Author: Leslie Hildesheim
Planning Unit: Fayette County CES
Major Program: Making Healthy Lifestyle Choices (general)
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
~~Snap -Ed assistant of Fayette County Extension Service collaborated with Cardinal Valley Elementary schools Preschool and Resource coordinator to create a schedule of interactive LEAP lessons with two of her pre-school classes over a 4 month period to increase physical, mental and social health. This program was called, “LEAP into Healthy Nutrition” and used the Healthy Choices and Super Star Chef curriculum collectively to improve washing frequency, manners when eating at the table and increase knowledge of healthy snacks.This series took place over a 4 month period at Cardinal Valley Elementary school where the Preschool and Resource coordinator assisted in picking out the bimonthly lessons which included a lesson for the day, story that drove main messages home and snack that incorporated healthy eating options into the lesson. Snap – Ed assistant conducted nutrition education using interactive tools like Myplate, food models and ice breakers to break down barriers built by students based on popularity, family dynamics and sibling situations. Each session included 30 minutes of storytelling and nutrition lesson, 30 minutes of snack time and 15 minutes of feedback/take away message for the week.There were two preschool classes with 25 participants in each class, from ages 3 to 5. The group, as a whole, demonstrated positive behavior changes in: increasing food selection by trying different recipes through Super Star Chef curriculum which had a positive change on decreasing fast food desires. Student’s confidence increased by improving recipe reading and how to prepare better meals. Participants have since become excited for the arrival of Snap – Ed assistant Leslie Hildesheim because they want to know the recipe for the day. Students have made the following statements “Snap ed assistant is cool and ask me instead of tells me to do something like my older brother.” and “I have a lot of brothers and sisters and I like to help but I don’t get to often, I get to help here.”Other results reported by the group include starting to maintain a garden that will meet every week to plant, grow, and weed to supply vegetables to cooking classes offered in the elementary classrooms. The club will be open to all students who want to participate as a way to reinforce the ideas of how simple it can be to grow a garden.
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