Marcia Said:

I have a quick question about portion sizes for 5 year olds?

We Answered:

You need to go by cups 1/2c. 1/4c. etc. portions instead of plate sizes. A child's stomach is only as big as their fist. So go ahead and give them small portions according to measurements you have and when they say their full let them stop. Don't force them to eat. But do restrict the amounts to a healthy proportion according to their age.

Carole Said:

What vegetables look like a small version of something?

We Answered:

We used to cut grapes in half (lengthwise so the would sit flat, long & low) and pretend they were cars... they do kind of resemble VW Bugs that way :)

celery would make good bridges... baby carrots could be people or telephone poles or something... or "glued" together with peanut butter to make "log cabins" with lettuce/spinach leaves as the roof... cheese sticks would work as "logs" or "poles" too.

Slices of different colored peppers could be used as boats, while a pepper cut in half could be the back end of a truck or a few of them lined up together for a train... (maybe even filled with chex cereal for mail trucks... cheerios and raisins for garbage trucks... cooked cubes of chicken or pretzel rods for lumber trucks)... perhaps the cab of the truck could be a cherry tomato...

shredded cheese could be stacks of hay for the animal crackers

corn kernels could be gold nuggets for the kids to "mine" out of a "cave" of refried beans or something... that might get a little messy, though...

another messy idea is using cottage cheese as the "bubbles" from a car wash... or "snow"

I'm sure more will come to mind after this question has closed... but what a great project! Good luck, I'm sure they will love it!!

Jennie Said:

Lesson Plan Ideas?

We Answered:

Create a series of say four lessons on one topic and in each lesson present a different angle of the lesson.

if you chose say: Exercise is healthy
your first lesson at kindy level would be to present basic information and inspire discussion in your students...

little kids nearly always like to please their teacher and enjoy interacting so asking them for ideas and information is always a good aspect of any lesson...

So initially you would begine by telling kids how exercise makes their muscles strong and their boes grow strong and straight. Then ask them what kinds of things are exercise. They will have a whole bunch of ideas and you can guess some of the ideas they will have and make a simple stick figure image of someone doing the exercises you can think of .... you can either draw these ahead of time on cards and display them on a board one at a time as the kids suggest them or you can draw them (if you are good at drawing them) directly on a whiteboard or blackboard..

so you ask them what kinds of things are exercises and some one calls out 'walking: so you place you walking figure on display... and reassure them they are right... by saying "Yes walking is exercise" then someone says "running" and you place your running figure on the board.
think of lots of different kinds of exercising like various sports, especially those the kids do in their school, and exercises their parents may be involved in too... remember to include dancing, playing, and housework too...

at the completion of the lesson each of the kids will know several kinds of exercise they didnt know before and each of the kids will know that exercise makes you strong.

Lesson two could be to try some of the exercises you discussed in lesson one... you could set up a little exercise course for them to go through where they walk part, hop part, jump part, and run part of the course....when they have all been through the course you could discuss with them which muscles work the hardest in each part of the course... leg muscles, back muscles, thigh muscles, arm muscles, shoulder muscles neck muscles.... help them think about different groups of muscles and what makes those muscles work the hardest...

At the completion of the lesson all of the kids will have tried some new exercises, will know which muscles work hardest while running, jumping, climbing. Do remember to make sure there is plenty of water to drink for the kids while they are exercising.

Lesson three could be to experience how exercise makes our lungs work better and you could show them some aerobic exercise that they can do to music. This does not have to be complicated and even the simple game of playing "Hokey Pokey" can be a great form of aerobic exercise and be very age appropriate for kindy kids. Talk to them about how exercise helps us breathe deeper and makes our lungs grow big and strong. Some discussion around 'what is breath' why do we breathe?' etc can happen in this lesson.

Lesson four could be around how exercise makes our heart grow big and strong so it can pump blood all around our body and keep us healthy. Discuss 'what is a heart' 'what does a heart do?' What is blood for' you could use this lesson to show them how to find their own pulse on their wrist on the carotid artery. get them to do the hokey pokey and then test how fast their pulse is racing after they play the hokey pokey. explain how exercise makes our heart grow stronger and work harder.

Hope this helps....