January 2008
Happy New Year!
All schools
National Nutrition Education Conference
Advanced diary date! The Foundation will be hosting a one-day nutrition education conference on Saturday 20 June 2009 in London. The conference will be of particular interest to food technology and home economics teachers in secondary schools. With changes at KS3, revised GCSE specifications and the FSA competences all having a greater emphasis on nutrition - this is an ideal opportunity to update your own professional knowledge, as well as learn about new teaching resources. Programme details will be released shorty.
Eatwell
Remember that the Foundation has a series of free video podcasts that can be used in school to teach the eatwell plate. Each video is supported by teachers’ notes, a PowerPoint presentation and worksheets. The video is available to download as a file, or you can play it through YouTube or Yahoo! (subject to your school’s access policy). To view or download your videos, go to: http://www.nutrition.org.uk/podcast
Active Kids Get Cooking all year round!
Did you know that as well as the annual special challenge Active Kids Get Cooking run an all year round scheme to reward good food work? It’s easy to get involved - simply register your school on the Active Kids Get Cooking website. Once you are registered, you will receive an attractive teachers’ guide to help you run food awards with your pupils. When you have completed a food award, mark your pupils against a set of simple criteria and order your free certificates online. You can present the certificates to your pupils in an assembly so they can celebrate their achievements. The Active Kids Get Cooking Food Awards support curriculum requirements around the UK, as well as promoting healthy eating and cooking skills. To get involved today, go to: http://www.activekidsgetcooking.org.uk
Pre-School
Great green soup
By now you may have discovered our exciting new pre-school resources in the 3-5 area of the Food – a fact of life website. But have you discovered the Great green soup session, yet? This session helps children learn about the importance of eating vegetables. The main activity involves the children working together to make a Great green soup. During the activity the children learn how to wash, prepare and cook a selection of vegetables to make a soup which they then taste. This can be followed up with an exciting game of Green vegetable bingo to reinforce children’s vegetable vocabulary. After the session, there is a take home sheet which explains to parents and carers what their child has been learning. The sheet also provides an activity which involves the children colouring in chef’s hats for carrying out cooking related tasks at home. Why not have a look at the Great green soup resources now? Go to:
http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/Sheet.aspx?siteId=17§ionId=67&contentId=210
Pre-school poster – are you signed-up for Education News?
Education News is our free newsletter which is published 3 times a year and provides an update on what is happening in food education. Each edition opens out to become a bright poster for use in the classroom. The January edition is a poster designed especially for children aged 3-5 years. The poster shows a food or drink for each letter of the alphabet. The foods and drinks have been chosen to help children learn the sound of each alphabet letter and expand their vocabulary and knowledge about food and drink. The poster can be displayed in its entirety or the letters and images can be cut out to form cards. If you are not already signed up for Education News and wish to receive the free newsletter, email your postal address to Claire at: c.theobald@nutrition.org.uk
Alternatively, you can download the poster at: http://www.nutrition.org.uk/upload/BNF%20AZ%20Food%20Poster.pdf
Primary
Meet Jordon and Nicola
Our latest interactive activity, Energy balance, has been launched and is available online, now! This activity has been designed to help children understand that in order to maintain a healthy weight we have to balance our ‘energy in’ with our ‘energy out’. The user starts by choosing a character, either Jordon or Nicola. The activity requires the user to choose foods and activities for their character for different time periods during a day. Feedback is then provided on whether they have managed to achieve energy balance. This activity is designed for children aged 8-11 years although could be used with older pupils. Come and meet Jordon and Nicola now, at: http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/Activity.aspxsiteId=15§ionId=64&contentId=214
Primary curriculum review – England
Did you know that the primary curriculum in England is currently under review? An interim report which includes information about how the curriculum might be structured under ‘areas of learning’ has been released for comment. To have your say, go to: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/primarycurriculumreview
Share your views on the interim report before 28 February 2009.
Secondary
Secondary resources
Engaging new PowerPoint presentations for the unit ‘Energy and Nutrients’ will be available to support teachers in the classroom by the end of January. Each presentation will also have a summary note-sheet to support students in note taking and allow them to create a concise summary of the PowerPoint presentation. The information has been written to support the curriculum for 11-16 years across the UK. The PowerPoint presentations and the summary note-sheets will be downloadable and modifiable to suit the level of ability and learning needs of your students. These PowerPoint presentations and note-sheets will be available soon from: http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk
Nutrition
Healthy Ageing
The Foundation will shortly be launching its latest Task Force report, Healthy Ageing: The Role of Diet and Nutrition, at a prestigious conference in London on Tuesday 13 January 2009. If you can't make the conference, a comprehensive package of healthy ageing top tips and recipes, as well as a 'Live long and healthily' food chart, will be available. To access this new information, go to http://www.nutrition.org.uk next week.
Feeding children's concentration
"As the children head back to school, what better time to make sure our children’s diets are full of all the right foods to help them to be bright and alert in class? The balance of foods that we feed our children, and the timing of their meals, can have an impact on how they perform at school..." Want to read more? Click here:
http://www.nutrition.org.uk/home.asp?siteId=43§ionId=1562&subSectionId=1348&parentSection=304&which=4