1. Module 1: Creating Positive Mealtime Attitudes
Cooking Matters for Child Care Professionals
Module 1: Creating Positive Mealtime Attitudes

2. Mealtime Rituals
What are your Child Care Center rituals around mealtime?
What are your personal mealtime rituals?
For young children, rituals are comforting and provide stability. They reinforce a bond or sense of identity and belonging to a particular group.

3. Rituals vs. Routine Rituals create emotional value
Routines can contribute to positive behaviors
Are meaningful activities
Require carful focus and presence of mind
Include
Walks
Prayer
Mediation
Performed without conscious thinking
Does not require focus and presence of mind
Include
Going to work
Preparing for bedtime
Routine – dropping kids off at day care each day; Ritual – giving a kiss good by, hug, waving

4. Ritual Brainstorm Activity
Setting the table
Mealtime discussion
Cleanup

5. How can positive attitudes lead to healthy food habits and positive meal time behaviors?
Kids learn:
to appreciate new foods
to make healthy choices and figure out how much to eat by observing others.
to eat meals and snacks at set times, rather than grazing throughout the day.
cooperation and responsibility by contributing to mealtimes tasks.
the value of eating together, and the conversation helps them develop social skills and good manners.
Adjust slide to float in answers and summarize answers.

6. What Do Children Learn About Eating From You?
What, when, and where to eat and drink
How to prepare food
How to serve food
Mealtime behavior
Attitudes about food

7. What Do Children Learn About Eating From You?
If this staff member was eating a fast food meal out of a bag instead of the school lunch….
Do we want to change this slide?
…what message would that send to the kids?

8. Children Imitate Others
Parents
Caregivers
Siblings
Relatives
Other children
Celebrities and cartoon heroes
Model the behaviors and attitudes you want children to follow. They are watching you!

9. Feeding Kids Well Takes Teamwork!
The children in this classroom are learning that fruits and vegetables make great snacks.
Every day this week, the afternoon snack has been milk and graham crackers.
What message are the kids getting?

10. Want Kids to Reach for Healthy Foods?
Make sure healthy foods are in reach!
Let kids learn by choosing for themselves which foods to take and how much to eat
Let them help with food preparation in age-appropriate ways

11. Activity Fruit and Vegetable Mystery Bag
Place one whole fruit or veggie into a brown paper bag.
Allow the kids to place their hands in the bag one at a time and ask them to describe what they are feeling.
Once the mystery is solved, ask the kids if they have tried this food before, did they like it, would they like to try it?
Have the kids taste test the food.
For full instructions see page 2 of Exploring Foods Together.

12. Goal Setting Complete the worksheet on page 9 Discuss in small groups
Mealtime rituals
Modeling healthy mealtime behaviors

13. Questions?