This week’s activity

Sugar

The children have been collecting some of the food packages that are in their lunchboxes and, with the teacher, have been learning about how much sugar is in some of the foods.  To help them visualise how much sugar is in the foods, they looked at the food labels and then measured it out in teaspoons, transferring this to clear plastic bags.  They then went on to create a poster of what they discovered.  This will be displayed outside the front of the Pre-school for you to have a look at (there is a photo of it at the top of this email).  You might be surprised at the results.  To help the children understand why they shouldn’t be having too much sugar and salt in their food, the teacher went on to describe in simple terms what too much can do to their bodies.  These are some of the things the children said:

“Sugar’s not good for you”.

“I have lots of sweeties and they make me feel happy and crazy.  I love them!”

The teacher explained why too much sugar isn’t good for our teeth and body.

“Sometimes my mummy packs a banana in my lunchbox, that’s nice and healthy”. The teacher explained about naturally occurring sugars.  The child then commented “my banana has good sugars in”.

When looking at a small pot of yoghurt, one of the children said “sometimes sugar tastes sour”.  However, after measuring out the amount of sugar into the same pot (3 teaspoons), the child said “All of that is in there?!”

After some further discussion, one child said “it’s not good for you.  A little bit is OK, like one sweetie isn’t too bad”.

Another child commented “Sugar tastes like strawberries. They are sweet.  Too much sugar will break your teeth and then the tooth fairy won’t take your tooth will they?.”

Finally, another child said “If you eat loads, like a million bits of sugar, it would make you really sick too much”.

What clever children they are.

Why not ask your children what they understand about the foods on the poster and see if there are any simple swaps you can make.

There are photos on our Facebook page

Thank you.

The Pre-school Team