The Nutrition Class
The Nutrition Class should meet regularly every week for a period of about forty minutes. At this time the children should be weighed, the weights being recorded on tags which the children are urged to take home to their parents.
If the teacher has the time she can easily make attractive and interesting tags which are appropriate to various seasons and occasions—a tag for Thanksgiving week, a tag for Valentine week, an Easter tag, etc. If the class is too large or the teacher’s time too limited to do this, she can buy attractive tags at any stationery store, or if necessary, she can simply use plain manila tags. It is very important to have some sort of tags, however, as it stimulates the child’s interest to have something to take home to show his parents. Incidentally, it arouses the interest of the parents in the nutrition class and keeps them regularly reminded of its progress.
The teacher should also keep a systematic health record for every child in the class. An effective way of doing this is to make a large health chart of heavy paper, like the ordinary wall map, which is attached to a wooden roller and which can be hung on the wall or blackboard or even rolled up when not in use. There should be space on this chart for the name of each child in the class, his age, height and normal weight. The chart should be so arranged that each child’s actual weight gain can also be recorded every week and a star placed on the chart for such gains. (See illustration in Lesson 1 for sample chart.)
Organized nutrition lessons should be presented each week at which time health rules previously mentioned should be reviewed and new lessons given. The lessons should emphasize the value of milk, of leafy vegetables, of fresh and dried fruits and of coarse breads and cereals in the daily diet. Technical terms such as protein, carbohydrates, ash constituents and vitamins should be eliminated from the lessons when teaching children under the sixth grade. Stress should be placed upon proper habits of hygiene such as bathing, long hours of sleep, plenty of fresh air, exercise and dental hygiene.
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