Age Group
The chosen age group is early learning. This is an age group where the child is starting education and ranges from 3-8 years. At this age, education and learning are useful as they can help shape the development of the child in the future. Learning is very first and requires adoption of various teaching strategies to increase the effectiveness of the learning process.
Goals for the night
The first goal for the night is to teach the target group on how to enforce and maintain healthy nutrition at home. It aims at helping this group acquire basic knowledge on better nutritional activities. The other goal is to teach the chosen group to enforce basic safety activities at home to prevent injuries due to accidents. Also, the goal of this community night is to create an opportunity for professional development for the staff as they advance into their careers. These activities will promote learning amongst the staff and enhance their career development. The long term aim of the event is to promote a healthy community where people take healthy food and avoid activities that can lead negative health outcomes.
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Materials needed
The activities will require a variety of vegetables and fruits that are known to be nutritious and healthy for a living. Examples include apple, avocado, blueberries, and broccoli. These will be used to demonstrate to the target community on the way to practice healthy eating at home for a better lifestyle and reduced negative health outcomes. Also, reading materials such as articles and books containing guidelines for nutrition and healthy living shall be provided to help the attendees enhance their knowledge with the topic. Drawings shall also be needed to help the children learn more about healthy eating and foods that make up a healthy diet.
Number of Volunteers Needed
The community health and safety night would require five volunteers. Two of the volunteers would help in planning and gathering the materials needed for the activity and ensure that everything has been well-designed. The other three volunteers will handle the activities. Each of the two activities will be handled by a volunteer, while the remaining one volunteer will provide lectures to summarize the events covered in each of the activities.
Activities
Activity 1: Food Labelling
Food labeling activity will be used to promote awareness of the groups on the importance of healthy and nutritious eating. Talking about fruits and vegetables can help the children to recognize and get familiar with a variety of nutritious foods. In this activity, the group is asked to label a variety of fruits and vegetables as they place them on the board. During labeling, they are asked to guess which fruit or vegetables they are based on the smell or feeling. This is accompanied by singing songs and reading stories that are related to the vegetables and fruits placed on the board. This activity can help increase children’s awareness of a variety of healthy fruits and vegetables.
Activity 2: Fire painting activity (safety )
This activity entails the engagement of children in the fire panting using colors that are associated with fire. A thick line is drawn on the paper, and thick drops of paints are added in various points. The clear plastic wrap is then pressed, and the plastic is pulled off the paper using a strong vertical pulling action, which makes the paint to look like fire. This is then used to explain to the group how to respond to a situation of fire outbreak and ensure they remain safe. This activity will be conducted by one of the volunteers and use it to teach on safety mechanisms both in school and at home in cases where there are instances of emergencies such as fire.
Music Selection and Nutritious Snack
The music selected during the activity should be based on songs that relate to and teaches healthy eating to the overall human lives. Examples of a song that can be selected include “grapefruit is a great fruit” by Sam Jones. This is an example of a song that can not only teach the kids the importance of healthy and nutritious eating but also teaches the whole community to adopt healthy eating. Songs play a major in teaching and promoting healthy eating in the community. A combination of musical instruments, musical movements, and language used in the song has been used to promote awareness for various issues in the community ( Jones, 2014 ). Choosing music that teaches on healthy fruits, vegetables and snacks will be used to ensure that the group gets the best message that can enhance healthy living. Specific songs that teach on hygiene shall be played during hand washing to teach the attendees on the importance of maintaining high levels of hygiene. Welcome music shall entail songs with slow movement and with a welcome message to make the attendees feel that they are welcomed.
The nutritious snack that can be used during the activity will be peanut butter plus apple fruit. Peanut butter has been identified as a nutritious snack because it contains a variety of nutrients that are useful for the body ( Russell, 2014 ). Peanut butter contains 7.02 grams of proteins, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, vitamin B6, and many other nutrients that are useful for both adults and children ( Bansal & Kochhar, 2014 ). It even becomes more nutritious when combined with apple fruit, which is also another healthy and nutritious fruit to take. This snack will be used during the community health and safety night to educate the group on how to maintain a healthy diet that is free from any negative health impacts and promote healthy living.
Leading questions
What are the good sources of proteins?
How important is vitamin D to the body, and what types of foods contain vitamin D?
Are junk foods nutritious and healthy for the human body?
What are some examples of foods that people should try to avoid by all means?
Are fluids part of a healthy and nutritious diet?
The above five questions are meant to allow the nutritionist to elaborate more on the issue of healthy eating and promote healthy living. The questions provide more information on the kinds of foods that should be taken and those that should be avoided to ensure a healthy diet. There has been a major issue with processed and junk foods, and most people are unsure whether they form part of healthy eating. The questions on taking fluids, importance of vitamin D, and its sources are also important areas to educate the attendees on healthy nutrition. The nutritionist will need to focus on these questions, among many others that may be brought by the attendees to ensure that there is an elaborate discussion on what makes up a healthy diet and better nutrition overall.
Schedule for the Evening
The event will run for one and a half hours with a break in between. The community night will start at 5:30 pm and end at 7:00 pm. For the first 15 minutes, one volunteer will lead in activity one. In this activity, the volunteer will lead in the food labeling activity where various nutritious fruits will be presented and demonstrated to both the adults and the children in a way that increases their understanding of healthy eating as a whole. The first 15 minutes will majorly include demonstration of the activity and a summary of the overall activity. After 15 minutes, there will be a break of 15 minutes to allow the attendees and children to share their views and experience with the first session and to reflect on what has been presented.
The community evening will then resume at 6:00 pm for the presentation of the second activity. The second activity will be on fire painting activity aimed at showing the children and the attendees how to promote safety of their children and how to train them to respond to emergencies that could affect their health as well as safety. The presenter will present a variety of demonstrations and illustrations to the audience to enhance their understanding of the whole process of keeping safe and healthy while at home. Activity two will also go on for 15 minutes up to 6:15 pm when another break will be taken to allow the audience to reflect on activity two and discuss their experiences.
The event will resume at 6:30 pm for the last session will go for about 30 minutes. In this last session, the main speaker will be the nutritionist who will give a lecture for 15 minutes and answer questions from the attendees for the next 30 minutes. During this presentation, the nutritionist shall dwell on the need to take nutritious food, especially for the early learning age children. The discussion shall also identify a variety of healthy foods that children can take to enhance their growth and reduce negative health impacts of poor eating. The discussion will also focus on how the parents can ensure that their children take healthy meals that are free from excess calories and bad fats that can lead to obesity and other health-related conditions. Finally, the nutritionist shall take questions from attendees and make clarifications on areas that are not clear.
Agenda for the Staff Meetings before Event
Before the community night event, the staff shall hold a meeting to discuss the contents that shall be covered during the event. During this meeting, the major agenda shall be on role sharing. The agreement shall be reached on who will play what role during the event to ensure the whole event is successful. The other agenda shall be on the choice of the two activities that shall be presented during the event. The staff will have to agree on what activity will be most effective during the event. The other agenda will be on how to teach the volunteers on the activities chosen so that they can familiarize themselves earlier enough before the actual event. Overall, the meeting will discuss all the activities that will take place on the community night and any plans that must be made to enhance the effectiveness of the whole process.
Resources for Attendees
The resources for the attendees regarding health, nutrition, and safety will include magazines and short guidelines books on nutrition. The attendees will be provided with a variety of materials that they can read to get more information on nutrition, health, and safety. In addition to the reading materials, the attendees shall also watch videos that demonstrate the concepts of nutrition and healthy eating so that they can get more information about the overall topic to be discussed during the event. The reading materials and videos shall majorly focus on showing the attendees how best to maintain a healthy living by engaging in activities that maximize health benefits and minimizes risks. After the event, attendees shall be provided with learning materials such as magazines that they can carry at home and use as a guide for nutrition. Drawings containing healthy foods and fruits shall also be presented so that children can use them at home to play and increase their awareness of healthy eating.
Evaluation Form
The presentation quality: How was the overall presentation of the speakers and activities presented?
Content of the Program: Rate the contents of the programs based on the points discussed and questions answered. Did the presenters provide quality content that will help change the lives of attendees?
Were the activities presented beneficial to you in any way? If yes, explain how.
Did you receive the information expected? Did this activity meet your expectations? Comment
What can you say about the event site? Was it excellent for conducting such an activity? Comment.
Any suggestions for improvements in future activities and events?
Any suggestions for the location of future meetings and activities?
Overall, how would you rank the whole program using a scale of 1-10, where 1 is the lowest ranking, and ten is the highest-ranking?
The above evaluation is to help identify if the community health and safety community night has been effective in meeting the planned goals. By answering the above questions, the attendees will get the opportunity to express their view of the whole community night and whether it was effective in educating the community on healthy eating and nutrition for the early learning age children. It also provides them with an opportunity to suggest what they feel did not go on well, and improvements required going into the future.
References
Bansal, P., & Kochhar, A. (2014). Sensory and nutritional evaluation of value added products using peanut flour for nutritional and health benefits. Inter. J. Agri. Innovation Res , 3 , 27-32.
Jones, J. A. (2014). Health musicking in Skiffle Steel Orchestra: Thoughts on collaboration between community music therapy and medical ethnomusicology. International Journal of Community Music , 7 (1), 129-144.
Russell, K. (2014). Intuitive Eating, Attitudes to Food, and Body Size: A Comparison Between Nutrition Majors and Non-Majors.
