
childhood education and care service can
ensure food provided on excursions or
other special activities meets the
dietary and nutrition requirements of
each child. You may like to press pause
in the presentation while you undertake
this activity together. Thanks everyone,
it's now time to come back together. I'm
sure that during your brainstorm you
gathered many ideas on how your early
childhood education and care service can
ensure food used on excursions or other
special activities encourage healthy
food and beverage choices that meet
children's individual preferences and
dietary needs. Celebrations are a
fabulous time to showcase and reinforce
healthy snack choices.
On the slide now is some inspiration for
your next service celebration. Remember
to also get the children involved.
Sharing a favourite children's book such
as he Teddy Bearsí Picnic, it provides
the perfect platform to scaffold
conversations about healthier party food.
It is important to keep mealtimes
positive. A happy and relaxed mealtime
reduces stress levels and helps children
develop good eating habits. This is
regarded as a very important aspect of
care and as such is one of the Healthy
Eating Guidelines: planned mealtimes to
be positive, relaxed and social. A
positive mealtime also links to the
Healthy Eating Guideline, offer an
appropriate amount of food but allow
children to decide how much they'll
actually eat. So the healthy food is
provided by the service and/or in the
lunchbox and the child decides which
healthy food to eat and how much. We also
need to be aware of the links between
the National Quality Standard and
positive mealtimes. This is highlighted
in the blue shaded boxes on the slide.
Now that we have a positive eating
environment linking to the Healthy
Eating Guideline on the slide, we can
encourage children to try different food
types and textures. This is important as
exposing young children to a variety of
different food types and textures
broadens their food preferences and
increases the likelihood that children
will become varied eaters as adults. We
know that children are often reluctant
to try new foods and often need
encouragement to do so, and interestingly
children may need to be exposed to a
food between 8 and 14 times before they
start to accept the taste or texture of
that food. The key is to keep offering
the food in different ways and not to
put it on the food dislike list after
one or two refusals. This is very
important information to share with
families. Listed on the slide are some
suggestions on how you can encourage
children to try new foods. Also, please
take note of the related links to the
National Quality Standard and the Early
Years Learning Framework.
Now that we've shared the Choose
Healthier Snacks key message training
module, please take five minutes to begin
the reflective practice task on the
slide, using the hard copy version of
this document. You may like to press
pause while you undertake this activity
together. Thanks everyone,
it's now time to come back together. Now
you have completed your reflective
practice task for this key message,
please transfer any identified areas for
improvement onto your early childhood
education and care serviceís quality
improvement plan, especially for National
Quality Standard, Standard 2.1 Health and
its related Element 2.1.3
Healthy Lifestyle, and remember the
action plan template can help with this
planning. Resources available to
promote choose healthier snacks include
the Munch and Move Resource Manual Birth
to Five Years, the Munch and Move Healthy
Eating Learning Experiences resource,
Caring for Children Birth to 5 Years
resource, Munch and Move fact sheets and
other related resources like the Pack
Your Child a Healthy Lunchbox poster are
all accessible on the Healthy Kids
website.
Congratulations, you have completed the
key message training module, Choose
Healthier Snacks. What's next? Please
ensure the record of completion is
finalised for this module. Remember to
link the reflective practice tasks to
your serviceís quality improvement plan.
Please select the next key message
training module. Remember there are six
key message training modules, and
schedule a date and time to share it
together. Enjoy embedding choose
healthier snacks.

SDK: get active each day

26:58

Get active eat day module

Read transcript
Video transcript

Get active eat day module

Hello everyone, welcome to the Munch and
Move Staff Development Kit and welcome
to the Move key message training module,
Get Active Each Day. If you are
undertaking this training module your
service has already completed module 1,
Program Overview of the Staff
Development Kit. Please note that this
training module will go slightly longer
than 20 minutes. Let's get started with
some current research related to this
key message. On average, young children one
to five years of age in an early childhood
education and care service spend 53
percent of their day sitting and 31
percent standing, and only 16 percent of
their day moving. I'm sure you may be
surprised by the findings of this
research. During training module 1,
Program Overview we referred to the Get
Up and Grow physical activity
recommendations, and they've also been
included in orange outlined boxes
throughout this module. We also referred
to the Australian 24-Hour Movement
Guidelines, which build upon the Get Up
and Grow physical activity
recommendations. We’ll now be exploring
these recommendations in more detail.
Let's look at infants, birth to one year.
The recommendations tell us that for
healthy development in infants birth to
one year, physical activity, particularly
supervised floor base play in safe
environments, should be encouraged from
birth. The 24-Hour Movement Guidelines
add that this physical activity,
including crawling opportunities, should
occur several times a day in a variety
of ways, and more is better. When infants
are engaging in tummy time, educators not
only supervise but are interactive in
the way they foster this play,
encouraging the infant to reach, grasp,
push and pull themselves, and that tummy
time is included in the infant's day for
a total of 30 minutes, spread throughout
the day while the infant is awake. We
also need to consider sedentary
behaviour, or the times
children are not engaged in physical
activity. The Get Up and Grow
recommendation on your screen tells us
that infants should not be sedentary,
restrained or kept inactive for more
than one hour at a time, with the
exception of sleeping. The 24-Hour
Movement Guidelines add that when
infants are sedentary, engaging in pursuits
such as reading, singing, puzzles and
storytelling with a caregiver is
encouraged. The 24-Hour Movement
Guidelines also add guidance for sleep
for educators and families to be aware
of, and for infants under one the
Guideline states that they should have
14 to 17 hours for those aged nought to
three months, and 12 to 16 hours for those
aged four to 11 months of good quality
sleep, including naps. In a nutshell, these
recommendations and Guidelines are
aiming to get children physically active
from birth and to build on this
throughout the early childhood period,
with limited time spent being inactive.
For toddlers and preschoolers who spend
most of their daylight hours at the
early childhood education and care
service, especially during winter, it
means getting most of the recommended
daily three hours of physical activity while
they're attending the service. The
24-Hour Movement Guidelines add that for
toddlers this three hours or 180 minutes
should include energetic play and be
spread throughout the day, and that more
is better, and for preschoolers at least
60 minutes of the total 180 minutes
should be energetic play, and more
physical activity is better. To define
what energetic play is, think huff and
puff. If they are huffing and puffing
while they're playing, this is energetic
physical activity. A rule of thumb that
you can use is shown on the slide.
Children one to five years of age should
spend at least 30% of their time at the
early childhood education and care
service being physically active, and more
if possible, keeping the physical
activity recommendations and 24-Hour
Movement Guidelines in mind. This
translates to two and a half hours of
physical activity if a child is at the
service for 8 hours, and 110 minutes of
physical activity
if they are present for six hours. The
Get Up and Grow recommendations state
toddlers and preschoolers should not be
sedentary, restrained or kept inactive
for more than one hour at a time, with
the exception of sleeping. The 24-Hour
Movement Guidelines build on this for
this age group with the Guideline that
toddlers and preschoolers should not be
sitting for extended periods, and when
sedentary engaging in pursuits such as
reading, singing, puzzles and storytelling
with a caregiver is encouraged. To ensure
the physical activity recommendations
and 24-Hour Movement Guidelines are met,
we need to consider utilising the indoor
and outdoor environments, no matter the
weather, being creative with the
environment, taking into account
available space and time, providing ample
opportunities for children to be
physically active, and be mindful of the
length of time children spend in
sedentary experiences. The 24-Hour Movement
Guidelines also add guidance for sleep
for educators and families to be aware
of. For toddlers one to two years, they should
have 11 to 14 hours of good quality
sleep, including naps, with consistent
sleep and wake up times. For preschoolers
three to five years, they should have at least
10 to 13 hours of good quality sleep,
which may include a nap, with consistent
sleep and wake up times.
Let's explore physical activity for
babies birth to 12 months a little
further. Remember, even if you don't have
babies at your early childhood education
and care service,
you still need to support service
families. There are always lots of baby
siblings of the children attending your
service. As already discovered, the
physical activity recommendation and
24-Hour Movement Guidelines tells us
that physical activity and movement is
important right from birth. Babies learn
movement through touching, looking
listening and moving themselves, and
importantly movement provides sensory
messages to the baby's brain, and the
developing brain needs these movement
experiences to stimulate brain
development. Now we know babies spend a
lot of time sleeping and involved in
care routines, for example feeding and
nappy change, so understanding how
important movement is for babies, we need
to optimise the opportunities for play
and movement when baby is awake,
including during care routines. This will
assist with the baby's gross motor
development and enable them to fully
participate in physical activity as they
grow. When you rock and sway a baby, the
fluid in a baby's inner ear washes over
all the tiny hairs and nerve endings and
sends messages to the baby's brain about
balance and imbalance. This movement
experience is stimulating the vestibular
system, or the sense of balance within
the baby's inner ear. Studies have
documented that babies receiving regular
vestibular stimulation in the first
months of life show accelerated motor
skills development, as they are receiving
increased sensory stimulation. It's
important to intentionally plan daily
rocking and swaying movement experiences
for babies to keep their vestibular
system stimulated, and to develop their
sense of balance and accelerate their
motor skills development. Please follow
the directions in your green activity
box and take two minutes to brainstorm
why tummy time is such a major part of
supervised floor based play or physical
activity for babies, before moving on to
the next slide. You might like to press
pause while undertaking this activity
together.
Thanks everyone, it's now time to come
back together. During your brainstorming
you may have considered some of the blue
points listed on the slide. You might
like to press pause to add these down
for your reference. Tummy time provides
babies with so many opportunities to be
physically active and for physical
development. Importantly, tummy time
provides the building blocks for future
movement to be built upon. For example,
from tummy time babies will pivot, roll,
creep, sit, crawl, stand, walk. From birth
babies should be provided with the
opportunity to play on their tummy every
day for short periods of supervised time.
The time spent in tummy time will
increase with age and ability. At first
it may only be ten seconds and gradually
increasing to ten minutes. When engaging
babies in a tummy time experience it's
important to choose a suitable time when
babies are not tired or hungry. Interact
with a baby while supervising, talking
calmly to reassure them that they're
okay, encouraging their movement and also
assisting with language development, and
to use a variety of appropriate and
interesting baby toys that encourage the
baby to lift his or her head, look, track,
reach for and grasp. Also, if a baby isn't
happy with tummy time on the floor, try
other tummy time methods. For example,
tummy time could be undertaken lying
across your lap or lying on your chest
or by holding the baby tummy down along
your forearm.
We know that from tummy time children
develop the skills required to push up
onto their hands and knees and start to
crawl. Lots of physical activity. As you
can see in the green graph on the slide,
crawling helps promote many areas of
development, but importantly crawling
involves cross patterning: the right arm
and the left leg go forward then the
left arm and the right leg.
This cross patterning action helps the
communicative links that pass
information between the two hemispheres
of the brain to grow and develop. To
ensure children have the opportunity to
receive the developmental benefits
crawling provides, we need to remember
there is no rush to walk. Most babies
will crawl for about 400 hours before
they walk. So we need to intentionally
plan crawling experiences for our
crawlers, approximately nine to 12 months of
age, understanding all the developmental
benefits of crawling as well as
promoting physical activity. Remember to
share this information with families.
From crawling, babies will pull to stand,
stand at furniture to play, cruise along
furniture, start to balance in standing
and take their first steps. It's very
very busy times. Very importantly, babies
should be encouraged to explore their
environment to promote the use of all of
their muscles by moving, stretching and
flexing. For this reason babies should
not spend lots of time during the day
strapped into a seat, swing or highchair.
This is reflected in the physical
activity recommendation on the slide:
infants, toddlers and preschool age
children should not be sedentary,
restrained or kept inactive for more
than one hour at a time, with the
exception of sleeping.
There are many aspects we need to
consider to ensure babies receive the
physical activity they need while
attending the early childhood education
and care service, including: we need to
intentionally plan physical activity for
babies. This will insure it happens.
Knowledge: as educators it is important
that we have a good understanding of
children's gross motor development to be
able to appropriately support their
physical activity. Physical care routines
are a perfect opportunity to support
physical activity, especially for younger
babies. For example, consider the
opportunities available during nappy
change. We need to use a variety of
appropriate and interesting baby toys,
resources and songs to stimulate
movement, as demonstrated in the photos
on the slide. We need to set up the
environment to ensure movement is
appropriately supported. For example,
thinking about the placement of stable
furniture for our cruising babies to
cruise around. Closely interacting with
babies during physically active
experiences is vitally important for
scaffolding babies’ physical development,
as well as other areas of development,
and getting to know the child. Sharing
this information with families so they
understand the importance of movement
for babies and continue these movement
experiences at home.
Once babies can cruise around a variety
of stable furniture and can stand
independently, they have the physical
ability to walk independently. Walking,
walking, walking. This is a new and very
exciting time for toddlers. They will
spend a lot of time exploring and
perfecting this new walking skill. It
will certainly help them achieve the
physical activity recommendation on the
slide.
Initially toddlers will walk with their
arms held up high for extra balance.
However as they practice and their balance
improves, their arms will come down.
Toddlers will experiment with moving up
from the floor to standing and back down
again, moving from sitting on a chair to
standing and back again, walking and then
squatting to pick up a toy from the
ground, or remaining in the squat
position to play for a short time.
Toddlers will also experiment with
walking in different directions on
different surfaces and pushing stable
push-along toys. Educators need to
intentionally plan experiences to
support the development of toddlers’
independent walking, strengthening their
muscles and developing their balance
skills.
By two years of age toddlers have
mastered walking skills and are now
exploring many gross motor skills. As
reflected in the photos on the slide, all
the toddlers can jump on the spot,
attempt to run, go up and down stairs
using two feet per step with support, and
use their feet to propel and control a
toddler bike, and they're starting to
play with other children. They're also
able to climb on low playground
equipment and maintain their balance in
sitting to come down a slide. They're
beginning to understand how to catch a
ball, walk into a ball to kick it and can
throw very short distances. Understanding
children's development, particularly
physical development, allows educators to
intentionally plan appropriate movement
experiences for this age group, helping
meet children's daily physical activity
recommendations. During the preschool
years children are now refining their
gross motor skills. As they gain greater
control over their, body preschool age
children gain confidence and mobility.
Their strength, agility, flexibility,
balance and coordination all improve.
This is demonstrated in the photos on
the slide. Educators need to consider how
they're challenging the gross motor
skills of preschool children, especially
the older preschool age child. How do you
do this? Linking to the blue shaded
National Quality Standard boxes on the
slide, Element 3.2.2 says, use a variety
of equipment and resources creatively to
inspire, challenge and refine movement,
and Element 2.1.3 tells us that we
should be involving preschoolers in the
planning for and setting up of physically
active experiences. Scaffolding at its
greatest.
An important part of the get active each day
key message is the intentional teaching
of fundamental movement skills.
Fundamental movement skills, or FMS, are a
specific set of skills that involve
different body parts. Importantly, FMS are
the building blocks or the foundation
blocks for more complex and specialized
skills to be built upon, skills that are
required to play different games, sports
and recreational activities offered in
later life, at school and in the
community. For example, on the left of the
slide we have the FMS of overarm
throwing and to the right we have a
diagram detailing all the sports that
are based on the FMS of overarm
throwing. So being competent and
confident in the FMS of overarm
throwing allows children to build the
skills to participate in the related
sports. The earlier that FMS are
introduced through play and exploration,
the more likely children will be to
engage in physical activity throughout
their lives, as they will be competent
and confident in their FMS. Importantly,
children do not naturally learn how to
correctly perform fundamental movement
skills as part of their normal growth
and development. They need to be
intentionally taught these skills and
given lots of opportunities to explore
and practice these skills to eventually
become skilled. To develop FMS children
must spend time practicing these skills
and be guided and scaffolded by an adult,
an educator who understands the key
components of these skills, which we'll
be exploring shortly. Of course, mastery
of FMS is not expected in the early
years. In the early years
FMS are all about exposure, exploration,
opportunity, guidance, familiarity and
most importantly fun.
So let's now have a closer look at the
FMS because as educators you will need
to know exactly what the FMS are to be
able to scaffold the children's learning
of these skills. As you can see on the
slide there are three categories of FMS:
stability skills, locomotor skills and
manipulative skills. The first category,
stability skills, are movements where the
body remains in place but moves around
its horizontal and vertical axis, and
include skills such as stretching,
bending, twisting and balancing.
Importantly, stability skills help
children develop their locomotor and
manipulative skills.
The second category, locomotor skills,
transport the body from one place to
another and as shown on the slide
include jumping, running, hopping,
galloping, leaping, side sliding and
skipping. The third category, manipulative
skills, are movements that involve
giving force to or from objects and
include catching, underarm throwing,
overarm throwing, kicking, stationary
dribbling and striking a stationary ball.
Upon completion of this training module
please watch your Fun Moves DVD or
access the videos via the Munch and Move
resources page on the Healthy Kids
website, and observe and then practice
each of the FMS as this will ensure you
are aware of the components that make up
each individual FMS.
Importantly, educators do need to know
the components of each FMS so you can
correctly demonstrate the skill to
children and give positive, specific
advice that will help correct children's
FMS action. We call this the Detect and
Correct strategy. The Munch and Move
program also provides the fundamental
movement skill cards and lanyards
resource, as shown in the top right hand
corner of the slide. One side of the card
provides images of the skill and the
other side of the card lists the
components that make up that skill, as
shown in the bottom left hand corner of
the slide. The idea is for educators to
use this portable fundamental movement
skill tool to positively and
constructively scaffold the children's
FMS development, and this is exactly what
the educator in the photos on this slide
is doing.
As with any skill, children gradually
build and develop their FMS as they get
older.
For example, the FMS of catching has its
foundation in a baby's tummy time as the
baby tracks a moving object, as tracking
a moving object is a skill you need if
you're going to be able to catch an
object coming towards you. This catching
FMS is then built upon during the
toddler period, with the toddler trying
to catch a large soft ball. As a
preschool age child, this child is now
more proficient at catching and can be
challenged by using smaller balls. Munch
and Move recommends that early childhood
education and care services plan daily
intentional FMS experiences to ensure
all children attending the service have
the opportunity to explore, practice and
develop these skills. Intentional FMS
experiences can be achieved through
educator guided FMS learning
experiences, for example playing What's
the Time Mr. Wolf and focusing on a
locomotor fundamental movement skill
such as running or galloping, or engaging
a baby in a tummy time experience which
encourages the baby to track a moving
object. Intentional FMS experiences can
also be achieved through FMS
opportunities offered during free play,
for example providing equipment and/or
resources that you know will encourage
certain FMS, such as balls, a hop scotch
grid, targets on a wall.
Both of these intentional FMS
experiences need to be play-based and
focus on one or more FMS. Also be aware
of spontaneous opportunities to support
children's FMS development. The great
thing about intentional FMS experiences
is we know that FMS are being promoted
but gross motor development and physical
activity is also being supported through
these experiences.
Now for older toddlers and preschool age
children two to five years of age, intentional
FMS experiences should also be
incorporated into a small group
experience consisting of a warm-up,
FMS Move game and cool-down, as per the
format on this slide.
Let's look at this format with examples.
The intentional FMS experience has been
planned for older toddlers and preschool
age children whose favourite game is
What's the Time Mr. Wolf. Sometimes the
children will play this game on its own,
being led by the educator focusing on
one or more FMS, and other times this
game will have a warm-up and a cool-down
wrapped around it. When planning this
type of intentional FMS experience it is
important that all three components are
included: warm-up, FMS Move game and
cool-down. This example format is also
included in the Munch and Move Resource
Manual Birth to Five Years.
Now that we have shared the Get Active
Each Day key message training module,
please take five minutes to begin the
reflective practice task on the slide,
using the hard copy version of this
document. You may like to press pause
while you undertake this activity
together. Thanks everyone,
it's now time to come back together. Now
you have completed your reflective
practice task for this key message,
please transfer any identified areas for
improvement onto your early childhood
education and care service’s quality
improvement plan, especially for National
Quality Standard 2.1 Health and its
related Element 2.1.3
Healthy Lifestyle, and remember the
action plan template can help with this
planning. Munch and Move supports the
implementation of get active each day
with resources such as learning
experiences in the Munch and Move Resource
Manual Birth to Five Years, Get Active
Each Day factsheets,
songs on the Munch and Move CD, Fun Moves
DVD, FMS cards and lanyard,
FMS app, Active Play for Birth to 12
Months posters. These resources and more
are available on the Healthy Kids
website.
Well done everyone, you have completed
the key message training module, Get
Active Each Day. What happens next?
Please ensure the record of completion
is finalised for this training module.
Remember to link the reflective practice
tasks to your service’s quality
improvement plan. Please select the next
key message training module and remember
there are six key message training
modules for you to complete, and schedule
a date and time to share this together.
Enjoy getting active each day.

SDK: turn off the screens and get active

14:35

Turn off the screen and get active module

Read transcript
Video transcript

Turn off the screen and get active module

Slide 1: Welcome to the Munch & Move Staff Development Kit Monitor ‘key message’ module Turn off the screen and get active. Let’s start by sharing the recommendations related to this key message. Slide 2: The Get Up & Grow ‘Physical activity recommendations for children birth to 5 years’ and the Australian 24-hour Movement Guidelines that we referred to during Module 1 Program Overview include recommendations for ‘screen time’ and ‘sedentary behaviour’. These recommendations focus on both ‘screen time’ and ‘sedentary behaviour’ as a lot of sedentary behaviour occurs during ‘screen time’. Limiting ‘screen time’ will limit ‘sedentary behaviour’. The ‘Sedentary Behaviour’ recommendations tell us that infants, toddlers and preschoolers should not be sedentary or restrained (for example, in a car seat, stroller or highchair) for more than 1 hour at a time or sit for extended periods. While sedentary, engaging in pursuits such as reading, singing, puzzles and storytelling with a caregiver is encouraged. For screen time, the recommendations also tell us that children younger than two years of age should not spend any time watching television or using other electronic media (DVD’s computer and other electronic games) as sedentary screen time is not recommended. For those aged 2 to 5 years, sedentary screen time should be no more than 1 hour per day and less is better. Now let’s look at a statistic related to this key message. Slide 3: Interestingly, the statistic at the bottom of the slide tells us that ‘only 26% of Australian children aged 2-4 years meet the Australian sedentary behaviour recommendation of accumulating no more than 1 hour per day.’ That means 74% of these children are engaged in more than 1 hour of screen time each day. Remember – it’s all about forming positive ‘screen time’ and ‘sedentary behaviour’ habits for now and for the future. Slide 4: So why limit ‘screen time’ and what are the facts? As the recommendation states, screen-based activities are not recommended for babies and toddlers less than 2 years of age because: - It reduces the time for the child to be engaged in active play. - It reduces the time for social interaction with others and consequently opportunities for language development – you do not learn the art of conversation in front of a screen. - It reduces the length of time children can stay focussed. - Also, screen time can impact on the development of the full range of eye movements – as you know, when using screens your eyes are focussed on the one framed space. Did you know that Get Up & Grow states that ‘screen-based activities for children less than two years of age have not shown to lead to any health, intellectual or language improvements’. Also, as stated in the green box on the slide - ‘there is little research to suggest that infants and toddlers learn from watching videos. If infants are distressed, they need the comfort of a caring adult, not an electronic toy’. Both of these quotes provide further support for ‘no screen time’ for children less than 2 years of age. Slide 5: Let’s now look at some facts about why the recommendation states ‘screen time’ should be limited to less than one hour per day for children 2 to 5 years of age. Research tells us that toddlers and preschoolers who engage in long periods of ‘screen time’ each day are more likely to: - Have unhealthy eating habits - snacking on ‘sometimes’ food. - Be less physically active and spend less time outdoors - reducing the time for physical activity and reducing the many benefits received from being physically active. - Have sub-optimal muscle and bone growth. - Have poorer social skills – lack of social interaction with others. - Have slower development of language skills and short-term memory. Also, even though some screen-based activities now include ‘movement’, this movement is restrictive and usually done indoors and shouldn’t replace more traditional forms of outdoor physical activity. We don’t want children to get into the habit of turning on the ‘screen’ to get active. Slide 6: We now know what the ‘Sedentary behaviour recommendations’ are and why they exist, and we know that screen-based activities can play a role in children’s development, however they involve time spent sitting still and can displace time available for children to be physically active. So what is the learning potential for screen-based activities for children over 2 years of age? In relation to ‘educational program and practice’, what is the purpose or the intention of undertaking a learning experience on a screen-based device as opposed to undertaking a learning experience using traditional resources? Let’s do a comparison: Firstly, consider a ‘drawing App’ and the learning potential for children of using this ‘drawing App’ – now consider the learning potential for children using ‘traditional’ drawing/painting resources. The learning potential for children using the ‘traditional’ drawing/painting resources far outweighs the learning potential of the ‘drawing App’. The ‘traditional’ resources provide children with the opportunity for creativity, exploration, social interaction, turn taking, cooperation, to be messy and to move around, as well as the development of language, fine motor skills and concepts. We need to remember - just because we can use an ‘App’ with the children, doesn’t mean we do. We need to consider, is the ‘App’ providing an opportunity to do something you can’t normally do using ‘traditional’ resources? Slide 7: This quote by the Fred Rogers Center sums it up: ‘Ultimately, the key decision regarding the use of technology and interactive media is whether specific goals - both for individual children and the program as a whole - can be more effectively achieved using traditional classroom materials, or whether the use of particular technology and interactive media tools actually extends the opportunities for learning and development.’ Slide 8: As mentioned earlier, ‘screen time’ and ‘sedentary behaviour’ are linked. However, let’s just focus on ‘sedentary behaviour’ for a moment and the related recommendation – ‘Infants, toddlers and preschoolers should not be sedentary, restrained, or kept inactive for more than one hour at a time - with the exception of sleeping’. Children need quiet ‘down time’ to balance out the times of physical activity. However, educators need to be aware of how long children may be engaged in ‘down time’ - no more than 1 hour at a time. The Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines also tell us that while sedentary, children aged birth to five years should be encouraged to engage in ‘productive’ sedentary experiences as per the green outlined box on the slide, rather than ‘non-productive’ sedentary behaviour experiences for ‘down time’ as per the blue outlined box on the slide. For example, would you engage children with a ‘screen-based’ ‘blocks’ game for ‘down time’ or play with the ‘traditional’ blocks set for ‘down time’? Again, what is the intent, the purpose, the learning potential? Both can be played quietly for ‘down time’, but the learning potential from one activity, the ‘traditional’ blocks set, far outweighs the other. Children need to learn how to have ‘down time’ without using a ‘screen’. We want children to get into the habit of ‘productive’ down time and into the habit of ‘moving’ after being sedentary. Does the service’s sleep and rest policy reflect this information? We can consider making time to read over and review the service’s sleep and rest policy together. Slide 9: Technology is all around us, it’s a reality in children’s lives so we can’t be like ostriches and bury our heads in the sand. We need to embrace technology, but do this in line with the ‘Sedentary behaviour recommendations’ and the National Quality Framework. Educators have a responsibility to support children’s technological knowledge. Young children may be technology savvy, but they are not technology mature. Educators need to help children develop positive screen time habits including developing the skills to choose appropriate technology to consume, good posture and how to use technology responsibly. For example asking permission to take photos of people and how to self regulate screen time use – which is what this key message is all about – how to Turn off the screen and get active; and, as we just shared, educators need to promote ‘productive’ down time. To best do this, educators need to engage with technology to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence to make informed technology choices for children. Educators need to positively role model appropriate screen time and sedentary behaviours. On the slide is a great quote by the Fred Rogers Center to finish off with: ‘When used appropriately, and keeping screen time recommendations in mind, technology and interactive media have the potential to enhance, without replacing, creative play, exploration, physical activity, outdoor experiences, conversation and social interactions.’ Slide 10: ACTIVITY: Please follow the directions in the ‘Green Activity Box’ and reflecting on the information we just shared, take 2 minutes to brainstorm how your service can promote ‘Turn off the screen and get active’. (Take 2 minutes to complete the activity with your colleagues.) Slide 11: In our brainstorm we may have considered some of the points listed on the slide. There are so many ways we can promote and embed this key message – Turn off the screen and get active - in our service. Slide 12: ACTIVITY: Now that we have shared the Turn off the screen and get active ‘key message’ module, let’s take 5 minutes to begin the ‘Reflective Practice’ task on the slide using the hardcopy version of this document. Once we have completed our ‘Reflective Practice’ task for this ‘key message’, we can transfer any identified ‘areas for improvement’ onto our service’s Quality Improvement Plan – especially for National Quality Standard, Standard 2.1 – Health and it’s related Element 2.1.3 – Healthy lifestyle. Remember the action plan template can assist with this planning. (Take 5 minutes to complete the activity with your colleagues.) Slide 13: Resources available to promote Turn off the screen and get active include the: - Munch & Move Resource Manual: Birth to 5 years - Munch & Move CD - Munch & Move Fact Sheet These resources and more are available on the NSW Healthy Kids website. Congratulations – we have now completed the ‘key message’ module Turn off the screen and get active. Please ensure the ‘Record of Completion’ is finalised for this module and remember to link the ‘Reflective Practice’ task to the service’s Quality Improvement Plan. Let’s select the next ‘key message’ module and schedule a date and time to share it.

Type: Training material, Video
Author: Centre for Population Health
Publication Date: 23 May 2025

Tagged in

Health and wellbeingMunch & MoveBreastfeedingHealthy eatingPhysical activityProfessional developmentReducing screen time
Print this page
Top of page