Dilly Days with Beth and Joellyn: Authors of The InvestiGator Club™ for Robert-Leslie Publishing

We’re optimistic that more and more teachers and parents understand that food preferences develop early in life. As Beth and I travel around the country, we’re consistently seeing preschoolers being encouraged to choose healthy foods for their meals and snacks.

A lot of the emphasis in this effort is directed towards the fruits-and-vegetables food group. While fruits and vegetables are certainly important to a healthy diet, we need to remember that young children have a lot of other nutritional needs as well. The calcium in milk products, such as cheese and yogurt, are vital for growing children. Good protein sources, like meat, beans, and tofu, should also be included. And let’s not forget about the breads and cereals.

Too many fruits and vegetables can give children too much fiber and too few calories. An unbalanced diet can deprive children of much-needed fats, necessary for proper growth and development. The USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that fats comprise between 25% and 35% of a four-year-old’s total caloric intake.

There are now news reports that some schools are starting to underfeed children. In our zeal to do the best for our kids, we need to guard against overcorrection.

Where do your preschoolers eat? A positive and comfortable eating area in the classroom helps children focus on the food when it is time to eat. Provide a place for each child at an appropriately sized table.

To help transition in and out of snack time from activity times, assign children specific tasks that must be completed before and after each meal break. Perhaps it is someone’s responsibility to place a napkin at each spot or to make sure that all the garbage ends up in the garbage can. Wow parents by modeling and role-playing appropriate table manners. Have certain meals be extra special ones so everyone can practice and show-off what he or she has learned.

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the best way for children to learn about nutrition is when they are involved with actual food—”not simply answer[ing] questions in workbooks or sing[ing] songs about vegetables.”

Here’s a snack-time activity to combine healthy eating with fine motor-skill development and the proper use of utensils. Set out small containers of fruit yogurt and graham crackers. Have the children use spoons or cheese spreaders (no sharp edges) to add yogurt on top of the crackers. They can experiment and decide just how much yogurt to add to get the best taste combination.

The Jonesboro Sun newspaper did a story on The InvestiGator Club!

Two days ago in a Chicago suburb, a 3-year-old boy accidentally died when he became entangled in his bedroom’s Venetian blind cord. It made me realize once again just how different the world looks to our prekindergartners.

A lot of us spent time toddler-proofing our environments for a newly crawling or walking child, but have we been lapse in our updates? It helps to get at the young ones’ eye-levels and move around. The world looks different at that height. Teachers can and should do this in their classrooms.

Is the furniture appropriate in size? Can anything topple over if pulled? What is within reach that shouldn’t be? Can anything pinch or trap a limb or a head?

Here are some resources and informative sites about cord safety:

• State Farm
• Parents for Window Blind Safety
• Strangulation and entrapment prevention

I will be leading three presentations at this week’s National Head Start Training Conference in Nashville. They are all tomorrow, the 22nd. Whew!

• 8:00 to 9:30 am: Using a Core Curriculum that Emphasizes the Needs of Children with Diverse Abilities
• 10:00 to 11:30 am: Building Relationships Between Schools and Families
• 12:00 to 1:30 pm: A Fully Intertwined Approach to Science and Literacy

I’ll also be in exhibition booth #331 for Robert-Leslie Publishing on the 23rd and 24th.

Welcome to Spring, everyone! Here’s a Butterfly Color & Match Activity to do with the little ones as the days get warmer.

Beth is going to be attending and presenting at the Alabama Pre-K Conference in Montgomery this week. At dinner on Wednesday night, she’ll be speaking on “This is the Bestest Day of My Life: Bringing Joy to the Preschool Classroom through Social and Emotional Development.”

Then on Thursday afternoon (3:30–4:45), she is leading the breakout session: Investigating with Science Wrapped in Literacy. You can also meet her on the exhibit floor. Please stop by and say “hi!”

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Here’s one last snack idea for you, and it is the easiest of them all!

Chilly Willy Grapes
Freeze seedless grapes. Take them from the freezer, and eat them while they’re still frosty cold! Yum.

Here’s a fun Dramatic Play Learning Center activity from The InvestiGator Club Prekindergarten Learning System that you can complete with your children.