Introducing EYFS Healthy Eating and Food Activities
In early years it’s important to encourage children to learn more about food as well as expand their tastes. Embracing healthy living and eating in your early years setting can be lots of fun as well as important for growth and development in the vital early years. Involve everyone – all staff or assistants as well as parents and children. This will give you a pot of new ideas as well as a feeling of teamwork.
Here are a few EYFS healthy eating activties to help encourage children to talk about, try and understand the food they eat.
1.Make bread
Help children of all ages weigh, mix and knead their ingredients. Allow them to see how the dough has risen and doubled in size!
Bonus: This not only helps to grow children’s interest in their food, kneading helps develop their small muscles (PD). In additio, it gived them an opportunity to talk about what the think healthy food means (PSED).
2.Plant seeds
By planting seeds in window boxes or outside you can help children understand where their foods come from and how they grow in different ways. Why not try tomatoes, cress or herbs?
Bonus: Take children to a farm to pick fruit, like strawberries. This will help children see a wider variety and will keep them engaged.
3.Try foods from around the world
Have an around the world or festival theme with lots of pick ‘n’ mix bowls. For example, try mangos (from India) or hummus (from Egypt) etc. This will help children try different foods and expand their tastes.
Bonus: Invite families to join in and bring food from different countries, this will help children see all of their role models together promoting and encouraging healthy eating and new foods.