Linton Kindergarten the healthy choice!
April 2010

Linton Kindergarten is a proud new recipient of the Heart Foundation's Healthy Heart Award for encouraging active lifestyles and teaching children responsibility in their food choices.

The Healthy Heart Award is a free of charge programme encouraging early childhood centres to promote healthy eating and active movement to under fives and their families. Once the award has been received it must be maintained to reach renewed award status.

The Heart Foundation programme provides early childhood centre staff with nutrition and active movement information, planning tools and curriculum guides to assist with the implementation of healthier food choices and active movement.

Children at Linton Kindergarten have been kept busy with obstacle courses, hoops, beanbags and even a Family Move-a-thon day where parents and whanau came to support children as they completed various physical activities.

"It's great to see the community involvement and support for healthy lifestyles at Linton Kindergarten." says Health Promotion Coordinator Kat Curnow. "It's important to teach young children healthy habits that they will use throughout their lives."

Linton Kindergarten also has its own vegetable garden containing tomatoes, silver beet, butter beans and lettuce which the children help plant, cultivate and harvest. Strawberries and gooseberries are also grown at the centre and have proven a hit with children, teachers and parents alike.

Shared and cultural lunches are popular at the kindergarten, as are cooking sessions where children use the vegetables they grow to create deliciously healthy dishes. They've even had a mellow yellow day with plenty of healthy yellow foods on offer.

"Working on the Healthy Heart Award over the past year has given us the opportunity to acknowledge, recognise and celebrate the importance we place on active movement and healthy eating at Linton Kindergarten." says Head Teacher Sherrie Gilberd.

"Our work with kindergarten gardens; planting, harvesting, eating and selling our ‘healthy choices' and our active movement opportunities continue to support our goal of promoting and developing a foundation for a life long healthy attitude." says Ms Gilberd.

The award was presented by Kat Curnow, March 24, 11.45am.