Live: Design Your Own Bread Mask

Objective: To enhance children’s creativity and aestheticism, show them the nutritional values of different types of food, and to encourage them to try food not within their preference for the sake of a balanced diet.

Time: 20 minutes

Materials: Sliced bread, mixed vegetables, low-fat cheese, raisins, etc.

Let’s GO!

1. Teacher discusses with children the nutritional values of different types of food.
   
   
2. Children design their own masks by placing ingredients on bread slices.
   
   
3. In the end, they present their work and share the food.

Useful Ways to Combat Fussy Eating

1. Participate in cooking:

   Many children did not like beans, yet they were willing to try the stir-fried beans and eggs because they took part in the cooking. They even asked their parents to cook the dish at home. Their parents were delighted.

    

2. Upgrade nutritional value:

   Sausages were once used in the activity ‘Design Your Own Bread Mask’. As soon as the staff members had learnt that sausages were processed food with high sodium content, they replaced them with cheese slices, which was more nutritious.

    

3. Enable home-school collaboration:

   The teachers cooked vegetable soup together with the pupils. They encouraged the children to bring vegetables to school; they also invited the parents to help the food preparation staff out in the cooking. After the activity, children had more initiatives for eating vegetables.

    

4. Enable peer encouragement:

   The pupils in the whole-day class now encourage each other to eat whatever is in their lunchboxes, including the less popular food items. They may say to each other: ‘This item is nutritious and should be eaten as often as possible. No more fussy eating!’

Stage 3: Sharing Platform

Ms. Tam Siu Man , Headmistress

• A healthy eating habit stems from childhood and keeps us healthy all through adulthood. However, there are lots of obese boys and girls who have problems like hyperlipidemia and diabetes. The situation is worrying.
  
  
• I have learnt from the activity ‘Be a Smart Cook' that many parents choose only foods which their children like and avoid those they don’t, as adults think that kids are not willing to try new stuff. In the activity, however, both adults and children ate the beans happily because the dish was cooked by themselves. Some children even told their mothers that ‘stir-fried beans and eggs’ was very delicious and asked their mothers to do it at home.
  
  
• Parents now understand the importance of a balanced diet for their children. They have learnt more about nutrition from parent-child cooking competitions, snack-making competitions as well as other practical experiences.

Ms. Lam Po See , Teacher

• We brought kitchenware to class and turned the classroom into a kitchenette. Children were curious. We encouraged them to participate in the cooking such as whisking the eggs and spooning the beans. They enjoyed cooking with us together.
  
  
• Many parents overlook the importance of a healthy daily diet. They allow their children to eat a lot of unhealthy snacks as they have little understanding about what a balanced diet is. Therefore, we introduced healthy food to our pupils through thematic activities and cooking demonstrations. As time went by, they started asking their parents to buy healthy food more often, thus reminding their parents the importance of healthy eating.

Ms. Leung Ka Lai , Teacher

• We hope the children can apply what they learn in real life. That’s why we asked them to create the bread masks with 5 healthy ingredients. They were very enthusiastic in designing the masks. Children who used to dislike raisins are now willing to try them because they found the masks funny with the raisins, and they really appreciated their own work, which was full of creativity.

Conclusion

StartSmart@school.hk Pilot Project provided a number of workshops which consolidated teachers’ understanding about a balanced diet. These workshops assisted the school in reviewing children’s intake of nutrients and calculating the ideal food portion for them. The school also held the ‘StartSmart birthday parties’ and talks for parents, which heightened their awareness of healthy eating.