Encouraging Healthy Eating

Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/encouraging-healthy-eating/5016216/

Arrin Brummett, Snohomish, Washington, United States
To help develop healthy eating habits in our classroom, and to introduce students to new foods they may not see at home, each student is encouraged to take a “Thank you taste.” This is just a little taste, and the students can spit it back out if they don’t like it. Each student tries the food as a way of saying “Thank you” to the person who brought it, to their classmates who made it, to the farmers who grew it, or to the people whose jobs brought it to them (the grocer, the truck driver, etc.). When the food has been made by the students in class, or when it is store bought, we allow the individual student to say who their “Thank you taste” is for, encouraging discussion of the different occupations as well.

Barbara Hansen, The Genesis Academy
Houston, Texas, United States
The children at our center are allowed to eat their snacks whenever they are hungry instead of at a specified time. They learn to listen to their bodies instead of eating just because “it’s time.”

Caryn O'Connor, Imagine Early
Learning Centers, New York, New York, United States
Healthy living has become the theme of the 2004-2005 ...