Five Learning Outcomes

1. Language development:

   By telling what they have bought, children learn the Chinese vocabulary in question and make sentences by telling whether they have bought gourds, leafy vegetables or legumes.

    

2. Knowledge acquisition:

   They can identify the types and the characteristics of vegetable and other healthy food items.

    

3. Real-life experience:

   Role-play games are based on children’s daily life to help them understand the benefits of vegetables more effectively.

    

4. Daily application:

   Children understand the benefit of eating vegetable and apply the knowledge to daily life. When they are doing role-play, some children even tell others that they should eat more vegetables to facilitate bowel movement.

    

5. Fitness training:

   Through physical activity, children learn to be patient, encouraging and cooperating with each other. Their physical capabilities including sensitivity, coordination of limbs, speed and reaction are also enhanced.

    

Joyful Vegetable Reminder

1. Sweating causes loss of body fluid. Therefore, children should drink plenty of water after physical activities.
   
   
2. Teachers should measure the height and weight of children regularly with reference to the ‘Weight-for-Height’ chart so as to keep track of their growth.
   
   
3. Parents are encouraged to work out more with their kids, such as playing in parks, swimming, running or dancing.
   
   
4. Parents should refer to their children’s learning profiles (which include the assessment and photo records) regularly and attend Parents’ Days in order to understand more about their children’s physical development.

Stage 3: Sharing Platform

Ms. Tam Kit Lai Kitt , Headmistress

• Children shared with each other what they had learnt in class. They even brought fruit back to our birthday parties. Children not only ate fruit at school, but also brought the healthy eating messages back home and shared their fruit and vegetable eating experience at school.
  
  
• Parents said that the resources provided by the Department of Health were very comprehensive. They found themselves given a lot of useful information.

Ms. Lui Tsui Shan , Teacher

• After attending the workshop, I learnt that processed food items were bad for children’s health. We replaced them with healthy food choices and adopted new recipes such as ‘steamed minced pork and tofu’, ‘stir-fried chicken with sweet corn and yellow pepper’ and ‘soup of carrot and green turnip’.
  
  
• Now our food preparation staff take account of the quantity of salt and oil when planning menus and when cooking. I understand that we should use no more than two tablespoons of oil per person per meal. The sample demonstrations as in the nutrition guidelines are easy to understand and follow. Despite the tight schedule of class work, it is essential for children to learn the importance of a balanced diet. Therefore, we conduct lessons on this topic by making use of story-telling activities, worksheets and outdoor visits. Also, we find the leaflets and suggested activities provided by the Department of Health extremely useful for us to design our teaching activities.

Conclusion

Since the school signed up for the StartSmart@school.hk Pilot Project, their children have gained a deeper understanding of healthy diet. They have become more comfortable with eating vegetables and are more aware of their subsequent benefits. Since most of the vegetables are green, the school use those with other colours instead, such as yellow corn or red pepper, to attract the children and arouse their curiosity about vegetables and fruits. Now the children are more eager to learn and consume vegetables.