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2006-2007 | Apple Tree Early Learning Center

AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School

AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School

Team

Team

                                                                             Shahine Baghai                                                                                   Michelle Chastain

                                                                                Dan Dasilva                                                                                       Teresa Kerge

                                                                                Ethan Puchaty                                                                                       Jacob White

                    

Faculty Preceptor: Mary Beth Levin, MPH

Community Partner: Apple Tree Early Learning Public Charter School                                  Contact Person:   Russ Williams, Executive Director

deliverables

The AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School is open to all three- and four-year olds in the District of Columbia.  Their mission is to provide young children with the social,

emotional, and cognitive foundations that will enable them to succeed in school.  The service learning team made eight

visits to teach the children enrolled in the after-school program about nutrition and healthy activities.

Promoting Literacy

NutritionGoals:

Vision Screening

Health and HygieneGoals:

Promote healthy eating habits by indentifying the health value of common foods

Introduce new foods to the kids so they can expand their diets with healthy foods they like

Build a strong knowledge base of healthy foods so the kids can choose their own healthy diets

Activities: Fruit tasting (apples, oranges,

grapes, strawberries) and making a healthy fruit shake Vegetable tasting (broccoli,

carrots, and cucumbers) Food bingo

Coloring pictures of healthy foods and talking about them

Making a healthy dinner plate by coloring cutouts and pasting

them on a plate Making healthy fruit kabob out of

grapes, strawberries, cantaloupe, and raspberries

Matching game with fruit pictures Explaining the food pyramid Reading books about healthy

eating Healthy foods coloring book

Lesson Learned: The children were able to identify

healthy food options most of the time.  With continued

reinforcement they learned about choosing healthy alternatives. 

They learned the basic concept of the food pyramid, which foods

should be eaten more often than others, and they tried new foods

which they will hopefully incorporate into their diets in the future.  Additional materials were sent home with the children with

Teach about exercise and why it is necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle

Teach a basic understanding of several aspects of exercise and its effects on the body

Activities: Outdoor playground exercise Identifying and performing

popular exercises 'Buddy Brush' calcium coloring

book Reading about exercise Using a stethoscope to show

healthy heart activity before and after exercise

Active warm-up games Reinforced the practice of daily

hygiene Coloring pages of healthy

activities Talked about common daily

exercises Washing hands before and after

every session

Lesson Learned: Healthy activity is a component

often missing in the lives of children.  The children learned about some exercises they already knew about, and some they didn't, with the hope that they will include them in their daily routines.  Overall hygiene like brushing teeth and washing hands were discussed.  The children were willing to try new exercises and learn about their bodies.  Additional materials were sent home with the children so they could continue to exercise at home.

the hope that parents will continue to practice the lessons

we taught in the classroom.

              

    

 

      

       

Successes and Failures

What Worked

Working with only 3 kids per group and leaving the rest of the kids to their regularly scheduled classes, then switching

Hands-on activities Activities with food Separating the kids into their respective age groups Planning a backup activity in case the kids didn't like the planned one for that group Repeating previously used activities in later sessions to reinforce the lesson Tailoring activities to the different age groups Giving prizes at the end of an exercise Sending helpful reading materials home with the child and in the mail as a regular

newsletter

What Failed

Educational games on computer Stressful activities since we taught at the end of the day Overly structured activities

Trying to explain the new food pyramid

Quality Improvement

Concepts in nutrition and hygiene were sometimes difficult to teach to the children.  The key to retaining the knowledge was repetition and further exposure.  The ideas should be reviewed, and activities should build on themselves from session to session.  Materials should be provided to continue the teaching process outside of the eight visits.  Completed projects and extra educational materials should be sent home with the children, additional information should be mailed home in a weekly newsletter, and resources should be provided to AppleTree so they can continue to teach about nutrition and hygiene during daily lessons.

 

Helpful Websites:

www.nih.gov www.cdc.gov www.fda.gov www.naeyc.org www.images.google.com

Special thanks to Mary Beth Levin for coordinating our visits and obtaining free materials for us to teach and distribute, and to Maranda Ward for sending out the newsletter to parents informing them of our visits.