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Event and Activity Ideas from 2008 PTA Healthy Lifestyles Award Winners
The school garden at San Diego, California’s Sunset View Elementary School is cared for by all students at the school and used for class enrichment and snacks. This past fall, the school PTA added fruit trees and berries to the vegetables and flowers already plotted, and celebrated with a Winter Harvest Festival. The festival brought all 20 classes into the garden to harvest fruits and vegetables and learn about growing food, gardening organically, and making healthy choices; the classes then tried new foods and recipes. “All students were excited to share and eat new tastes together,” observed Carleen Berry, school site council chairperson. “The positive peer pressure to try new things was amazing. We received lots of good feedback from parents.”
Further promoting healthy eating at the school is physical education teacher Corey Brucker. Brucker, known as Coach, praises students at snack time for bringing healthy foods. Students are very receptive to this positive reinforcement, and parents have reported that their kids ask for healthier snacks that Coach will approve of. Sunset View PTA purchased a button maker so Coach could expand his
| A proclamation declaring November Healthy Lifestyles Month was signed by the Montgomery, Alabama, Public School Board, then-Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright, the Montgomery City Council, U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, and Alabama Governor Bob Riley, thanks to the efforts of McIntyre Middle School PTSA. | encouragement of healthy choices by giving students buttons for their backpacks when he caught them being healthy. According to Berry, “It was fun to see how creative the students were in order to earn a button. The staff also commented on how they were also challenged to pack and eat healthier snacks. It proved to be a great program with full involvement.”
The 2008 Fruit and Vegetable Convention hosted in McMinnville, Oregon, called upon Memorial Elementary School students to learn about and vote for a candidate. Their choices? Various fruits and vegetables.
Leading up to the event, which was modeled after the national political process, students learned about the federal government and Washington DC, even using milk cartons and cereal boxes to build replicas of some of the national monuments. The 2nd-graders divided themselves along party lines and created signs, banners, and rallying cries for their respective candidates. In an effort to convince her classmates to vote for Carrots, one 2nd-grader, whose slogan was “Do you even Care-ot about vegetables?”, argued, “It helps your eyes see better, it grows in the ground and it’s fun to grow, because the stem is out of the ground and the carrot is underneath. I love carrots.”
On Saturday, November 1, the Memorial PTA hosted a Harvest Fair with food demonstrations and samples, informational booths, a nutrition magician, and musical entertainment provided by the kindergartners and 1st-graders. Attendees who brought a healthy recipe were entered in a drawing; the recipes were entered into a cookbook.
The highlight of the fair, however, was the live debate, with local farmers representing the fruit and vegetable candidates. The debate was moderated by a county commissioner and the Oregon Department of Education’s Farm to School coordinator. After listening to the farmers debate the qualities of each candidate, and discussing the privilege of voting, students cast their ballots on November 4. Cherry, and its running mate Chocolate, came out on top.
Anchorage, Alaska, is covered in snow for five to six months a year, but Huffman Elementary School has found a way to keep kids active during these cold, dark winter months—by offering cross-country skiing as part of its physical education program and as an after-school program. With the 2008 PTA Healthy Lifestyles Award received by the Huffman Elementary PTA, the school has expanded its program to reach elementary school students across Anchorage. The PTA used the award funds to purchase 40 pairs of cross-country ski boots to add to the 30 pairs of cross-country skis donated by a nonprofit the previous year. The cross-country ski set is being offered to all elementary school physical education teachers in the Anchorage School District. In the 2008–2009 school year, four schools used the set, for three weeks each, to introduce more than a thousand elementary students to this lifetime sport, and the set will
A bingo board contest from Parma Park PTA in Parma Heights, Ohio, challenged elementary school students to complete 25 squares of family-friendly nutrition and fitness activities during PTA Healthy Lifestyles Month.
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Students lead students in morning workouts at Wildwood Forest Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina. The school’s PTA and physical education department partnered to create a series of short exercise videos to air twice a week on the schoolwide television system. Ten to 15 student role models were selected to star in each video, which include aerobic activities, strengthening, stretching, and health facts. A large hospital system in the area, as well as local YMCAs, consulted on the content.
According to Dawn Roy, Wildwood Forest Elementary PTA president, the hope is that students will do the exercises at home too, promoting both their own fitness and their families’.
“I like that we get to get up and move in the morning and I like to get energized,” said one 3rd-grader.
In Homer, Alaska, kids are discovering favorite foods they never even knew existed. Paul Banks Elementary PTA has introduced the school’s youngsters to new fruits and vegetables through classroom snacks. With the snacks comes discussion with the teacher about where the food originates, what part of the plant it comes from, and what it can do for the health of the kids’ bodies. Each food is also highlighted in the monthly PTA newsletter for parents, with a description of its health benefits. As a result, students and families are learning about foods’ benefits for diabetes, asthma, and more, and parents say their kids are trying foods in the classroom that they wouldn’t try at home.
Last November, the Owls of Blanchard Elementary in Columbus, Georgia, were invited to a Family Fit Night hosted by the school’s PTA. Students, families, faculty, and school board representatives rotated through five 20-minute stations: They learned dance steps at Dancing with the Owls; answered trivia in the form of a question in Nutritional Jeopardy; teamed up to play basketball, football, and more at Sports Center; learned tae kwon do movements from a certified, senior 3rd degree black belt instructor; and enjoyed healthy snacks at the Owls’ Nest Café. True to the event’s theme “We’re All in This Together,” the PTA reached out to community partners to provide the demonstrations, instruction, and snacks, as well as blood pressure screenings. Based on the event’s success, Blanchard PTA plans to make Family Fit Night an annual affair.
A new school garden supports healthy habits and academics at Rosemont High School in Sacramento, California. In November 2008, Rosemont High School PTSA kicked off the formation of a Healthy Harvest Garden by partnering with the school’s culinary arts class on a food bar at the annual Harvest Festival, offering healthy foods, handouts on healthy eating habits, and a chance to plant a seed for the garden. With the support of instructor Chef Scott, the culinary students are using produce from the garden in their classroom.
Kelly O’Hagan, president of the school’s PTSA, said the PTA Healthy Lifestyles Award “enabled our PTSA to form a partnership with students on our campus. It provided students with the opportunity to meet with the community and share what they learned in the classroom.”
Mile-Cat is a yearlong walk-at-recess program run by Wingland PTA in Bakersfield, California. Students receive incentives for reaching individual milestones and compete as classes for possession of a traveling trophy. Local university and high school athletes and cheerleaders, as well as Marines and Army personnel, occasionally join the elementary school students to boost enthusiasm and encourage them in staying fit.
About 100 miles south, at Glenwood Elementary School in Thousand Oaks, California, students are tracking their miles across the United States. The school’s morning running club meets twice a week to help prepare students for the President’s Physical Fitness Test given to all 5th-graders. Students are recognized at a monthly assembly for the miles they have run. The school’s combined mileage is recorded on a map of the USA, on a route from the school’s southern California location to Washington DC.
In Binghamton, New York, MacArthur PTA partnered with nursing students from Binghamton University to host a health fair at its Fall Festival. “Our event was a great success,” said MacArthur PTA Treasurer Barbara Putrino. “Fifteen groups of nursing students set up stations for our elementary students to visit. Each station taught them a little something about health, fitness, or well-being.”
Ken-Ton SEPTSA, a PTSA that serves more than 1,800 special needs children in 14 buildings in New York’s Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda School District, as well as numerous other districts across western New York, hosted an agency fair showcasing more than 90 organizations that provide health, educational, and recreational services to disabled children.
Event and Activity Ideas from 2007 PTA Healthy Lifestyles Award Winners
Cooleemee Elementary PTA in Cooleemee, North Carolina, hosted a scavenger hunt for kids, featuring hidden fruits, vegetables, and other healthy snacks, as well as lists of health tips. The scavenger hunt was part of the school’s year-long Healthy Lifestyles plan, which also included a home fitness program, family skate night, bikeathon, and health education month
Huffman High School PTSA in Birmingham, Alabama, organized a health fair tailored to its community’s needs, calling attention to African-American health issues such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. The PTSA partnered with a local nurses association to provide students and parents with free health screenings for blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol. The keynote speaker, a local physiologist, challenged families and school staff to develop healthier lifestyles.
You Can Make a Health Fair Work for Your PTA:
- Work with local health organizations, medical and insurance providers, and social service organizations to hold a health fair. Give each partner exhibit space.
- The local health department can talk to parents about government-subsidized health insurance for kids, and local health providers can answer parents’ questions.
- Be sure to have a PTA table with healthy lifestyles handouts and PTA membership information.
Mount Vernon Elementary School PTA in Yorktown, Virginia, brought a nutrition magician into the school to present magic tricks that incorporated health topics, tips, and foods. For example, while explaining the nutritional benefits of apples, the magician would make the fruit disappear. The magician, a trained dietitian, called upon student and faculty volunteers to help with tricks, making the show an interactive and engaging way for students and staff to learn. Students went home with new knowledge from the magician and printed health tips from the PTA.
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