FIND THE FOOD

The children at All Nestled Inn Family Childcare in Lawrence County Ohio enjoy playing Listening Lotto "Find That Food" as I prepare lunch. The game has a CD that allows me to free up my hands and cook and keep the kids interested in the activity as they search for the Grain, Dairy, Protein, or Fruit & Veggie on their Bingo Cards we play and each time we get a winner they are dismissed from the table first for hand washing. Lining up for activities is a big deal for our competitive early learners and this is a great way for us to transition between our activities, prepare for lunch, and build social and emotional connections as we work together. This game can be purchased by visiting: www.keyeducationpublishing.com

TRY-DAY CAMPAIGN

Another great activity we use is the TRY DAY campaign. We keep the 'big Green Monster" poster in our kitchen and when we try something new we get a post it note and add the date child name and age and a like or dislike sticker. This is also a great observation tool for me to use when communicating with parents about their child's nutritional intake and a great way to document growth and development in their individual portfolios. 

August 28th

NUTRITION TIPS & TRAINING

All Nestled Inn knows that Parent Engagement and Resources are a vital part of how we share information with our families. Each July I take the time to web search and shop for new and past resources that will assist me in the new class year in sharing the importance of a health and safety lifestyle. Today I reordered resources free of charge from the following address and I will share these in a parent training at our year end summer picnic to share with our parents the program expectations for a great new class year. Each parent will get a student lunch bag filled with resources and we will review each item and incorporate how those resources are used in our programming and how they can use them in their home to keep the connections ongoing. You can order resources including recipe books and parent handouts from: www.pueblo.gpo.gov

MY HEALTHY PLATE

Another great idea we use is the My Healthy Plate. Our plates are portion sized for measuring how much of each food we need. The kids love to use color coded measuring spoons to measure out their food portions. Walmart and Dollar Tree have multiple colors and as we assign each child a color measuring spoon set we reinforce Eating the rainbow and how each color represents the food pyramid choices. The lunch plates can be ordered from positivepromotions.com