Wellness and Nutrition Program

Carter Angel, our nutrition coordinator, cooks all the meals and snacks in our newly remodeled kitchen. Chef Carter works hard to provide scratch-to-table, simple whole foods and to limit refined sugar and processed foods on our menu. We incorporate our menus into the nutrition lessons throughout the week.

Persimmon Early Learning Sample Menu to download

Some of the children’s favorite recipes include Blueberry Beet Muffins, Hawaiian Wrap (broccoli, carrot, chicken), Red Cabbage Quinoa Wraps, Roasted Corn and Avocado Wraps

Persimmon Early Learning teaches the importance of fruits and vegetables by implementing fun, hands-on nutrition activities like gardening, cooking classes, taste testings, field trips, farmer visits, and meals and snacks. Now is the time to develop food preferences in children so they can learn to make healthier choices in the future!

Did you know it can take trying a food 10 times before a child may like it? Our program provides children the opportunities to do this with a variety of foods. They begin to feel empowered by their bravery and ability to step out of their comfort zone!

Our partners: Farm to ECE and CHOP

Our newly remodeled outdoor spaces will host our gardens this year. We are getting excited for the growing season as we begin to build and prep our gardens! We will have three garden beds on the infant playground, three on the preschool playground, and two on the toddler playground. This year we plan to plant a variety of beautiful flowers, tons of vegetables, and a few fruits, including a variety of tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, lemon balm, lettuce, lavender, bell peppers, basil, and forget me not flowers. We hope to send the families home with some fresh Persimmon produce over the summer and fall.

In addition to healthy and tasty fruit and vegetables, we grow plants that are colorful and fun (and safe) to touch, to provide opportunities for sensory exploration for our infants and toddlers.

Every day we provide our toddlers and preschoolers with at least 30 minutes of structured physical activity. Fitness activities develop and improve motor skills, coordination, language and listening skills, physical ability, social skills, spatial awareness, and overall health and wellness.

We also incorporate yoga and mindfulness into our daily program in order to support children developing self-regulation and social -emotional skills.

Our field trips expose children to new learning environments. These trips can include harvesting, planting, learning about the garden or farm, observing farm animals or bugs, and nutrition lessons. We love using these trips to show the kids where our food comes from!

Past field trip destinations include Growing Gardens, Ollin Farms, Boulder Farmers Market, Anderson Farms, Miller Farms, and High Street Hives.

In addition to the physical activity classes and nutrition education we partner with many other teachers and organizations to create a fun and unique learning environment. Examples include:

Music class with Mr. Scott!

Ollin Farms giving a presentation on fruits, veggies, and farming!

Due to COVID-19 we explored new ways to continue our wellness education through fun and entertaining cooking videos! Carter and Tori walk through a few recipes for families to try at home with their kids.