School children are the breakfast advocates of the future! It’s important that at their young age they appreciate and have the knowledge of the benefits of a healthy breakfast.

By engaging the school children – and the teachers – it provides a fun way of exploring the breakfast messages without the traditional lesson environment.

Below we have provided some suggestions of ways you could join our "Breakfast Hit Squad" and get involved with Farmhouse Breakfast Week 2012.  You may also like to take a look at some case studies from the 2011 campaign.

Breakfast Clubs

If your school already holds a regular breakfast club, this is the perfect opportunity to hold a special event during Farmhouse Breakfast Week.  You could add additional items to your menu for the children to try, hold a competition during the week or even invite a local sports star along to give the children a talk about healthy eating and lifestyle.

An ideal opportunity to start a breakfast club is during Farmhouse Breakfast Week. Some children might not have eaten breakfast before they come to school and this can impact negatively on their learning and behaviour. The aims of a breakfast club are to get children eating breakfast whilst socialising with their friends and taking part in interesting activities.  Studies have shown that breakfast clubs can improve punctuality, academic results, concentration and behaviour in pupils.

For more details about how to start up a breakfast club click here

You could also consider inviting parents into school one morning during the week to enjoy breakfast with their children.  This helps to reinforce the breakfast message to parents about why it is such an important meal and how it can benefit their children's performance at school.

Breakfast competition

Arrange a competition for pupils in school during the week. For example, design a poster about the nutritional value of breakfast, put together a healthy breakfast menu or develop a new breakfast recipe.  The winners could then be allowed to cook their breakfast recipe and share it with their friends.

Organising a sporting initiative

With the Olympics taking place in the UK in 2012, why not organise a sporting event following by a healthy breakfast - sport and healthy eating go hand-in-hand!  You could invite a nutritionist, a trainer from a local sports club, such as football or rugby, or a local sports star to come and talk about what they recommend for breakfast and maybe include a training session! Or organise a cross country run, football match or other sports to give the children some exercise.

The Breakfast Games

The Breakfast Games is an educational activity for schools looking to take part in Farmhouse Breakfast Week. A pack is available for teachers which provides a range of fun activities linking breakfast and exercise.

This is also available to download here BREAKFAST GAMES RESOURCE PACK.pdf (997kb).

Link with local food producers

Contact your local farmer, butcher or baker to ask whether they would be willing to supply some breakfast products for the pupils.  You could invite them into school eo have breakfast with the children and then give a talk about how they make their products and their role within the food chain.  This could be a good opportunity to invite local press along too. 

Create a breakfast display

You could simply create a breakfast display within the school to show the variety of breakfast foods available in the UK and the benefits that breakfast provides.  You can use the free resources available from HGCA including posters and recipe booklets, as well as the resources available from The Grain Chain.

Breakfast songs!

How about asking the children to write a poem or a song about breakfast, talking about the nutritional benefits and why it is an important meal.  They could then perform their song or tell their poem at the school assembly which could have a breakfast theme!

School canteen

Talk to the staff in the school canteen and see if they would like to add some special breakfast items to the menu during Farmhouse Breakfast Week or perhaps they could offer an all day breakfast.

Classroom activities

Pupils aged 5 – 7

Five Food Groups
Outline the five food groups of the Eatwell Plate. Ask the children to write or draw all the food they ate this morning or yesterday for breakfast. The children can categorise the foods into the five food groups from the Eatwell Plate and evaluate their breakfast. Ask the children if they should be eating more or less of some food groups according to the Eatwell Plate.

Achieving a Balanced Diet
Using a blank piece of paper or a paper plate, ask the children to design a healthy breakfast that provides a balanced meal to start the day which uses a combination of the five food groups. They may draw or use food pictures from magazines to illustrate their breakfast. Their breakfast should include at least three food groups. The plates could then be displayed in the classroom for a healthy breakfast display.

Discuss why they have chosen the foods and which food groups they belong to.

History of breakfast
Research fun facts and figures about the history of breakfast foods. Ask the children to create a classroom display and present their findings, which could be incorporated with tastings. Alternatively, the children could organise a questionnaire or poll of their favourite breakfast ingredients and why.

 
Pupils aged 7 – 14

Where does your breakfast come from?
Allow pupils to investigate some breakfast foods and discuss where they originally came from e.g. porridge comes from oats. Discuss how the food is grown, processed and distributed for use before it arrives on the plate.

More information can be found at www.grainchain.com

Bed & Breakfast
Each pupil could pretend to own a bed & breakfast or hotel. Their guests will be staying seven days. They should plan healthy breakfasts for the guests. Allow each pupil to make a menu representing their "hotel" and the breakfast choices. The menus can be produced using a computer. Some pupils may wish to calculate the energy and nutrients provided by each breakfast choice.

Breakfast Recall
Ask the pupils to record what they eat for breakfast for a week. Using a simple nutritional analysis tool, calculate the energy and nutrients provided. Comment on the nutritional profile of the breakfasts.

The Grain Chain: Teachers resources
The Grain Chain is an educational resource developed by HGCA and the Flour Advisory Bureau (FAB). It offers children a fun way to learn about the 'field to fork' cycle of how wheat is grown and used to produce breads and cereals, plus advice on eating for health and vitality.

For more ideas for classroom activities, please visit www.grainchain.com

Pictures from a 2011 school event

Below are some photos from a breakfast event at a school in Earl's Court which took place to support Farmhouse Breakfast Week 2011.  The children were given a talk about where there breakfast foods come from and why breakfast is important.  They were then given the chance to try making a breakfast smoothie and trying different toppings on their porridge.