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Archive for the ‘Health/Safety’ Category

Planning a Fun, Enriching & Healthy Fall/Halloween Party!

Kids love Halloween!

 Halloween is one of kids favorite days of the year, because they get to dress-up in costumes and enjoy lots of treats for a day! Have you already planned your Halloween party? If not, here are some fun and easy Fall/Halloween party ideas to assure a  fun, enriching & healthy party for the children in your childcare business:

1. Invite the parents to send a child friendlycostume that fits each of the children properly.

2. Plan fun pumpkin or fall related games. For example: Use  hay stacks to create a maze and then challenge the children to walk through the maze or provide the children with pumpkins to carve and sort through the seeds to bake.

3. Plan a Costume Parade! While the children are in their costumes, take them outdoors for a walk around your home or center. This is a treat for the community, because it is so exciting to see young children in costumes.

4. Make it a Healthy Party! If you will be serving hotdogs and juice, consider serving 100% fruit juice and slicing hotdogs for children under the age of 3, to prevent choking.

Instead of loading party bags with candy, provide the children with Halloween or fall related items such as: pencils, erasers, fun toys, bubbles, etc. These items can be purchased at the local dollar store.

5. Provide Parents with Halloween safety resources. Post Halloween safety tips where parents can see them and/or issue Halloween safety articles to parents.

6. Decorate your home or center with fall related colors such as; orange and black streamer and decorate tables with orange/black table clothes.  Orange balloons will also provide a more festive look. Safety tip: immediately throw away balloons that are deflated to prevent a child from choking on a balloon.

Have a Fun & Safe Fall/Halloween! 

Resource Links:

Halloween Activities

Halloween Health Tip

Which Halloween Candy do dentist recommend?

Category:

Events, Health/Safety

Tips For Serving Healthier Meals in Your Child Care Program

According to the Missouri Eat Smart Childhood obesity and Missouri’s Eat Smart Guidelines for Child Care, “Overweight is now the most nutritional disease of children. Preschool children who are overweight are almost 5 times more likely to be overweight as young adults.”

Missouri Eat Smart Guidelines for Childcare also concludes that children may get 50%-75% of daily food needs in childcare. This is why it is vital that childcare programs serve nutritional balance meals. Here are some tips for serving healthier meals in your childcare program:

Breakfast

  • Limit sweetened cereals served
  • choose cereal that contain more fiber
  • limit sweet breakfast items
  • provide more whole grain foods
  • serve more fruit and less juice
  • provide low-fat or skim milk

Lunch

  • Limit the processed foods
  • More raw fruits & vegetables
  • Use low-fat or fat-free salad dressing
  • Serve whole grain breads
  • offer low-fat milk as a drink

Snack

  • Limit sweet snacks
  • provide protein snacks (peanut butter, yogurt, etc)
  • 100% Juice or raw fruit
  • whole grain crackers
  • raw fruits or veggies

Thanks in advance for helping to reduce the Childhood obesity rate in America by simply making healthier changes in your menus and also by educating parents.

If you would like to receive more nutritional resources, please Download a Copy of the Healthy Child Care Menus ebook.

 

With Healthy Kids in Mind,

Shiketa Morgan

Category:

Health/Safety, Menu Planning

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