Regular Meal Time
StartSmart Pilot School : MCC Little Angel (Tin Shing) Kindergarten
«Passing through the Dietary Time Tunnel»
Beware of irregular and unbalanced diet
Stage 1: Introduction
Children have faster metabolism but smaller stomachs. They usually don’t eat much in every meal yet they lose much energy and water during lessons, then they feel hungry again soon. However, eating too frequently will probably result into overeating, so it is essential to have breakfast, lunch and dinner at regular intervals and in proper portions. If necessary, children can have some healthy snacks in between, i.e. 1.5 to 2 hours before or after the meals. They should not have their meals spoiled by playing or too much snack.
MCC Little Angel (Tin Shing) Kindergarten designed a special ‘dietary time tunnel’ according to the designated topic of ‘regular meal time’. Children had to hurdle the low fence and pass through the time tunnels (which represent the 3 meals every day) and lift certain objects. Through these physical exercises, the health messages were disseminated.
The school has always been playing the roles of an educationist and also a caregiver. Since children need sufficient energy and nutrients for their growth, it is vital for them to establish a regular diet. In designing the diet, the school referred to the recommendations from the nutrition guidelines of the StartSmart@school.hk Pilot Project. Food items of the proper types in the right amount were given to pupils to satisfy their nutritional needs.
Stage 2: Start Smart!
Live: Dietary Time Tunnel
Objective: To teach children the concept of regular diet, and to show them that the 3 meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) in appropriate portions are essential.
Time: 30 minutes
Materials: A toy box, pictures of food in meals, real objects of unhealthy snacks, water bottles, towels, soft mattresses, a toy tunnel, low fence, and a whiteboard.
Let’s GO!
- The toy box contains pictures of meal food and actual objects of unhealthy snacks. Ask the children to find the portion table from inside the box.
- They carry the pictures and hurdle over the breakfast fence (meaning that they have had breakfast); then they stand on the mattresses and lift the water bottles 5 times (meaning that there should be 4 to 6 hours between two meals). Afterwards, they pass through the lunch tunnel and lift the towels 5 times (meaning that there should be 4 to 6 hours between two meals).
- Finally they have to post the pictures on the whiteboard.
Eat Regularly, Exercise Regularly
- Exercise every day:
The project raised the school’s concern about children’s diet as well as their physical activity. The teachers danced with the children every morning and afternoon, hoping to arrange for them 25 minutes of major muscle activity every day.
- Exercise at home:
Balancing, bending and stretching are actions that children have to do at school for the development of the agility and flexibility of their major muscles. Children were encouraged to do simple exercise at home too, such as lifting water bottles and towels.
- Family-school collaboration:
Parents are mostly in charge of providing food to their children. Yet some parents neglect the importance of a diversified diet. Therefore, the school also informed the parents of what a balanced diet was, in the hope that they would observe it at home.
- Healthy cooking class:
The school organised ‘healthy cooking classes’ in order to get the message of healthy diet across to families.
Props position（From left to right order）
- Toy box
- Low fence
- Mat
- Tunnel
- Mat
- Tunnel
- White board
Action Flow
- Leap the low fence
- Standing on the mat and lift the water bottle up five times. Then, go through the lunch tunnel
- Then, go through the lunch tunnel
- Standing on the mat and lift the water bottle up five times.
- Standing on the mat and lift the towel up five times. Then, go through the dinner tunnel.
- Find the pictures and stick them onto the white board.
Standing on the mat represents that there should be four to six hours between meals and need to do regular exercise
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