The National Dairy Council (NDC) provides extensive primary school resources to promote the School Milk Scheme, including lesson plans and activities around Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (www.moocrew.ie).
The Dental Health Foundation worked in collaboration with the National Dairy Council to develop a dental health lesson for the NDC new suite of lesson plans and resources delivered to schools in December 2018. The NDC also distributed free (non-branded) toothbrushes to children registered for School Milk in December 2018.
Approximately 510 schools nationwide were involved including DEIS schools and up to 53,550 pupils who receive school milk in primary schools. However, about 111,632 pupils in total would have had access to the educational resources.
The NDC's eveluation and feedback with primary school teachers regarding the Teacher’s Guides (lesson plans) was very positive overall. The dental health lesson plan will continue to be included in the Teacher’s Guides for the forseable future.
The Dental Lesson Plans and Resources for MooCrew are available here
Infants Lesson Plan | Home and School Lesson Plans (moocrew.ie)
Junior Lesson Plan | Home and School Lesson Plan (moocrew.ie)
Senior Lesson Plans | Home and School Lesson Plans (moocrew.ie)
This Moo Crew initiative has now been launched as a new home-schooling resource to help parents out during the current pandemic, it includes online videos, lessons and activities that have been designed to help parents who are home schooling their primary school children during the Covid-19 crisis. The programme was developed in line with the Irish primary school curriculum, registered nutritionists and the Dental Health Foundation and can be carried out in conjunction with subjects, or they can be undertaken as stand-alone topics. The lesson plans are linked to the SPHE and Geography curriculum in particular. and it’s a fun and engaging way to teach kids about the benefits of a healthy, balanced diet and the importance of exercise. Pupils will have the opportunity to learn about the food pyramid, healthy eating, the importance of regular physical exercise, dental hygiene, dairy and the environment, and the story of milk ‘from grass to your glass’.
The Moo Crew Video Lesson Plan includes a virtual classroom experience that will help primary school kids to learn all about nutrition, dairy foods, keeping active and dairy farming. The video lessons are delivered by teacher and presenter, Micheál Ó Ciaraidh from Cúla,TG4 and Operation Transformation’s 10@10.
The launch of Moo Crew has been welcomed by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed.
“I very much appreciate this positive initiative by the National Dairy Council while our schools remain closed,” says Minister Creed.
“In this way, our school children can still learn about the valuable role dairy consumption plays in their diet and its support in their general health. Additionally, they will become familiar with the wider links between the milk they consume and the valuable work our dairy farmers are doing on the farms while hopefully continuing to drink milk at home. The connection of the school children of Ireland both urban and rural, with the countryside, agriculture and all its activities via this educational resource is to be welcomed”.
The Minister added that the recent pandemic highlighted the importance of our health and encouraged parents to take advantage of this great resource.
“Never has it been more important for us to look after our own health and our children’s health and I would encourage the parents of all primary school going children to avail of this resource. The story of milk from grass to your glass has never been more important.”