MIDDLESEX COMMUNITY COLLEGE
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
ECE 176 Health, Safety and Nutrition
Instructor: Hilary Phelps Office Hours: By Appointment
Phone (836) 343-5856 MxCC Preschool
Location: MxCC Snow Hall Rm 419
Credits: 3
Semester: Fall 2007
E-mail: hphelps@mxcc.commnet.edu
Course Location and Meeting Time
This is a distance learning course, and you are required to log on at least twice weekly at your convenience to complete class assignments.
Attendance Policy
You are required to long on at least twice weekly and perform tasks and assignments online according to the course outline in the syllabus. All weekly assignments are due midnight Sunday. Exams, papers, and all other assignments are due midnight on the date specified in the course outline. Late assignments will be penalized.
TEXT
Robertson, C. (2003) Safety, Nutrition and Health in Early Education 3rd Edition, Thompson.
Course Description
The relationship between health, safety and nutrition and child development will be examined. Emphasis will be on the strategies needed to implement a safe, healthy and nutritionally sound program. Community agencies and resources that benefit children and families will be explored
Course Objectives
Students will be able to:
Ÿ Discuss the interrelationship of health, safety and nutrition in an early childhood education environment.
Ÿ Develop skills necessary to plan and implement health, safety and nutrition experiences and to integrate these experiences into daily curriculum.
Ÿ Examine Connecticut State licensing regulations for childcare programs.
Ÿ Identify the symptoms of and discuss chronic and communicable illnesses in children as well as ways to prevent the spread of communicable disease in a childcare setting.
Ÿ Explore various agencies, organizations and websites that can be utilized as resources and referrals for health, safety and nutrition issues for children, families and teachers.
Ÿ Practice teacher health appraisals of young children.
Ÿ Identify and discuss first aid practices for common and acute illnesses and injuries.
Ÿ Examine and discuss Connecticut State Statutes for mandatory reporting for suspected child abuse.
Ÿ Identify nutrients and their functions as well as food groups and nutrient strengths of each.
Ÿ Describe appropriate feeding of infants, toddlers and preschoolers, including the physical, social and temporal environment. Discuss skills that can be enhanced in each area of development during snack and lunch time.
Ÿ State strategies for food safety management.
Ÿ Plan appropriate cooking experiences for young children.
Ÿ Discuss stress and ways teachers can help reduce stress in young children.
Ÿ Examine the values, concerns and strategies of class field trips
Course Outcomes
At the end of this course students will be able to:
· Promote Child Development and learning by knowing and understanding young children’s characteristics and needs.
· Know and understand the multiple influences on development and learning.
· Use developmental knowledge to create healthy, respectful, supportive and challenging learning environments.
· Build family and community relationships by knowing and understanding family and community characteristics.
· Support and empower families and communities through respectful, reciprocal relationships.
· Involve families and communities in their children’s development and learning.
· Observe, document and assess to support young children and families; understand the goals and benefits and uses of assessment.
· Know about and use observation, documentation, and other appropriate assessment tools and approaches.
· Understand and practice responsible assessment.
· Connect with children and families knowing, understanding and using positive relationships and supportive interactions.
· Use developmentally effective approaches. Know, understand, and use effective approaches, strategies and tools for early education to foster oral language and communication, capitalize on incidental teaching, link children’s language and culture to the early childhood program, teach through social interactions, address children’s challenging behaviors, and use integrative approaches to curriculum.
· Understand content knowledge in early education: know and understand the importance, central concepts, inquiry tools, and structures of content areas of academic disciplines.
· Build meaningful curriculum. Use own knowledge and other resources to design, implement and evaluate meaningful challenging curriculum to promote positive outcomes; security and self-regulation; problem-solving and thinking skills, academic and social competence.
· Become a professional; identify and involve oneself with the early childhood field; know about and uphold ethical standards and other professional guidelines; engage in continuous collaborative learning to inform practice; integrate knowledgeable, reflective and critical perspectives on early education; engage in informed advocacy for children and the profession
Course Content: The following topics will be covered:
1. Interrelationships of Health, Safety and Nutrition
2. Promoting good health
3. Health Appraisals
4. Stress in young children
5. Health assessment tools
6. Conditions affecting children’s health
7. The infectious process and effective control
8. Communicable and acute illness: identification and management
9. Creating quality environments
10. Safety management
11. Management of injuries and acute illness
12. Child abuse
13. Educational experiences for young children
14. Nutritional guidelines
15. Nutrients that provide energy
16. Nutrients that promote growth of body tissues
17. Nutrients that regulate body functions
18. Infant feeding
19. Feeding the toddler and preschool child
20. Planning and serving nutritious and economic meals
21. Food safety
22. Nutrition education concepts and activities
23. Cooking with young children
Instructor's Expectations of Students:
1. Regular attendance is expected. Because class participation is essential, it will be reflected in the grading process of the course.
2. Students are responsible for reading assignments and material.
3. All assignments, whether written or reading are due on the date indicated. Late assignments will result in the loss of 5 points for every week it is late.
4. All written assignments must be typed. Good English grammar and correct spelling are required in all written work. All of these contribute to the assignment grade.
5. Each student is expected to take all tests given throughout the semester on the dates indicated on the assignment schedule. NO MAKE UP TEST WILL BE GIVEN. If an emergency arises and a student misses a test, students are responsible for contacting the instructor in order to make arrangements.
Course Requirements/Description
1. Attendance and Class Participation: It is required that you log on at least twice each week to complete assignments and participate in discussions. Your participation in discussion boards is graded.
2. Weekly read and respond: Each week you will read and respond to a “Reality Check” from each chapter we are studying. Each reality check is followed by two-three questions. Your response to the reality check should include a short summary of the article, your opinion and/or personal experience (if applicable) with the topic and an answer to the questions in the text. Your read and respond should be approximately one page each and will be handed into the assignment dropbox.
3. Mock inspection--You will visit a licensed childcare center and perform a mock licensing inspection using State of Connecticut Department of Public Health Licensing inspection form. Your complete assignment will also include an analysis of the safety of the program and your evaluation of the State’s requirements.
4. Critique: You will critique an article dealing with issues concerning young children and health, safety or nutrition from a child development journal and should consist of
a. A brief summary of the article
b. A longer critique stating how well you thought the article was written and why. Criteria may include: Does the article/author:
Ÿ Cite valid research
Ÿ Include charts, graphs
Ÿ Include Practical application
Ÿ Contain a well-stated conclusion Include a bibliography and/or websites for further review
Ÿ Follow an understandable sequence
Ÿ Hold reader’s attention
Defend your statement with examples. Also you may conclude your paper with your opinion and whether you agree or disagree with the article and why (short paragraph).
Critique must be typed and no longer than three full pages. The article cannot be more than three years old.
A standard bibliography is to be included. The article must be chosen from the following:
Young Children
Childhood Education
Early Childhood Education
A Nutrition or Health Journal--such as Journal of the American Dietetic Association
Magazine Articles will not be accepted
A copy of the article must be handed in with the critique. Additional required information includes a cover page with all information about the article, the student, date, course title/number, instructor’s name etc.
5. Exams
There will be three exams throughout the semester to reflect our three major topics; health, safety and nutrition.
6. Health Appraisal: A health observation must be done on a young child, aged 2-8
7. Nutrition Assignment: Students will prepare an appropriate cooking activity.
Part 1--Using the CACFP guidelines in chapter 9 (p.328-329) and the menu planning checklist(p.336), plan a one week (M-F) preschool age menu for breakfast, lunch, and snack. You will be graded on meeting the correct nutritional guidelines for each meal as well as variety, texture, and color. You do not need to list the serving sizes for this assignment.
Part 2--Watch two hours of Saturday morning children's television. Name the shows you watched and write down the food products that were advertised during this time. What percentage of ads were for healthy foods? What percentage was for junk foods? What "hooks" or incentives did these ads give children to want to purchase the foods? Now compare your findings with the Saturday Morning Food Pyramid found in chapter six. How does this compare to the new "My Pyramid" or Color Your Diet? How can you get children to eat healthy nutritious snacks?
8. Portfolio: This assignment involves collecting brochures, handouts, newspaper or internet articles etc. on safety, nutrition and health for young children. Submit ten examples for each topic for a total of thirty. No more than 5 artifacts in each area from the internet are acceptable. This assignment is designed to help you become familiar with your community. Five resources in each topic area must be resources obtained in the community. Each example should describe the resource material by listing the name of the resource, the author or publisher, a brief summary of the contents.
This assignment can be an actual portfolio handed in to the instructor or an e-portfolio completed by scanning in each required document and completing the required write up for each resource. E-portfolio’s may be submitted through WebCT.
Grading
1. Attendance online and graded discussions 20 points
2. Weekly Read and Responds (2 points each) 30 points
3. Mock Inspection 25 points
4. Article Critique 25 points
5. Exams 25 each 75 points
6. Health Appraisal 20 points
7. Nutrition Activity 30 Points
8. Portfolio 30 points
Total 255 points
Grading: A= 234-255 points
B= 209-233 points
C= 183-208 points
D= 158-207 points
F= 157 or fewer points
Course Outline
Date Topics/ Chapters
8/28/07-9/3/07 Safety, Nutrition and Health in Childcare: A Holistic Environmental Approach To Safety, Nutrition, and Health in Quality Early Childhood Environments Chapter 1
Assignments: Read and respond to “The Reality of War and Terrorism for Young Children in the United States” beginning on page 25.
9/4/07-9/10/07 Creating Safe Environments for Early Childhood Education Chapter 2
Indoor Safety Chapter 3
Assignment: Read and respond to “Child Custody and the Impact on an Early Childhood Education Program” beginning on page 57
Read and respond to “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome” pages 81-83.
9/11/07-9/17/07 Outdoor Safety Chapter 4
Mock Inspection Due
Assignment: Read and respond to “Neighborhood Violence” page 136.
9/18/07-9/24/07 Emergency Response Procedures for Early Childhood Education Environments Chapter 5
Assignment: Read and respond to “Creating an Emergency Natural Disaster Plan for Your Early Childhood Education Environment” page 190-192.
9/25/07-10/1/07 Exam 1 to be taken this week
Basic Nutrition in Early Childhood Education Environments Chapter 6
10/2/07-10/8/07 Protecting Good Nutrition in Early Childhood Education Environments Chapter 7
Assignment: Read and respond to “Peanut Allergy” pages 264-266.
10/9/07-10/15/07 Providing Good Nutrition in Early Childhood Education Environments Chapter 8
Presentation cooking activity Part 1 and Part 2 due
Assignment: Read and respond to “Children of the Fast Food Generation” pages 308-310.
10/16/07-10/22/07 Menu Planning and Food Safety in Early Childhood Education Environments Chapter 9.
Assignment: Read and respond to “E. coli and Children” pages 346-348.
10/23/07-10/29/07 Exam 2 to be taken this week
Promoting Good Health For Quality Early Childhood Education Environments Chapter 10
Assignment: Read and respond to “Children and Stress” pages 390-392.
10/30/07-11/5/07 Tools for Promoting Good Health in Children Chapter 11
Assignment: Read and respond to “Effects of Lead Poisoning on Children” pages 418-419.
Article Critique Due
11/6/07-11/12/07 Prevention of Illness in Early Childhood Education Environments Through Infection Control Chapter 12
.
Assignment: Read and respond to “At Risk for Preventable Diseases” pages 453-454.
11/13/07-11/19/07 Supportive Health Care in Early Childhood Education Environments Chapter 13
Health Appraisal Due
Assignment: Read and respond to “Otitis Media in the Early Childhood Education Environment” pages 491-492.
11/20/07-11/26/07 Child Maltreatment Chapter 14
Assignment: Read and respond to “Helping Vulnerable Children to Become Resilient” page 558-559.
11/27/07-12/3/07 Children with Disabilities or Other Special Needs Chapter 15
Portfolio Due
Assignment: Read and respond to “Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome” page 589-590
12/4/07-12/10/07 Creating Linkages Chapter 16
Assignment: Read and respond to “Bananas—A Few People Can Make a Difference” page 614-615
12/11/07-12/17/07 Exam 3 to be taken this week
Bibliography
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1997). Healthy People 2010. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
McCracken, J.B. (1986). Reducing stress in young children’s lives. Washington, DC: NAEYC.
Allen, K.E., & Marotz, L. (1999). Developmental profiles: Pre-birth through eight (3rd ed.). Albany, NY: Delmar.
Kendrick, A., Kaufman, R., & Messenger, K (1995). Healthy young children: A manual for programs. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
CDC Six common misconceptions about vaccinations. National Immunization Program
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Moukaddem, V. (1990). Preventing infectious diseases in your childcare setting. Young Children, 45(2), 28-29.
Division of Early Childhood (DEC) Task Force on Recommended Practices. (1993). DEC recommended practices: Indicators of quality in programs for infants and young children with special needs and their families. Reston, BA: Council for Exceptional Children.
McCracken, J.B. (1999). Playgrounds: Safe and sound. Washington, DC: NAEYC. Safe not
Sorry. Canadian Institute of Child Health (Pamphlet)
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). (1998). For kids sake: Think toy safety.
(CPSC #281). Washington, DC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). (1992). Labeling of hazardous art materials. Washington, DC
The Association for Early Childhood Education. (1990). Child Abuse: A handbook for early
childhood educators. Ontario, Canada
Barnes, L. (Ed.). (1999). Pediatric nutrition handbook. Elm Grove, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. (1995). Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Washington, DC
Dietz, W., & Gortmaker, S.L. (1985). Do we fatten our children at the television set? Obesity and television viewing in children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 75, 807.
Cody, M.M., & Keith, M. (1991) Food safety for professionals, Chicago: The American Dietetic Association.