When we give children good nutrition we are giving them the nutrient blocks that literally become the eyes you look into: the knees that get scraped: the bones that support their growing bodies: their inquisitive, curious brains: and the hearts that pump quietly night and day down through the years. Pre-school and elementary school children go through remarkable physical change of all kinds. Their food intake becomes a critical aspect of this growth and development. Nutrition and food selection are integral to achieving good health and well being.
Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins provide the energy needed to run the body provide materials to help the body grow and maintain its functions. Carbohydrates are the major source of energy in the central nervous system. It helps the brain grow. It provides slow but steady energy needed for the utilization of other nutrients in the body. Lack of carbohydrate risks the growth and maintenance of the body. Fats supplies essential fatty acids that are critical for proper growth of children. It also cushions the organs, maintaining body temperature and promoting healthy skin. Protein is the major building blocks in our bodies. The formation of new tissue is aided by protein. A diet that is deficient in protein causes stunted growth in children and makes them easily fatigued and irritable. It also makes the children more susceptible to infection and slow in healing wounds.
Good food habits are one of the greatest contributors to good health. From a very young age, a child is capable of learning these through practice and observation. Children are strongly influenced by what they see and hear. Children should be given the opportunity to view appropriate adult food-related behaviors to achieve good nutrition. Eating with your children
also fosters healthy eating habits. Cooking with your children promotes science, math, culture and healthy eating habits.

Rose colored glasses won’t be needed to appreciate the variety of colors and blend of tastes offered by these easy to make individual pizzas.
Colorfull Pizza
3 cups frozen mixed vegetables with mushrooms
5 slices Italian bread (1 oz. slices; each ~ 1” thick and 5” long)
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup prepared pizza sauce
1 cup finely chopped tomato
½ cup very finely diced onion
1 tablespoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 ½ tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions: Pre-heat oven to 350º F and place oven rack in middle-high position. Microwave frozen vegetables, then pat dry. Brush all bread slices lightly with oil and spread each with ~ 1½ tablespoons sauce. Combine all vegetables in a medium-sized bowl. Carefully spoon vegetable mixture equally onto bread slices. Sprinkle with oregano and garlic powder and then with cheese. Bake about 5-7 minutes, until bread is brown on the edges and all vegetables are piping hot. Serve immediately.
Serves: 5
1 Cup of Vegetables per Serving
Fruit and/or Veggie Colors: Green, White, Yellow, Orange, Red
Nutrition Information per Serving: calories: 182, total fat: 5.0g, saturated fat: 1.1g, % calories from fat: 24%, % calories from saturated fat: 5%, protein: 6g, carbohydrates: 29g, cholesterol: 2mg, dietary fiber: 5g, sodium: 339 mg
Each serving provides: An excellent source of vitamin A and a good source of vitamin C, folate and fiber.


Surprise Muffins
1 1/4 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups corn flake cereal
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/3 cup shortening
1/4 cup preserves or jam
Stir together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Set aside. Measure corn flake cereal into large mixing bowl. Stir in milk. Let stand 2 to 3 minutes or until cereal is softened. Add egg and shortening. Beat well. Add flour mixture, stirring only until combined. Divide batter evenly into 12 greased 2-1/2-inch muffin pan cups. Make a deep indentation in top of batter for each muffin. Fill each with measuring-teaspoon of preserves. Bake at 400�F about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Green Eggs and Ham
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon chopped green onions (optional)
1 Tablespoons chopped green peppers (optional)
¼ cup chopped ham
4 eggs
1 Tablespoon lowfat milk
¼ cup chopped spinach
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat oil in a skillet. Add green onions, green
peppers and ham, sauté. Beat eggs and milk together and add to the vegetables mixture. Stir in spinach. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir the mixture constantly until eggs are set. Makes 4 servings. Nutrition information per serving: 120 calories, 9 g fat, 215 mg cholesterol, 200 mg sodium, 1 g carbohydrate.
This is a good snack or meal when reading Dr. Seuss’s book Green Eggs and Ham

Reference
Robertson, C (2010) Safety, Nutrition, and health in early education (4th ed). Belmont, CA
www. Fruitsandveggiesmatters.org
www.urbanext.illnois.edu/foodthought

All childcare professional worker should develop a plan and guidelines for the protection of the children in their care. All staff should be trained properly about the methods and practices of conducting education, observation and supervision that provide maximum safety and minimum risk. ?? All teachers should have training in basic first aid and rescue breathing and at least one teacher in site must be CPR certified. Every early childhood education program should have a first aid kit that goes along with the group while on the playground or on a field trip. The first aid kit should contain bandage, wipes, handsanitizer, guaze, tape, twizer, cold pack and gloves. It is very important for teachers be organized for an emergency and plan accordingly. Teacher should have emergency contact numbers handy at all times.
The two scenarios I chose can go hand in hand. I chose these two scenarios because I had a child in this situation. This child choked on a corn dog while we were eating lunch at our school and then stopped breathing. The proper emergency situation in most emergency is to remain calm, have a emergency back- up staff, stay with victim until medical help arrives, notify parents and fill out the proper paper work after the dust settles.
In a choking emergency the teacher should
1. Remain calm
2. Assign the other teacher the task of teaching the other children to remain calm
3. Perform Heimlich maneuver Ask the child( preschool age) are you okay if no response tell the child you will help
Kneel to stoop behind the child, wrapping your arms around the child Make a fist with one hand and hold it with the other hand against the center of child’s abdomen
Perform abdominal thrust until the object is expelled
4. If the child becomes unresponsive begin CPR( Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation)
5. Call 911 after 1 minute of rescue support was there another teacher? What about the other children?
6. Notify the parent
7. Fill out the necessary paper work after the incident

What to do if a child stops breathing
1. Remain calm
2. Assign the other teacher to take charge of the class and to keep the other student calm
3. Perform CPR
 Open airway with head tilt/chin lift
 Look, listen and feel for breathing 5 to 10 seconds
 Pinch nose and cover victim’s mouth with your mouth
 Give two rescue breaths for 1 second each
 Immediately begin chest compression. Compression should be 30 times at a depth of ½ inch.
4. Ask someone specific to call 911
5. Go on the ambulance if the necessary with the child
6. Notify parent
7. Fill out the necessary paper work after the incident
www.umm.edu/pediatrics_child.htm
Robertson, C (2010) Safety, Nutrition, and health in early education (4th ed). Belmont, CA

Emergency prepardness

The two disaster scenarios I chose are very real. Both of these occurred at my place of work. Our Head Start building consists of four classes and it is located in a community center. The upstairs part of the building schools teenager who are not allowed to attend regular school due to pregnancy or behavior problem. Each Head Start class consists of 17 children in each class, one lead teacher and one assistant. Our school is located in the ghetto or the project part of town. All the children who attend our school live in the project or what I call section 8 housing. I have seen a few drug busts, shooting and prostitute activities. Our windows face the street so we have to cover the windows.
The first incident occurred last year. There is a green colored house right across the street which we call the crack house. Even the children know it is the crack house. All of a sudden soon after breakfast, the SWAT team surrounded our room. We all had to move to the hall way an escape through the window from the back classroom of our building. One pair of the teacher stayed inside to pick up the children and give them through the window and the other pair had to receive the children on the other side. We then took the children onto the open field designated for these type of disaster. The school bus was waiting for us there and we were then taken to the company headquarters. Nice job in describing this frightening scenario! This should be another paragraph: The other incident took place couple of weeks ago. The children were in their work area when all of a sudden the weather radio alarm went off. I have trained my children to freeze when the alarm goes off. All the children dropped their toys and gather on the area rug silently. This training and practice of this training is absolutely essential! Nice! The radio stated we have a tornado watch so we asked the children to stay away from the window and work in the middle of the room. Soon after this the principal on the intercom asked us to stay away from the window and come in the middle. Ten minutes after this
another alarm came on for tornado warning. We quickly cleaned up the classroom and gathered around the rug. We had turned the light off. In the mean I talked to children of what is happening and how we are going to have to move to the hall way. As I was talking to the children my assistant grabbed our fanny pack (emergency first aid kit), water jugs, cups, snacks, toys and some books. We took all these items and our sign in and out book which consists of emergency contact # for that day. Few minutes after all these the intercom came on and told us to move in the hall away. We gathered our children, counted the children, moved in the hall away and hunkered down without any confusion. We all knew including the children knew what do without being told.
I think it is very important that me and my co-worker is prepared. My co-worker and I are prepared When we panic, the children panic which causes useless stress on them. In order to be prepared we need to have good communication going on between the two teachers and the children. and to practice – we cannot overstate the importance of practicing. Our job is to protect these children. If we are not prepared the children won’t feel safe in our care nor will the parents. The parents do not need stress of being worried about their children while working.
The plan we develop for these kind of disaster is drill. Every month we have fire drills, tornado drills and code red drills. Wonderful! We have? protocols of these kind of disaster. We call it the red folder. During the code red drills we turn off the light and hide underneath the tables and corners. The children know to line up when the fire alarm goes off and which door to head towards with one teacher in front of the line and the other at the end. When we come back in from the drill we do hunker down in the hall way as tornado drill.