Food and mealtime resources for early learning
A growing collection of practical tools, published writing and observations from the field—created to help early learning teams look more closely at the systems, environments and adult practices surrounding food.
Published writing
What happens when food reaches the table?
Nutritious food is only part of the picture. This article looks at the adult roles, environments and systems that shape what happens once food reaches children.
Early Childhood Council
Respect Isn’t on the Plate — It’s in the Practice
Respect for food is not something children learn through reminders or rules. It develops through the language, rhythms, relationships and everyday systems surrounding the meal.
Published in The Space, Issue 82, Summer 2025/26
Redefining snack time
With Nurture's founding vision to provide quality nutrition and wellbeing as part of our curriculum was the desire to redefine snack times.
Published in Nurture Early Learning Blog, Feb 2021
Field Notes
Longer reads from the thinking behind Nourish.
Field Notes begin with the everyday questions that arise around food and mealtimes, then follow them into research, theory and practice. They are a place to look more closely at what we are noticing, why it might matter, and what it could mean for the way we work.
At the Tip of Our Tongues
Mealtime language, pressure and where responsibility sits
What are our everyday words quietly asking children to carry? A closer look at encouragement, praise, sensory language, courtesy and the small shifts that can help keep nourishment and responsibility with adults while giving children more language for their own experience.
When Pedagogy Reaches the Table
Bringing the capable child all the way to lunch
What changes when the thinking we bring to the rest of the early learning day continues through the mealtime? This Field Note explores choice, environment, relationships, participation and food curiosity, and asks why pedagogy so often seems to stop when lunch begins.
From Squish to Spoon
Texture, sensory play and learning to eat
A kitchen-bench observation about children meeting wet, sticky, smooth and lumpy textures became a wider exploration of sensory development and food learning. This Field Note looks at how play can offer another low-pressure place for children to become familiar with the sensations they may later encounter in food.
Food as Curriculum: The Global Pedagogy of the Plate
When food becomes a context for learning, culture and connection
What changes when we stop treating food only as nutrition and begin to notice what children can learn through ingredients, cooking and shared meals? Drawing on Reggio Emilia, European taste education and food-as-curriculum approaches, this Field Note explores how food can support sensory curiosity, language, culture, relationship and participation — while nutrition remains embedded in what adults provide rather than becoming a lesson children are expected to perform at the table.
Practical resources
Small, practical ideas to read, save and use in everyday practice.
From Squish to Spoon
Supporting texture confidence through play
A free digital micro-deck exploring how sensory play can give children another place to meet wet, sticky, smooth, lumpy and changing sensations—through their hands, in play.
This micro deck sits alongside the full field note, From Squish to Spoon, where I share the kitchen-bench observations and research trail that shaped the resource.
Designed for viewing on a phone or tablet.
Whose Job Is It?
A shared noticing guide for mealtime language.
A printable A3 guide to help early learning teams notice how everyday language can quietly create pressure—or protect children's autonomy, dignity and confidence.
Read the thinking behind the poster
explores the research, theory and everyday observations behind Whose Job Is It?—from encouragement and praise to sensory language, role modelling, silence and the question of where responsibility sits. The poster then brings that thinking into one practical A3 noticing tool.
Looking for support specific to your setting?
Explore how Nourish can support your food systems, kitchen practice and mealtime culture.