S A K Garden
Liz Scott- Stephanie Alexander Garden Specialist
News From The Patch?
Last week the Year 2s experienced a kitchen class. It was an opportunity to give them a connection from garden to kitchen.
The SAKG program is all about healthy eating, fresh produce, bringing children together to create healthy food utilising what’s in season and then sitting down and sharing what they have created.
Year 2 students made rice paper rolls using only fresh ingredients, mint and snow peas from the patch, rice noodles, carrots, cucumber and bean shoots were also added.
As we were making them, there was a lot of "I don’t like that, do we have to eat it?" We ask that all children try what they create. One child did not want to eat it. We asked him to just have a try. It was music to our ears to hear he really liked it and finished it. This is why we do what we do; it was such a rewarding moment.
Healthy foods help our brains to work well.
We always start the class with a discussion. We took this opportunity to talk about making healthy food choices for our lunchbox at school.
Whilst at school, we need to keep our energy levels up so we can maximise our learning. In order to do this we need to have healthy food choices in our lunch boxes.
Suggestions for our lunch boxes:
- Fruit or veggie sticks
- Yoghurt, cheese or a hardboiled egg
- Sandwich/wrap, salad, dip and crackers
- The only drink we need at school is water.
Treats should be kept for after school and only on special occasions. With all food choices we need to be aware of our portion sizes and eating all foods in moderation.
In our daily diet there two different sugars:
Naturally occurring sugars – We asked the children what foods might have these? Most were able to tell us in fruit and vegetables. That is correct, however sugar can also be found in grains.
Added sugars – again we asked where they thought added sugars could be found. They were able to tell us lollies and chocolate. That is correct. Added sugar can also be found in cookies, flavoured milk and donuts.
Added sugar provides calories with no nutritional value, it is known as providing empty calories.
Children should be having no more than 4 teaspoons of sugar a day. 16 grams
When we eat too much sugar and then try to do maths or writing, our brain releases a hormone called cortisol which is known as the stress hormone. This hormone affects your bodies, you find it hard to pay attention and difficult to sit still and therefore you find it difficult to hold any information your teachers are teaching you.
Parents; I ask you to start to make a change here to maximise your child’s learning, let’s work together as a community to keep added sugar products for after school. I'm not telling you what to feed your children I’m just asking you to keep the added sugar foods for home. Talk to your children about why we should have healthy choices at school in our lunchboxes. Sugar has no nutritional value at all.
Please share this poster with your child, I know it is aimed at canteens, but we can use it to guide our lunch box choices.
