Healthy Mind, Active Bodies

Before this project began the children had an increasing interest in yoga and sports, our project was designed to explore Healthy Food and Active Bodies and extend the interests of the children.

Our goal as a team was to share our love of being healthy and active with the children, to involve them in more gardening, to support the development of healthy attitudes towards food and positive body image and staying active. We investigated a wide range of topics and had so many new experiences relating to food and being active. We went on trips and had visitors come to Kidditech. There was so much creativity, inspiration, development of ideas and interests and most of all fun.

Some of the things the children were involved in: numerous yoga sessions often lead by the children, foods from a variety of different cultures, lots of parent involvement. The children tried different sports, attended a football session at Pioneer Park, martial arts at Kidditech and a trip to the gym at Pioneer. We made a huge variety of foods; vegetable fritters, fruit leathers, egg sandwiches, pizza, buns and more, took a trip to Oderings garden centre and purchased herbs and vegetables for our garden. We researched where our food comes from, took a trip to the supermarket and did lots of gardening. We built a bean teepee, and grew lots of vegetables including sharing our oversupply of vegetable garden produce with families. We also looked at what allergies and Intolerances are, did taste testing, investigated the food groups and so much more.

“Te Whaariki – Early Childhood Curriculum – Health and Physical Well-being: the physical, social, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of growth are all important to enable children to develop confidence in themselves and their abilities.” This project has enabled a huge range of learning experiences; health and well-being, physical skills, investigations and experiments, getting out into our community and bringing the community to us have all featured in the learning.