As part of our Healthy Heart Award journey, our Preschool tamariki have been enjoying a range of meaningful and hands-on learning experiences focused on keeping our hearts, minds, and bodies healthy and strong.
One of our recent learning experiences involved exploring healthy and unhealthy food choices.
Our tamariki were encouraged to look closely at different foods, talk about what they noticed, and sort them into healthy and unhealthy groups. There were lots of great conversations as the children shared their ideas and talked about the foods they enjoy at home. Through this experience, we are supporting our tamariki to begin developing an understanding of nutrition and how the food we eat helps give our bodies the energy we need to learn, play, and grow. 🍎🥕🥦
We know that having a healthy heart is not only about the food we eat—it is also about keeping our bodies active. To extend this learning, our kaiako set up physical provocations and an exciting obstacle course where the children could challenge themselves through balancing, climbing, stepping, jumping, and moving in different ways. The obstacle course provided many opportunities for our tamariki to strengthen their balance, coordination, gross motor skills, body awareness, and confidence. It was wonderful to see them giving things a go, working out how to move safely through each challenge, encouraging their friends, and feeling proud of what their bodies could achieve. 🏃♀️🤸♂️💪
These experiences also supported our tamariki to understand that looking after ourselves can be fun and can be part of our everyday routines. By providing opportunities to explore nutritious food choices and participate in active movement, we are helping children build positive habits and attitudes towards their health and wellbeing from an early age. We are so proud to see our Preschool tamariki becoming more confident in making healthy choices, staying active, and learning about different ways they can care for their amazing bodies and hearts.
❤️ Healthy choices, active bodies, happy hearts! 🌱❤️