Creative Health for Early Childhood Workshop for Early Childhood Educators inFukushima, Japan

On June 24, 2026, a Creative Health for Early Childhood (CHEC) workshop was

conducted as part of a Career Development Seminar hosted by the Koriyama City

Association of Private Kindergartens and Certified Centers for Early Childhood Education

and Care in Koriyama City, Fukushima, Japan.

CHEC is a participatory food education program that encourages young children

to learn about health through multi-sensory experiences, including seeing, touching,

smelling, listening, and tasting. The program was developed through collaboration between

students from the Department of Food and Nutrition and the Department of Early Childhood

Education at Koriyama Women’s University.

During the seminar, students presented the CHEC program to kindergarten and

certified early childhood education professionals. The workshop included demonstrations

using visual materials, sensory activities, and food-related learning materials. Students

explained the objectives of the activities and discussed how they could be incorporated into

early childhood education settings.

Participants also experienced selected activities and exchanged ideas regarding the use of food education in childcare practice. Approximately 60 educators and

administrators attended the workshop.

The seminar provided an opportunity to introduce the CHEC program to local early

childhood education professionals and to share examples of its application in educational

settings. It also served as an example of collaboration between the fields of nutrition and

early childhood education and offered students an opportunity to present their work to

practitioners.

Creative Health continues to explore approaches to health education that can be

adapted to different educational and community settings. Experiences from workshops

such as this will contribute to the ongoing development of the CHEC program.

We would like to thank Koriyama Women’s University Kindergarten for its support

and cooperation. We also extend our appreciation to all participants from kindergartens and

certified centers for early childhood education and care who attended the seminar.

Reported by Koji Yamawaki (Koriyama Women's College)