Development of an experiential food and nutrition educational program that promotes preschoolers’proactive participation

The present study involved implementing a food and nutrition educational program comprising different mechanisms for promoting preschoolers’ involvement in a fictional narrative world. The purpose was to evaluate them to determine if they proactively and enjoyably learned about the foodstuffs’ characteristics and the threecolor (red, green, and yellow) classification system for food groups. The participants were 26 “senior-year” (ages 5 and 6) nursery school and kindergarten students. The program followed a storyline (narrative form), with initial “icebreaking” activities, a play, food-related games, and reflection time. The participants were evaluated by using a record of their behavior during the program and interviewing them after the program. The behavior record revealed that the participants spoke spontaneously about the foodstuffs’ characteristics—for example, at a booth designed to stimulate visual perception, “The seeds look like stars!” (apple); at a booth designed to stimulate tactile perception, “It’s like a tree!” (broccoli); and at a booth designed to stimulate olfactory perception, “The crushed ones smell even better!” In the interview after the program,when we asked “How was the activity with Gohanger?”, 84.0% of preschoolers responded positively to the activities, such as "Playing games was fun.” To the question “Do you remember how Gohanger said the teacher who is not energetic for the role could become well again and regain their power in the play?”, 80.0% said, “I remember,” while 90.0% said something about the three color-classified food groups, with statements such as “He eats red, green, and yellow food!” Based on these results, it was concluded that the program promoted the participants’ proactive participation and that they also learned about the foodstuffs’ characteristics and the three color-classified food groups.