I thought I was done blogging, but Bettina over at
The Lunch Tray has written a manifesto in response to her children being consistently "rewarded" with junk food in the class room (the treat bucket is one of my pet peeves as a person who has worked in the public school system) that I just had to share!
And I hope you will share it too!
Labels: Advocacy in Action, Grassroots Movement
Grassroots Movement: Fit Kids
I decided to take my own advise earlier this month and do some grassroots advocacy for the FIT Kids Act. Using the very cute poster that the American Heart Association has designed (as seen below), I put posters up around campus to increase knowledge of the cause.
You can download your own version of this poster
here in order to canvas your own community.
Below is a snapshot of a poster I places on a bulletin board.
Labels: Advocacy in Action, Grassroots Movement
One of the bills I have been advocating for is Bill 110 - a provision that will allow school property in Kentucky to be made available for the community to use to be more physically active. A bill that would allow schools to open up their playgrounds to children on the weekends, or their halls to walking programs in the winter, without the worry of liabilities.
Before I even started this blog, I spoke to my Community Nutrition class about the importance of this piece of legislature.
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Students enjoy an after school game
by Gwen |
Well, we did it! Senate Bill 110 passed with overwhelming support this week! What a great was to end National Nutrition Month!
Labels: Advocacy in Action, Grassroots Movement, Policy
March is National Nutrition Month!
This year the theme for national nutrition month is "Get Your Plate In Shape".
A fun Friday afternoon activity to "Get Your Plate In Shape" can be to give each child a paper plate, with a small blue circle attached to the top right of the plate (to represent dairy) along with access to food magazines. Allow them to cut out and paste foods from the groups and place them in the correct area on the plate - help them with the division of the plate.
For older children, The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggests conducting a Fear Factor-type event. Provide unusual vegetables and fruits cut into bite-size pieces. Offer an opportunity to taste and guess the food. This is an activity I have personally done with children from first through twelfth grades, and they LOVE the dare aspect of it - and believe it or not, many are surprised to find that they like a new food or two! If weird vegetables are a little daunting, the activity also works well with fruit and vegetable juices.
More fun suggestions from the Academy for involving children in National Nutrition Month
can be found here! Labels: Grassroots Movement
Grassroots Movement: Happy Valentine's Day
Sometimes change has to happen at home. Valentines Day is coming up this week, and thousands of children will go to school on Tuesday with their backpack filled with cheap candy to give to the other children in thier classroom. Not to mention that most classroom will also have a Valentines Day party, and further fill the children with salty, sugary and fatty foods.
Working in the classroom, this always made me cringe. But it wasn't my classroom so I couldn't say no to it. What I could, and did do every year, was ensure that the children's morning snack (usually animal crackers, goldfish or pretzels) would be fruit.
I would make each child a strawberry rose out of those monstrous strawberries that are available at this time of year. Sometimes they got rose buds, but if I had enough time in the classroom, I would make the "strawberry rose "bloom" right before their eyes. They LOVED it!
If you don't trust your knife skills, here is a small collection of other ideas you could bring to your child's classroom party or send in as an alternative to candy valentines.
Heart shaped seed bombs by Mademoiselle Chaos
Heart shaped crayons by Denise and Jillian
(I would do this with holiday shapes to avoid the Christmas party treat dilemma with my class) Labels: Grassroots Movement
