Mind, Body, and Soul: Nutrition

Mind, Body, & Soul
A Newsletter on Health, Safety, and Nutrition
LONI SUMRULD | ECE 105 | ISSUE NO. 3
following directions and problem-

solving and physical skills such as
Let’s Get Kids Cooking: fine motor development) that lend
themselves to creativity and
confidence in creating, tweaking,
Food. Everyone needs it. But how to ensure that the child is getting and eating their favorite healthy
much of it? And what kinds? If the proper amount of food, recipes. (The benefits of cooking with
adults have trouble figuring this macro- and micronutrients to be preschoolers, n.d.) Together, we can
out, how can we ensure that our healthy. It is not enough to simply give children the best chance for
children are getting the nutrition introduce new foods to children or success by laying the nutritional
they need? to tell them about what foods they building blocks of their future!
should or shouldn’t be eating, but
When a child is hungry, not only children eat what their caregivers
can they not focus and pay eat. If the adults in their lives
attention in school, but a lack of overeat, then children are also
f o o d a l s o s t u n t s t h e c h i l d ’s prone to this, which links parents’
cognitive and physical relationships with food to a
development. (Nutrition and early child’s. (Lindsay et al., 2006)
brain development, n.d.) Ensuring
that a child has proper nutrition School-aged children can often be
sets them up for success as a child, picky eaters, so involving them in
but also paves the way for the the cooking process is a method
habits that they will maintain into that helps break away from those
adulthood. preferences while also increasing
their knowledge about a variety of
Parents and caregivers are the first foods. These hands-on skills teach
people to introduce food into a children to be confident and gain
child’s life, it is their responsibility skills (cognitive skills such as
THE LACK OF ACCESS TO PROPER NUTRITION IS NOT ONLY FUELING OBESITY, IT IS

LEADING TO FOOD INSECURITY AND HUNGER AMONG OUR CHILDREN. - TOM VILSACK
How Did That Get in My
LunchBox?
How Did That Get In My Lunchbox?: The Story of Food by
Chris Butterworth takes children on an exciting food
journey. The book answers questions like who made the
bread for the sandwich? What about the cheese inside? Who
plucked the fruit? And where did the chocolate in that
cookie get its start?
This book teaches children to appreciate the long journey

that food must take to get onto their plates.
Cafeteria Tour
Next week, our class will be taking a tour of the school’s
cafeteria facility for a “behind the scenes” look at where the
food they eat at school comes from. The kitchen servers and
staﬀ will talk about what they cook and how they prepare it
to ensure that all the students are getting the nutrition they
need to be healthy and to answer any food-based questions
that come their way.
For the interested children, the cafeteria is accepting

student helpers to prepare and serve snacks, and to help
serve other students when necessary at meals.
If your child has expressed interest in being a cafeteria

helper, a permission slip and waiver has been mailed to allow
them into the kitchen.
We’re growing a Garden!

This week we started our more about the
class garden! Each foods they eat.
student got to pick
a fruit or vegetable Ask your kids
to grow and about the seeds
planted the seeds that they chose
themselves. to plant and
w h y. C h a n c e s
Ha v i n g the are, they want to
students work tell you all about
together to care for this great or new
and maintain our garden is a food that they’re growing
great exercise that teaches and excited to try!
students responsibility and
allows children to learn
Take it Home With you
Books about Food:
How Does My Garden Grow? by Gerda Muller
A Fruit is a Suitcase for Seeds by Jean Richards
What If There Were No Bees? A Book about the Grassland

Ecosystem by Suzanne Slade
At-Home Activities:
Let your kids be the produce pickers. At the supermarket,
engage your children so that they are part of the shopping
process. Instead of putting them in the cart with your phone,
ask them about the foods that they see and ask their opinion
about at least one meal (or a fruit or vegetable). This keeps them
interested in what’s going on in the kitchen, and inevitably, what
goes into their bodies.
Become an urban harvester. Websites like Falling Fruit

For more information on health, safety, and contain a large list (in map form) of what plants are growing near
nutrition, visit my ECE Portfolio. you! They note each spot with a red dot on the map and tell you
what’s growing there and whether or not the source is on public
or private land to be picked. Get out with your kids for a
weekend excursion and try to find a good, healthy snack!
Volunteer in the garden!

Our garden may have just gotten started, but we’re anticipating a
large crop and need help maintaining the space. If you’re interested
or want to learn more about gardening and why your children are
doing it, please get in contact. We would love to dig around in the
dirt with you!

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Mind, Body, & Soul

A Newsletter on Health, Safety, and Nutrition

LONI SUMRULD | ECE 105 | ISSUE NO. 3

following directions and problem-

THE LACK OF ACCESS TO PROPER NUTRITION IS NOT ONLY FUELING OBESITY, IT IS

This book teaches children to appreciate the long journey

For the interested children, the cafeteria is accepting

If your child has expressed interest in being a cafeteria

We’re growing a Garden!

A Fruit is a Suitcase for Seeds by Jean Richards

What If There Were No Bees? A Book about the Grassland

Become an urban harvester. Websites like Falling Fruit

Volunteer in the garden!

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