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Our healthy kai times and learning new skills

Here at BestStart Roydvale we provide all meals. This varies from day to day and runs on a four week cycle of different meals. Most of the meals are hot at lunchtime with the exception of 'Lunchbox day'. On this day children are offered a variety of food that they may be given in a lunchbox when they go to school, creating the connections with school routines. This usually includes a sandwich, raisins, carrot sticks, a cracker and yoghurt in a small container with a twist-able lid. The yoghurt containers that we provide the children with, encourage the children to learn how to take the lid off to then help prepare them for an experience they may have when at school.

Hot meals always have a variety of vegetables. One of our macaroni cheese dishes has cauliflower mixed through it, which most of the children do not even notice is there. There are lots of nutritional benefits from all the vegetables, fruit and food we offer. From a very young age in the Nursery children are developing and practicing their fine motor skills and hand eye coordination by using their spoons to feed themselves. This is important for pre-writing development.

Teachers in the classrooms inspire children, whanau and other children to be creative with food. They often bake or make food items with the children.

Recently a teacher in the Toddler room alongside the children has made delicious and healthy ice blocks that linked to their current dinosaur interest simply by their colour and shape. They were green in appearance thanks to the two portions of spinach they added. This experience provided them the opportunity to talk about the health benefits and goodness of banana, spinach, coconut milk and pineapple juice. It was wonderful listening to the children explain why certain foods were good for us and why others were not. A few of them said they didn't like spinach but then demolished the ice blocks. When we popped them out of the ice tray the teacher asked the children what they looked like? These delicious ice blocks (tropical pops) were a hit with the majority of the children and watching them devour something healthy and nutritious is such a delight.

The Nursery recently made healthy oat biscuits with no sugar and the preschool baked their own bread for afternoon tea.

We have spinach and other herbs growing in our garden that also goes into the meals and baking. Teaching children about the connections between different elements and where food comes from.