Question

Eduardo, a new assistant, was asked by his head teacher to develop a “ Healthy Eating Helps Us Grow” lesson. Although eager to be given this assignment, Eduardo was apprehensive about planning activities that 4-year olds would enjoy. He arrived early that morning and set up a grocery store for dramatic play, books about food for the children to read, and magazine pictures of foods for the children to sort into the MyPlate food categories. The children played “ grocery shopping” for a while, looked at several of the books, but weren’t interested in the sorting activity.
1. Were the activities Eduardo planned, appropriate for 4-year olds?
2. How effective was this lesson for teaching children about healthy eating habits?
3. What are some realistic learning objectives that Eduardo might have established in preparation for this lesson?
4. How would Eduardo assess what the children had actually learned from these activities?

Answer 1

1. The activities planned by Eduardo were appropriate for 4 year olds.

Explanation:

• 4 year old children are inquisitive as well as well as willing to explore their surroundings, hence the grocery store activity caters to this aspect of their development.

• The children of this age group enjoy mingling with other children hence establishing their self-made contacts.

Hence, Eduardo did plan activities that were appropriate for the age group of 4 years old.

2. This lesson was not as effective to teach children about healthy eating.

Explanation:

• Even though Eduardo made a good attempt towards making the lesson interactive, he did make it as focused as it should have been.

• The focus should have been towards making sure the kids differentiate between healthy and non-healthy food.

3.  The realistic learning objectives that Eduardo could have established in preparation for this lesson could have been:

• Engaging children into what exactly is healthy eating.

• “Why” healthy eating is important.

• How to get into healthy eating, through role play as well as involving more characters that the children fancy, i.e. Maybe their favorite super hero or their favorite cartoon character

Explanation:

These above mentioned points would make the activities more centric and objective for the children.

4. Eduardo could assess what the children learned from these activities by holding a fun quiz in the end to know what that children have learned and keeping a follow up programme for them.

Explanation:

• A fun quiz would hold the children’s interest as well as provide as a feedback for Eduardo.

• A follow up programme would help in knowing how much information or knowledge  the children would have retained or understood.