Leading a healthy, active life begins in childhood. This includes developing a healthy relationship with food, fostering love of movement, and finding joy outdoors.
Childhood obesity affects 1 in 3 children ages 2 to 19 (Naticchioni, 2013). Not only does obesity impair vital organ function, recent research has suggested there may be a link between lower academic achievement and obesity. Obesity has the potential to affect a child's self-esteem, which may lead to loneliness, depression, and harmful behaviors; in turn, this could impact academic performance. A study of 12,000 children recently revealed that children who frequently consumed fast food scored lower in terms of math and reading (Naticchioni, 2013).
Fortunately, in early childhood, children love to move. They love running through a grassy field, they enjoy the physical challenge of climbing up a ladder, they want to experiment with balls and bikes. And, most of them love music. Most ECE teachers know that if they want their students to engage more meaningfully in an activity, if they want to refocus them, or if they want to make academic concepts more fun, they add music.
One activity from my math curriculum, Bridges in Mathematics, encourages teachers to create a song to aid in rote counting:
One, two, three,
four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine,
ten, start again
I pair this song with a steady drum beat and sing it through several times. With more repetitions, students start to join in. I also encourage them to clap or jump in time to the song. "Studies have shown that learning and memory when linked to specific beats in a rhythm, stimulated increased learning ability (Idiculla, 2021)."
Every year, I do a food and cooking unit. Cooking is a great way to teach science and math. Students learn about measurements, counting, ratios, and chemistry by adding ingredients, mixing them together, and observing how they change. During this time, I like to prepare foods that relate to books we're reading. If we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, we make a fruit salad with all of the fruits mentioned in the book. I also use a music video by The Wiggles to get the kids moving and excited for our fruit salad (see link below).
A food study is a great time to introduce the concepts of healthy foods, "sometimes" foods, and international foods. Typically, I conduct the food unit in December. On the last day before winter break, I like to have a family day where families bring foods that are special to their culture. Not only does this give students (and staff) an opportunity to taste foods they may not have tasted before, it builds the classroom community. Families can share foods that are important to them and their culture; many families also show up in traditional dress during our multicultural celebration. In my experience, families are often eager to share important parts of their culture. I always want students and families to feel valued and respected in my classroom. A multicultural celebration provides space for families of different backgrounds to come together and learn about each other. It's a great way for students to see that their whole self is an important part of their school identity.
I don't like to dwell on healthy versus "sometimes" foods too much with my students. I don't want them to think any foods are "bad" or that they can't ever have junk food. But, I understand encouraging students to make healthful eating choices when they are young is crucial to combating childhood obesity. My classes might play a sorting game where they place images of foods into a "go" category (fruits, vegetables, lean meats, dairy) and a "slow" or "sometimes" category (candy, fast food, chips, desserts, pastries). I try to feature popular healthy foods, such as grapes, strawberries, celery, and peanut butter. I want my students to see there are yummy foods that they can have every day. And I still want them to enjoy "slow" foods, but I want them to go easy on those. (Although, one year I crushed a little boy's spirit because he pointed to the slow foods category and said, "I just like those ones." I told him that that was okay, "we just can't have them every day. " His shoulders slumped and he glowered at me.)
An equally important component of health is mental health. I always tell my families that the main goal of preschool is to get kids socially and emotionally ready to be in a classroom. Part of the way I do this is through teaching emotional regulation. In school lingo, this is "mindfulness." I know "mindfulness" can be a trigger word for some families, but when a school talks about mindfulness, they mean a secular practice that is devoted to identifying and controlling strong emotions. Every day, I do a five-minute mindfulness activity with my class. Sometimes, we do breathing exercises, other times we listen to gentle music, some days we might do some yoga poses. My overall goal with mindfulness practice is to teach my students how to calm down when they experience strong emotions. Often times, young children resort to hitting, tantruming, or crying when experiencing strong emotions simply because they don't know any other strategies. Below are some links to some of my favorite mindfulness, music, and movement videos. (They're all great options when students are stuck inside on especially chilly days.)
For more information about mindfulness in the classroom, see my other blog post, creatively entitled Mindfulness in the Classroom.
References
Idiculla, S. (2021) Why do children need music and rhythm in their lives? Playstreet. https://www.playstreet.in/2021/10/21/why-do-children-need-music-and-rhythm-in-their-lives/#:~:text=Studies%20have%20shown%20that%20learning,creates%20the%20perception%20of%20time.
Naticchioni, K. (2013). The Relationship between Obesity and Academic Achievement of School-Age Children. John Carroll University. https://collected.jcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1008&context=honorspapers
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