Nutrition - Making Healthy Snacks. - Growing our own fruits and Vegetables

Making Healthy Snacks - Growing our own fruits and vegetables
Nutrition

Parkdale Elementary

Maria Kanellopoulos, a Cycle 1 teacher at Parkdale CLC worked to develop a nutrition project integrated in French, Drama and Art. As students learned about proper nutrition they developed presentations and participated in the planting of a school garden  This project shows how even young students can play a role in promoting healthy communities.

Students walked to a nearby grocery store where they learned about the food groups through a hands-on experience by shopping for supplies needed for a Healthy Snack Day with their parents.  

Then students prepared healthy snacks which included, zucchini muffins, avocado-salsa dip and onion dip for the veggies and a tangy-sweet dip for the fruits. The students also prepared fruit and vegetable brochettes, fruit salad and veggie pita pizza.

According to Ms. Kanellopoulos “The students were inspired and gained a sense of responsibility, self-esteem, and ownership”. At the beginning of May, the students planted vegetables in class.

Using fabric markers, students colored their pizza ingredients on tee-shirts and performed the song, ''Je suis une pizza'', for their parents. Students shared their nutrition book created in class which included all their work.

Many pictures were taken throughout this process and the parents had the opportunity to see the whole process through a photo slide show.  Ms. Kanellopoulos wrote that “Needless to say, they learned so much through this experience and I also learned so much from my little grade 1's”.

Some of the greatest successes of the project included the "real" learning that took place and the sense of community that was created. Families were brought together.  A lesson learned by the teacher in charge was the importance of organization and having a team to work together to pull off this kind of project.

For more information about this project click here.