Kids in the Kitchen - Parent Training Sessions
The following notes will enable you to run your own three (3) hour parent training session.
The training session covers the following topics:
- Tooty Fruity Vegie
- How much fruit and veg do children need?
- Teaching children
- Views and values regarding good nutrition
- Safety in the kitchen
- Healthy recipe ideas
- How to organise your program
- Sanity savers - activities for children to do while waiting for the food to cook
Clickon each topic for the course notes and participant handouts. Also print the Kids in the Kids in the Kitchen Session Plan
(17.81 Kb)
Tooty Fruity Vegie background
For your own preparation, read the background to Tooty Fruity Vegie on this website. Describe the justification for the Tooty Fruity Vegie and hand out the Yellow Strategies pamphlet(80.90 Kb)
How much fruit and veg do children need?
Ask participants how many serves of fruit and vegetables children need in a day. Clarify this using food models or standard cups to show serving sizes. Describe the need for variety of types of fruits and vegetables (discuss how buying fruits and vegetables in season can help ensure this) and variety in ways of serving (eg some raw, some sneaked into usual prepared dishes etc. Clarify the exclusions (these are mostly heavily processed items such as fruit rollups, potato crisps, processed corn products etc., and fruit juices which could be confused with fruit juice drinks). Reiterate that the program is focused solely on promoting fruits and vegetables and this simple message should not be made more complex by introducing other dietary guidelines such as low fat, low salt, low sugar etc. Stress the importance of including fruits and vegetables in most meals and snacks throughout the day and the need for children to eat at least 2 different fruits and at least 5 different vegies a day. Hand out the 2 n 5 page(53.59 Kb)
Teaching children 
Discuss with parents that one of the main aims is to increase children’s confidence as well as skills in cooking. We want children to have good experiences in cooking, so volunteers need to have a fun attitude and be very positive about children’s achievements in class, however small.
Ask participants what special issues need to be considered when teaching children and how these can be addressed. Ideas may include;
| Safety and hygiene | See safety and hygiene rules (22.01 Kb) handout. Volunteers need to be good role models of safety and hygiene and should (or example) have their long hair tied back and wash their hands in front of the class. |
| Age appropriate recipes | Use Kids in the Kitchen recipe book and note easy/medium/hard grades on recipes |
| Who is responsible for discipline in the classroom? | Teacher, who must be present at all times. Volunteers must never touch children except to save them in an emergency |
| Children’s allergies and special diets | Permission slips(73.49 Kb) are to be distributed by the school before the cooking class and these may list the recipe to be cooked. Parents are asked to advise the teacher of any allergies or special diets that may prevent their child participating. Where possible, teachers and volunteers should adapt recipes to include all children. |
| Children love to cook and could be very excited (and noisy) | Need to have a simple “stop, look and listen” signal agreed to before hand such as clapping, whistle etc |
| Children may have very different skill levels | Give simple instructions (preferably) one at a time and be generous with positive feedback . Have some pencil and paper activities for those children who finish before the rest (see Sanity Savers(52.68 Kb) for ideas) |
| Children learn by watching and doing more than reading and hearing | Give a demonstration before children start to cook |
| School equipment and resources | Volunteers need to carefully review the room, equipment, recipe and ingredients to make sure the cooking session will be successful. The recipe should be trialled on the volunteer’s children beforehand for checking the ease of preparation and most importantly, for taste! |
For even more things to consider see the Considerations(19.04 Kb) handout and hand this out to your group.
Sanity Savers - what to do while waiting for the food to cook
Use the Sanity Saver(52.68 Kb) activity sheets when you have a few minutes to wait until food is cooked. Check with the class teacher to be sure it is okay to use - the teacher may also be able to arrange photocopies for each student if you arrange it beforehand.
Further activities can be found in the CD Rom attached to the Fruit and Vegetable Toolkit.
Views and values regarding good nutrition
It is important for parents to be aware of their own views and values around food and nutrition and how these might affect students. Divide the group into 4 or 5 smaller groups. Each group discusses a scenario and answers the questions as listed in the Views & Values Worksheets (58.14 Kb). Smaller groups feed back to the largest group. Facilitator emphasises the importance of volunteers in creating a positive experience for students to enjoy cooking and eating fruits and vegetables and that other nutrition messages are avoided.
Safety in the kitchen
Use the Safety and Hygiene Rules (22.01 Kb)handout to discuss safety and hygiene issues.
Healthy recipe ideas
View one section of the kids in the kitchen video and groups of 2 or 3 prepare one of 4 or 5 dishes for a shared lunch. Before eating, each small group briefly mentions what was in the food and discusses any potential issues to consider when children are to cook the dish.
How to organise your program
Divide the large group into small groups of parents who will be running the program in each school. Have them write a list of tasks that need doing and people responsible in order for the cooking classes to begin. If possible, include a roster for the cooking class and the dishes that will be prepared for the next term of cooking. See Planning Sheet & Tentative Roster (21.00 Kb) form.
See also the following pages for use in the Kids in the kitchen training:
- Training flyer (31.10 Kb)(for use in school newsletters to attract participants)
- Letter to principal (17.04 Kb)(outlines the training program and notifies principal of the schools responsibilities re criminal record checks, supervision of parent volunteers and permission slips).
- Training aims (24.24 Kb)
- Training evaluation (18.33 Kb)
- Registration form (13.91 Kb)
- Helper's manual (25.69 Kb) front page (can form the front page for a manual you can put together for trainees.
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