Teachers & Educators
Programs
Bite & Bounce @ OSHC
Bite&[email protected] encourages healthy eating and active living for Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) Services on the Central Coast. OSHC includes before, after school and vacation care typically for children aged 5-12 years.
Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) Services are valuable in promoting healthy eating and physical activity to children and their families by:
- Providing healthy food and drinks
- Providing planned and spontaneous active play
- Teaching about healthy eating, physical activity and health
- Providing food activities e.g. food preparation and games
- Role modelling by educators
- Providing a supportive environment to encourage healthy behaviours
- Policies to support healthy eating and physical activity
- Providing information to families
The Bite & Bounce initiative supports local OSHC Services to meet the National Quality Standards for healthy eating and physical activity
(Quality Area 2 & 3) through the provision of the:
- Eat Smart, Play Smart Manual (Third Edition)
Healthy Kids Guidelines for Physical Activity and Nutrition in Outside of School Hours Care Centres
- And the Bite&[email protected] Whiteboard
In May 2018, the Health Promotion Service partnered with our local OSHC Services to create additional resources to support delivery of the National Quality Standards in the OSHC setting.
Check them out
OSHC Bites Recipe Book: practical nutrition information and a collection of tasty recipes for breakfast, afternoon tea and special occasions in OSHC.
Bounce Cards: Grab and go cards on a lanyard that can be worn around the neck. The cards contain practical strategies for inclusive active play and a range of games suitable for OSHC.
The Health Promotion Service would like to thank the Central Coast OSHC Services who contributed to the above resources. They showcase the knowledge and dedication of our local community in promoting good health for children and families.
Vege Adventure
Vege Adventure is a one-week activity to promote fruit and vegetables as part of the Crunch&Sip® break at primary school.
The aim is to encourage students to eat a different coloured fruit or vegetable each day of the week. This will encourage them to taste different fresh fruit and vegetables.
The activity was developed for Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) students, and offers a range of resources that are available to download. Watch the video below to see how it works.
Vege Adventure resources
- Student card – printable or fillable
- Parent letter
- Early Stage 1 Teacher Guide
- Stage 1 Teacher Guide
- Images for teachers – click on the thumbnails below
We would like to thank Stage 1 teachers, students and families at Tacoma Public School and Woongarrah Public School and the Central Coast Transition to School Projects Coordinator, Learning and Wellbeing, Public Schools NSW for their assistance in developing this resource.
Useful links
While it’s important for individuals to make healthier choices, the environment we live in greatly impacts on those choices. Check out this page on the Live Lighter website to find out how to graze green and to try out colourful recipes.
The Eat a Rainbow webpage has links to useful resources such as posters, recipes, games and flash cards.
Crunch&Sip Resource Pack
Vege Adventure is an initiative that supports the Crunch&Sip program. To get your school involved with Crunch&Sip, download the Crunch&Sip Resource Pack here. The pack contains:
- Crunch&Sip school implementation guide.
- Food and nutrition-focused classroom activities that fit within the NSW primary school PDHPE curriculum and also meet other cross-curricula outcomes.
- Short lesson ideas based around healthy eating.
- Background nutrition information and helpful resources.
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To receive updates about Vege Adventure resources straight to your inbox, join our mailing list.
Munch & Move
Munch & Move is an NSW Health initiative that supports the healthy development of children from birth to five years by promoting physical activity, healthy eating and reduced small screen time (e.g. watching TV or DVDs, playing on computers and small hand-held games devices).
Munch & Move offers training and resources to educators working in NSW early childhood education and care services. The training program assists services to implement a fun, play-based approach to supporting healthy eating and physical activity habits in young children. The program also fits within the National Quality Framework and the Early Years Learning Framework.
For more Munch & Move information and loads of resources, go to NSW Health’s Healthy Kids website.
As an excellent additional local resource, the Central Coast Health Promotion Service has created a series of infographics to support key health messages. Early childhood services are encouraged to use them in their newsletters and other communications to families. You can access a selection of infographics here, or contact our project officer below to request other options.
How healthy is your childcare menu?
If you’re a cook, educator or health promotion officer who wants to assess the nutritional value of an early childhood education and care service menu, then you’ll want to visit our new healthy menu support page.
We’ve made it easy for you to assess your menu with our 12-step menu assessment video. By the end of the video, you’ll be able to tell if your menu complies with the nutrition checklist found in NSW Health’s Caring for Children: Birth to 5 years – giving you peace of mind that children are getting the required 50% of their everyday nutritional needs while in your care. You will even be able to give your menu a star rating based on the key menu elements found in Caring for Children.
Newsletters and fact sheets
To read the latest Central Coast Munch & Move news, download our newsletter. You can also sign up to receive the newsletter straight into your inbox – just complete the form below.
Additionally, our Good Bite fact sheets, developed by the Central Coast Public Health and Community Nutrition team, contain recipes and advice for parents and carers of children ages 0–5 years old. Read the latest edition for parents and carers here, and the dedicated version for childcare staff here.
You can view previous Munch & Move newsletters and Good Bite fact sheets here.
Contact
For enquirers regarding Munch & Move on the Central Coast, please contact project officer, Jeff Smith, on 4320 9765, or complete the form below.
No Fields Found.
Primary Schools Health Promotion – Live Life Well at School
A joint initiative from the NSW Ministry of Health and school sectors in NSW.
Using a whole-school approach to promote healthy eating and physical activity in primary schools.
Health Promotion supports primary school staff, students and their families by providing information, resources and teacher workshops focusing on healthy eating and physical activity to promote wellbeing for primary school students.
In 2022, there are a number of exciting new activities on offer including the Harvest for Health Grant (kitchen garden grants scheme), SWAP IT – a new healthy lunchbox program, the updated Central Coast Healthy School Canteen Award, teacher workshops and more…
Here’s what some of the teachers have said:
Thank you so much for the sports equipment, we really appreciate it! The kids were so excited when it was all brought up tous, we had to get straight outside to use some of it! One of them even said ‘this is the most fun I’ve ever had.”
Teacher, Valley View Public School
I am very excited for all activities that have been offered in the past and eagerly look forward to ongoing workshops. Amazing professional learning.”
School Gardens workshop participant, Term 4 2020
Implementing the SWAP IT program to Brooke Avenue Public School was effortless. Resources were provided such as lesson plans, digital files and large posters to be displayed in each classroom. The impact of the program assisted most families to make healthier changes in their child’s lunchboxes with staff noticing a visible decrease in prepackaged foods being sent to school. The lessons provided had explicit instructions and accompanying resources that linked directly, so staff were happy to implement this as everything was provided with minimal prep time. This program aligned with our Waste Free Wednesdays and our school’s decision to decrease our contributions to landfill. I would highly recommend this program to any school looking to help students’ SWAP it.”
Lauren Johnson, Classroom Teacher, Brooke Avenue Public School
Resources for school kitchen gardens.
Support and professional development for Canteen Managers.
Workshops offered for Central Coast schools.
Stage based classroom resources available for download and hard copy.
Resources available to support families in the transition to big school.
Extra links to healthy eating and physical activity resources.
Q4:H20
The Q4:H20 activity is a one-week school/family-based project that promotes the concept of healthy drinks to children and their parents/carers and supports teachers getting healthy drink messages to families.
Students are encouraged to choose water and reduced fat milk to meet their fluid requirements. The activity was developed for Stage 2 (Years 3 and 4) students, and offers a range of resources that are available to download. Watch the video below to learn more about the activity.
Teacher resources
Q4:H20 activity resources:
- Background information
- Student card – printable – fillable
- Teacher Guide
- Healthy drinks and canteen fact sheet
Supporting promotional posters:
- Out and about – Sport
- Out and about – Cinema
- At School – Bubbler
- At School – Backpack
- Canteen – Lunch Bag
Parent information
Healthy Kids fact sheet with ideas to help kids and teens drink more water.
Infographics:
Teacher information & classroom activities
There are four interactive whiteboard lessons with accompanying teacher notes. Please note that you will require SMART Notebook software as well as an unzip program to access these files.
Related links
Thirsty? Choose Water! website
Subscribe
Join the mailing list to receive updates about this resource.
Contact
To find out more information, contact Nina Kingon on 4320 9700 or complete the form below.No Fields Found.
