October Blog_2019

Blue's Blog October 2019

#bluesblog

October 7, 2019 - pdf version

 

Hi everyone! Did you know that October is Farm to School Month?  Well, since I didn’t know a lot about Farm to School or for us, Farm to Early Care and Education (ECE), I reached out to my friends Caroline Stover at the NC Farm to ECE Initiative, part of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (https://cefs.ncsu.edu/food-system-initiatives/nc-farm-to-early-care-and-education/) and Lynn Policastro with Wake County Smart Start to learn more. 

From talking to Caroline, I learned that Farm to Early Care and Education (Farm to ECE) enhances the health and education of young children by developing systems and experiential learning that connects children and their families with local food and farms. It includes any type of activities in ECE environments that incorporate local foods through meals and snacks, taste tests, lessons, farmer visits, cooking, growing food, and/or community and parent involvement.

 

Lynn shares that, “As programs have made Farm to ECE part of their everyday culture at their center, I have seen children be able to learn from being exposed to fresh local foods. I have seen children learning math skills from being able to pick and weigh the produce from their garden, gaining strength and motor skills by harvesting the produce, improving fine motor skills from preparing the produce and most importantly finding new food preferences by trying items from their garden or local farmer.”

 

Two of our favorite resources to get programs started with Farm to ECE activities and local food connections are the NC Farm to Preschool toolkit on the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Growing Minds website and the Wake County Smart Start Farm to Child Care Toolkit.

 

If you are planning to take part in farm to early care and education, we encourage you to connect with others across the state and learn as much as you can, by joining the NC Farm to Preschool Network and subscribing to their monthly newsletter.  Also, to get started, join our statewide network and have your whole school or class crunch on a local food for the Apple Crunch on October 23! It will be the crunch heard round the world!

My clubhouse friends and I have a lot of other ideas and resources that will help the children in your life build strong minds and bodies like us! Visit our website at www.beactivekids.org to stay connected to the latest resources.   See you in November!

 

- Blue the Caring Cub

Testimonials

  • Preservice Teachers Learn to Use Be Active Kids in Limited Spaces

    I really enjoyed our class meeting. It was interesting to discover that you can do just about anything with children in the classroom where there may not be much space to encourage them to be active.  A change that I will make in my own life is to be more active, as well as my daughter. I will share this information with my friends that have children such as yoga animals, or Simon Says.

    Cathy Sesta, Parent & Child Care Provider
  • Early Childhood Physical Activity Institute

    Thank you for inviting me to be part of this year’s Institute. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the experience. You’re doing amazing work and I hope I’ll be able to continue contributing to it a bunch in the future.

    Rae Pica, www.movingandlearning.com
  • Plenty of Resources That I Can Use and Share

    This class was informative, and I look forward to being physically active with young children. On Friday, I volunteered at a Parents Night Out through my daughter's school. When I got there the kids were watching a movie. I got them up to play Simon Says and Red Light Green Light, however, after that I was stuck on what to do. I wish I had the knowledge I gained from this class, to have made it more exciting.

    I enjoyed your Land and Lake Activity.

    Venessa Wright, Parent & Child Care Provider
  • Be Active Kids Trainers Rock!

    I loved the training.  I would have loved it more if I had the other teachers from my center there also.  I am really looking forward to taking my kit to work and sharing it with my staff.  I liked Brittney, she reminded me of myself as far as being very active and motivated.  When I am at work with my little ones we stay busy all day.  I feel like singing my instructions and dancing my actions helps them to focus better on what I need for them to do.  Britney was great and I learned a lot from her. I am always trying to find new little ways to get the kids moving.

    Tiffany Daniel, Sandhill Community College
  • ECPAI

    The Early Childhood Physical Activity Institute was just wonderful!  Thank you again for including me in such an important effort to create and sustain leaders in EC physical activity. I would love to return to NC anytime that you think I can help. I enjoyed meeting the folks who work with you and hearing about all of the great things that are planned. 

    Linda Carson, Choosy Kids
  • Be Active Kids has Much to Offer

    Congratulations to you and everyone who has been promoting PA for young
    children in NC. You have much to be proud of here. Be Active Kids is an excellent source of ideas for promoting active play in unstructured settings. The Be Active Kids website also has resources on promoting unstructured active play. I encourage folks to review these resources. 

    Diane Craft, SUNY Cortland & Active Play Books