Children Serve ThemselvesProvider's Goals for the Week Sheet

Children Serve Themselves: Goals for the Week Sheet
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Goal setting can be a helpful strategy for changing behaviors:

  • Select goals that you are not yet doing or that you think you still need more practice doing.
  • Try to select goals from each of the categories.
  • You do not have to meet all of your selected goals in the upcoming week. You can continue to meet these goals throughout the EAT Family Style program.

Now that you have completed the Children Serve Themselves and Select Their Own Portions lesson, let’s think about what you may still have questions about. In terms of helping children serve themselves and select their own portions during mealtime (mealtime includes snacks, breakfast and lunch) …

Instructions: Rate where you are in your learning and use of strategies to support children serving themselves and selecting their own portions during mealtime.

Strategies to Help Children Serve Themselves during Mealtime

1. I encourage children to serve themselves during mealtime.
2. I provide physical and verbal assists to support children's ability to serve themselves. For example, using physical assists like hand-over-hand physical prompts or verbal assists, (e.g., "Use your thumb to keep the plate steady").
3. I help children serve themselves at mealtime by reducing spills and messes by...
  • Filling the milk pitcher half full.
  • Keep cleaning supplies such as paper napkins nearby.
  • Provide a tub for dirty dishes.
  • If spills happen, I let children help clean-up.
4. I use strategies to maintain hygiene and safety when children serve themselves by...
  • Using colored serving utensils and silver eating utensils so that children can remember to avoid licking or eating from colored utensils.
  • Providing two sets of scooping utensils and tongs for serving food in the classroom, in case of contamination.
  • Reserve half servings of each food in additional bowls, in case of contamination or second helpings.
  • Keep extra helpings of food on a cart or table nearby.
5. I provide child-friendly food units during mealtime. For example, I serve diced up peaches rather than peaches that are half-cut.

Supporting Children's Abilities to Serve Themselves during Play

6. I use sand and water play opportunities to teach children self-serving skills.
7. I support children to select their own portion sizes at mealtime.
8. I offer verbal guidance to children at mealtime to prevent under-serving and over-serving. For example, having staff say, "Are you hungry?" (under-serving) or "Take one scoop now and you may have another if you are hungry later." (over-serving).

Engaging Families to Support Children Serving Themselves and Selecting Their Own Portions

9. I share handouts provided in the EAT-Family Style toolkit so families can support children to serve themselves and select their own portions at home.

Goal setting is an important part of implementing what you have learned and overcoming possible challenges. Select three strategies from the list above that you are not using or that you think still need more practice. Try to select strategies from each of the categories, e.g. children serving themselves during mealtime, children practicing serving themselves during play, supporting children select their own portions, and engaging families. Make it your goal to try them out this week.

As you are working on your strategies, think about them as learning goals that you are practicing to promote healthy eating habits in children. For the three goals you have picked, think about how to overcome any challenges that may come up when trying to use these strategies.

Goals for Supporting Children to Serve Themselves and Select Their Own Portions

Goal 1: Choose a goal from the dropdown menu below.

Goal 2: Choose a goal from the dropdown menu below.

Goal 3: Choose a goal from the dropdown menu below.

If you've filled out the above form, please add an email address you want it sent to, as well as your coach or instructors email, for you to reference and go over together.

Congratulations! You have completed Objective 6. Select, practice and reflect on weekly goals for children serving themselves.You can now move on with the lesson by clicking the "Save and Continue" button below.

References

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