Balanced Diet
StartSmart Pilot School : May Nga Kindergarten (Branch)
《Healthy Friday》
All-rounded strategies towards healthy life
Stage 1: Introduction
With the execution of the StartSmart@school.hk Pilot Project, ‘balanced diet’ and other health-related topics became the major themes of each ‘Friday activities’ in May Nga Kindergarten. Children are taught the concepts about having regular meals, eating healthily, and replenishing water every now and then.
After attending the workshops and talks, teachers realised that healthy food could be delicious and easy to be made, and that children would learn to appreciate the food in fun. Therefore, interesting games and fitness activities were arranged to familiarise children with the Food Pyramid and the benefits of healthy diet and regular exercise.
The school encouraged children to work out with family together more often, avoid greasy food and get enough sleep so that children could live a healthy lifestyle. Meanwhile, the teachers themselves served as role models for children.
Stage 2: Start Smart!
Live: Balanced Diet 1+2+3
Objective: To familiarise children with the concept of a balanced diet and the ‘Healthy Lunch 3-2-1’ formula.
Time: 35 minutes
Materials: Hula hoops (which represent lunch boxes), a music CD, stickers, and picture cards (of Chinese cabbage, choy sum, beef, chicken, spaghetti, etc.).
Let’s GO!
- The teacher shows the picture cards and asks the children to identify the names of the food featured.
- The teacher explains the Healthy Lunch 3-2-1 formula. If a healthy lunch box is divided into six parts, grains and cereals should take three, vegetables two, and meat one. As such, the ratio among grains/cereals, vegetables and meat is 3:2:1.
- Each child puts on a picture card that represents a kind of food. The teacher will act as fruits.
- Play some music. Children move around freely. When the music stops, children have to form themselves into a combination of a healthy lunch and stand inside the hula hoops, i.e. one child representing meat , 2 kids representing vegetable and 3 kids representing grains/cereals.
- The teacher will spot the 2 fastest groups with the correct combination, walk into their rattan hoops and form a complete Healthy Lunch. Children will be awarded with stickers.
Together We Win!
Family support was essential in facilitating the project. Senior pupils were asked to design their own healthy diet with their parents. They researched on the internet, bought ingredients and cooked the dishes together. The pupils had to interview their parents too. At the end of the project, a talk was hosted by children to share with each other their progress. Thirty children and half the number of their parents attended the talk, which was indeed a great success.
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