Shopping for gifts can be overwhelming, especially around the holidays. Learning ZoneXpress has done the work for you this year by combining some of our most popular items into two brand new kits! Both of the Garden Hero Food Nutrition Kits include fun toys and activities that focus on health and nutrition. This holiday season, treat the special children in your life to a gift that both entertains and educates.
What’s a Foodscape? That’s been a popular question here ever since our Foodscape healthy holiday cards and healthy calendars went on sale. A picture is probably worth 1000 words:
As you can see Foodscapes are artworks created from healthy food. They’re fun for adults and kids.
Early Foodscape
Foodscapes were first developed in 2007 by a graphic designer here in Owatonna, Minnesota; she had done a lot of work for LZX in the past. The first scenes, while cute, were really pretty basic. You can see from the picture on the right; it’s like looking at early editions of favorite cartoon characters or comics. The early Foodscapes sparked an interest in staff and customers. So we got a little more complex and intricate with the next batch of scenes.
Later Foodscape
We’ve come to realize that there are two types of Foodscapes. First there are the super stars that we use in the Learning ZoneXpress products. They seem simple and easy to make, but it’s an illusion. It’s pretty difficult to create high quality Foodscapes. The characters are glued, sticky-tacked and pinned together; dowels and skewers hold things up and multiple photos are taken as the scene is constructed so the food looks the freshest. (Remember the food tends to die and wilt as time passes – and we definitely use real fruits and vegetables.) Lots of the fruits and vegetables are cleaned up with Windex to make them shiny. Wires might be adding to make it so the characters can be put in a certain pose or position.
The amount of food that the food stylists work from is pretty remarkable. We have a huge variety of fresh fruits and vegetables (lots of unusual produce from the Asian markets too) because we can’t run to the store during the shoot, so we bring the store to the photo studio.
Each scene takes about five or six hours to construct and build, depending on the complexity of the scene. Staffing for a shoot includes, two food stylists, an art director, the photographer and sometimes we bring in an assistant. It’s a lot of work – but it’s worth it. The video below gives some idea of what happens during a shoot:
There’s another kind of Foodscape we enjoy too – the pared (or “peared”) down version that someone without professional training could attempt. Early next week we hope to share information on the home grown Foodscapes – including some instructions on how you can create them at home!
Flu season is just around the corner, and we have a feeling it might get an early start on us this year. To celebrate National Flu Awareness Month, Learning ZoneXpress has reduced the price of our Flu Shot Stickers! Each roll contains 200 stickers, so you can spread the word in classrooms, offices, and around your neighborhood.
They are a great way to reward brave individuals who have made the decision to protect themselves from influenza! According to the American Red Cross, most flu cases are reported in January and February. So, take care of yourself early and prevent that icky influenza from catching you and your children this year!
To read more about tips to prevent the spread of the flu and things to be on the lookout for visit American Red Cross.
It’s never too early to start planning for the holidays. Any retailer will tell you so. We’ve all seen Christmas displays up all over town, I’m sure. Learning ZoneXpress is adding to the holiday prep by offering a great sale on our Foodscapes Holiday Greeting Cards and our most recent Foodscapes Calendar. Each variation includes a fun scene with our Foodscapes characters! Not only are they adorable, but they send a fun message about healthy eating! They’re perfect for friends, relatives, and co-workers. And if you think they’re just too cute to be real, take a look at this video we made of the shoot. No Photoshop edits, just raw talent (and vegetables!)
Promote healthy holidays with these fun items from Learning ZoneXpress.
We have been having a blast here in Florida at the NAEYC Annual Conference (National Association for the Education of Young Children) – and we’ve let LANA the Iguana lead the way. I think there may be 10,000 attendees at the conference – and it is a really great group.
We particularly enjoyed the concert for kids on Wednesday morning. We’ve heard wonderful things about the speakers. Mostly we’ve just been energized by so much attention spent on teaching for young kids. It’s inspiring to hear about how people appreciate our efforts to promote healthy eating and health choices. Nourishing the body and brain make it so much easier for kids to learn – and teaching them to enjoy a healthy diet sets a habit that last a long, long lifetime!
We hope you enjoy a peek at what we’ve been seeing from our colorful booth in a busy conference floor! One more day of fun – if you’re out here, please stop by our booth and say hello.
After a hiatus, Garden Heroes are back on the Go. This time Stella Strawberry is leading the way. Guess Where in the World Stella is and WIN A FREE GARDEN HERO of your choice. Be the first to guess correctly, and choose a single character from any of the 39 Garden Heroes! (Please post guesses on Facebook – only one winner!) If you have recently won a Garden Hero, please give someone else a chance.
As childhood obesity continues to rise, so does our support to end it. This year, Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) will be hosting its inaugural Building a Healthier Future Summit. This event will bring together leaders from multiple industries including government and academia who share in the fight to end childhood obesity.
The conference will be held November 29th-30th in Washington, D.C, and they have recently announced that First Lady Michelle Obama will be the keynote speaker.
Childhood obesity isn’t going to end in one day, and it isn’t going to end with one person. It will take the effort and support of all of us. It’s events like this that remind us that our children are our future, and together we have the ability to change their lives and the lives of future generations to come. PHA’s site articulates it so well when it says “It will take the collective input and action of many to foster better health, promote academic achievement, drive global competitiveness, and boost military readiness—all of which will offer the nation’s children brighter, healthier futures.” These are all things that are affected by childhood obesity, and they are all things we have the power to change.
According to APHA’s website, this conference attracts “more than 13,000 national and international physicians, administrators, nurses, educators, researchers, epidemiologists, and related health specialists.” What a great way for us to represent ourselves and spread our message about nutrition education to thousands of industry professionals.
Today at our booth, we are handing out 1 Great Plate® Cut-Outs encouraging visitors to follow the USDA MyPlate model for correct food portions.
We are excited to offer several new MyPlate products! Our new 1 Great Plate Cut-Outs, now available for kids and preschoolers, are a great way to teach healthy portion sizes and proper food group balance. Our MyPlate Prize Box and MyPlate Retractable Banner are also effective teaching tools.
Promote healthy eating with a variety of USDA MyPlate giveaways and prizes with the MyPlate Prize Box. Over 1200 MyPlate incentives in a convenient, easy-to-store box!
Showcase the key nutrition and health messages of USDA’s MyPlate anytime, anywhere! The MyPlate Retractable Banner rolls up and down in seconds and features key food group messages of the USDA food icon MyPlate.
LANA stands for Learning About Nutrition through Activities. The program was developed by the University of Minnesota for caregivers, whether at home or in a child care setting.
Learning ZoneXpress has picked up on the research developed by the University of Minnesota to create a fun line of nutrition education products for the classroom and childcare center that promote healthy eating and a love of fruits and vegetables. It starts with LANA the Iguana – a puppet that introduces fun and adventure learning about new foods. We’ve heard from teachers that engaging kids with this new approach has been successful and builds an appetite for healthy foods that continues as they get older.
You can check out a couple of our LANA activities for free on our FreeMyPlate website – and of course we have a strong range of LANA products available on our web site.
Business owner and former FACS teacher, Melanie has been creating life skills products for 27 years. Visit Melanie’s Corner often to get the insider news on Learning ZoneXpress, life skills tips and the occasional bargain.
