Benefits of Physical Activity and Nutrition in Early Years
Physical activity and nutrition is important to implement in all stages of life, from being a baby all the way to old age, and both play a critical role in determining our health at whatever age.
Physical Activity
Physical activity is anything that gets your body moving. Your child can engage in physical activity every day in a variety of ways such as play and sports and the intensity can vary from light physical activity to moderate physical activity and then to vigorous physical activity.
Light Physical Activity– No noticeable change in your child’s breathing or heart rate
Examples:
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- Stroll
- Standing up to engage in activities such as painting, singing or performing
- Playing a musical instrument
- Climbing on jungle gym/park equipment
Moderate Physical Activity – Makes your child a little huff and puff
Examples:
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- Walking quickly
- Throwing and catching a ball
- Dancing
- Hopping or skipping
- Flying a kite
- Casual and non competitive swimming
Vigorous Physical Activity – Increases your child’s heart rate and makes them huff and puff a lot
Examples:
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- Running games such as tig and chase
- Jumping and flipping on a trampoline
- Cycling
- Playing competitive sports such as football, basketball, netball and rugby
- Swimming races
Benefits of physical activity
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- Strengthens children’s bones, muscles, heart and lungs
- Improves their coordination, balance, posture and flexibility
- Helps children maintain a healthy weight
- Boosts their immune system
- Reduces the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, anxiety and depression
- Boosts children’s confidence
- Gives your child healthy self esteem
- Children feel like they belong, especially when engaging in team games
- Helps to relax and sleep
- Boosts concentration with in school and nursery settings
- Improves social skills and allows children to get along with others and make new friends easier
- Develops sharing skills, allowing children to take turns and cooperate easier
JW Football Coaching
JW Football Coaching have been working together with Cherubs since 2018 delivering sports across the whole of the Nottinghamshire Cherubs.
Our aim
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- To help children improve their fundamental skills ready for school
- To introduce children to different sports and exercises
- Develop children’s understanding of different sports learning rules and skills needed to perform certain sports.
- To create links for children to follow pathways into sports out of nursery and school hours.
- Create sessions for staff to use in nurseries when needed.
- Provide sports equipment for children to take part with throughout the week.
With all these aims we help to aid children improve their confidence and develop skills for them to use throughout their school life and beyond.
Nutrition
Eating healthy directly affects how well our body works everyday. Good nutrition is essential during childhood and early years, as it contributes to a number of things in your body. Encouraging children to eat well and learn about food in their early years not only protects their health when they are young, but also sets the foundations for their future health and wellbeing.
Benefits of good nutrition
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- Gives your child energy to stay active throughout the day
- Aids growth and repair
- Sets children up for a life of healthy eating and positive eating habits/routines
Our Menus
We ensure that we integrate a balanced diet that introduces new foods, this is crucial to a child’s development as it ensures they are eating healthy nutrients. We have our menus on a 3-week seasonal rotation and are used weekly. As part of this, we ensure the children get their 5 portions of fruit and vegetables daily, serving them over three courses. To try and save the environment and animals, we follow “Meat Free Monday”, which also encourages a healthy diet. The Food Standards Agency regularly come in to inspect our kitchens and has received lots of high praise for our highly trained Chefs for their quality of food and cleanliness. Our nurseries are proud to cater for children with dietary requirements, including allergies, intolerances and cultural or lifestyle preferences.
Current Menu
Please click the link below to view our current menu:
https://cherubsnurseries.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ss23-nursery-menu-v.1.pdf
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Website: https://www.jwfootballcoaching.net
