Boogie Mites Healthy Living Programme
At Boogie Mites, our Healthy Living Programme is linked to healthy lifestyle activities that inspire children in early years to discover the world, and themselves. Whether in the garden picking fruit and vegetables for dinner, or brushing their teeth, children can explore the aspects of living a healthy lifestyle whilst exercising in fun, imaginative social scenarios. Our original songs support learning about a healthy lifestyle using the power of music and movement to engage children.
Studies continue to show that we have a long way to go with embedding a healthy living mindset with parents of children in early years. One in five children start reception year overweight or obese, and over 45,000 children are admitted to hospital every year with tooth decay. We all know the facts and figures, but what can early years practitioners do about it?
Boogie Mites use the power of music to share the healthy living message with children and their parents. Our Healthy Living Programme covers themes around nature and the environment as well as healthy eating, exercise and oral health messages. It aims to nurture a love of the outdoors and nature, encouraging exploration and discovery about our natural world through play.
In this blog, we give you an overview of each of the five categories of the programme. We also provide an example of a song for each of those categories, and how to use music to deliver the healthy lifestyle message. Read on to find out how to access one of the songs for free, and for details on how to obtain the discount on the whole programme.
1. Healthy Eating
Before beginning any Boogie Mites song, there should always be a chance for discussion! Use circle time to talk about healthy eating with the children and about different foods. Let them see, touch and taste foods where possible, and perhaps discuss what they had for tea the night before.
Look at the Rainbow is one of four songs in the programme that specifically link to the theme of Healthy Eating. This song allows children to explore fruit and vegetables – shapes, sizes, textures, tastes and smells providing a wide scope of activities. The active music session can lead onto a craft activity for winding down. Children can try making faces out of fruit and vegetables, or create pictures using food, such as making potato stamps.
2. Exercise
Before beginning a song, talk about what physical activities the children like to enjoy doing, such as cycling, running, climbing, swimming, playing on the swings. Create awareness of how our bodies work and introduce the need to warm up our bodies and get them ready for playtime.
I Feel Alive is an excellent song for the start of the day. It gets the children clapping, swaying, marching and shaking their bodies along with the music. Focus on the lyrics “There is nothing in this world that I can’t do… because I am fit and healthy and happy too”. Introduce the topic of growing up and different jobs people do, and look at how people need to be fit and healthy to do jobs they love. For example: explorers, astronauts, policemen/women, firemen/women, drummers, dancers, football players, builders, doctors.
3. Oral Health
Before beginning, open a discussion about hygiene, making children aware of the importance of their everyday routine. Normalise the experience of a visit to the dentist by reading stories about visits to the dentist. There are popular TV character books like Peppa Pig, and popular fictional characters like Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs, that explore this topic. This subject is also another way to further raise awareness of food, by discussing how we can ensure our teeth grow strong and healthy, through the food that we eat.
Happy Smile is a simple and catchy song, that the children will pick up easily. Get all the children to use their “imaginary” toothbrushes and brush along as they listen to the song.
4. Recycling
Before beginning, consider the rubbish that is produced in day to day life or perhaps following a picnic. Talk about the importance of recycling to look after the environment. One at a time, bring out items from a recycling bag and consider how they can be used in play, or for making music.
When you put on the song Do Re Mi, focus on the words in the chorus “Don’t throw away your rubbish, let’s all see what noise it makes, can you bang or shake it? Let’s hear it for a cleaner world.” Use the rubbish from your recycling bag to make junk percussion to play along with the song.
5. Nature and Outdoor Life
This category is included as an important aspect of a healthy lifestyle. We should all be encouraging a love of nature and outdoor life in early years. This category also supports the development of connections to the natural world, exploring and free play outside.
The song Munch Munch Munch is perfect for spring and summer when children are out in the garden. Before beginning, you can read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then role play the story; layout coloured fabric scarves for each child to curl up on pretending to be the egg on the leaf. Sit up when the sun comes out and the caterpillar wriggles out to explore the world. The song helps to teach the children about other forms of life; use a magic wand to turn all the children into cocoons “Mother Nature weaves a spell, a special kind of magic”. Help the children to wrap up in the scarf. Then the butterflies appear and fly around the room with scarves trailing as wings. “Flitter flutter flitter flutter”.
You can try the Munch, Munch Munch song for free by filling out the signup form to access the song and supporting videos.
Explore our shop to find resources your children will love to sing with, dance to, and learn from. Let’s incorporate physicality so that mental development is not our sole priority. Find out more about the Boogie Mites Healthy Living Programme.
For enquiries, contact Sue Newman, Boogie Mites Director on 023 9281 7274 or email her [email protected]