WOWS E-Newsletter

Welcome to Wednesday WOWS!
W-wonderful O-opportunities W-with S-schools

March 17, 2010

Link School Field Day Activities with Healthy Eating

HEAR  Help people hear the healthy message

As the weather warms up and the end of the school year is in view, many schools provide an outdoor Field Day event. Make the most of this physical activity day by connecting healthy eating messages with it as well! Consider the following suggestions.

SEE  Show people HOW to make healthy changes

• Healthy Kids Challenge Resources:
  • Acting Up booklet - provides fun kids' activity examples linking healthy eating and physical activity
     
  • Health Works Basic Kit - look at the activity sample "Locomotor Labels" from the Health Works with MyPyramid booklet and adapt for outdoor use
     
  • Dairy Dazzling Calcium Carnival guide - offers active play games with a "3-A-Day of Dairy" message

DO  Help people practice and make healthy changes

1. Try the "Fruit and Veggie Challenge" from the Acting Up booklet, page 51, for a fun event activity! Materials: soft balls or scarves in fruit & veggie colors (Blue/Purple, Green, White, Yellow/Orange, Red)
   1. Instruct kids to stand in a circle at arm's length apart.
   2. Hold up a ball and ask the group to call out names of fruits and veggies in the color group represented by the ball.
   3. Tell the group that the ball will be passed around the circle in different ways. Start with one person tossing the ball in the air for the second person to catch and continue around the circle. Call out different commands as the ball goes around the circle, i.e., roll the ball to the next person, or reverse direction of the circle.
   4. Add new ball colors and for each new color introduced, identify names of fruits and veggies within that color group.
       
2. Work with school nutrition services to offer a healthy snack during your Field Day activities. Consider orange wedges and apple slices or let kids build a healthy trail mix with whole grain ready-to-eat, low-sugar cereals, dried fruits, pretzels and soy nuts (to avoid peanut allergies).  

Cut and paste a HEAR-SEE-DO tip each week into your own parent newsletters!

Spend Time Outdoors with your Kids
Spring is in the air; and it's a great time to build outside physical activity into your family routines! Try these ideas:

• Toss a Frisbee® or other flying disc with your kids. Set up targets to hit and see who can get the most hits.  
• Go fly a kite while running with the breeze! Consider making a kite with sturdy paper and light-weight dowels or purchase an inexpensive version. (For safety, choose an open field with no overhead power lines or moving vehicles.)
• Create an obstacle course with cones and boxes to run around or jump over, balls to kick or shoot, and any other playful movement ideas!

Target Arts Grants
Deadline:  April 30, 2010
Target will provide direct support to K-12 schools and other nonprofit organizations that bring art and cultural experiences to kids. These programs must also have a curriculum component.

For questions about Healthy Kids Challenge, please contact:
Vickie L. James, RD, LD, Director
vickie@healthykidschallenge.com
1-888-259-6287
www.healthykidschallenge.com

Come Blog and Tweet with HKC! Connect with us! 

http://www.healthykidschallenge.com/newsletter/confirm/remove/

Welcome to Wednesday WOWS!
W-wonderful O-opportunities W-with S-schools

March 10, 2010

Kids' Night to Cook Dinner! 

HEAR  Help people hear the healthy message

Letting kids fix an evening meal can be a fun family activity that teaches responsibility, balanced eating and basic cooking skills. Encourage families to cook together by sharing the suggestions below in a parent or employee newsletter. 

SEE  Show people HOW to make healthy changes

• KidsHealth.org - the following 3 Web resources give parents wonderful suggestions to help kids have fun while learning basic cooking skills!
  • "Cooking With Kids"
  • "Cooking With School-Age Kids"
  • "Cooking With Preschoolers" 

DO  Help people practice and make healthy changes

Enjoy cooking with your family by trying the following:

1. Look at your calendar and schedule an evening meal when all family members will be home. Choose a night that allows plenty of time, such as a weekend evening.
    
2. Devise a simple dinner meal... 3 or 4 dishes at the most. Use the MyPyramid food guide to assist with healthy balance menu choices. Consider a protein-based entree, grain-based item, veggie side dish and fruit. For example, tacos with corn tortillas and ground hamburger, topped with chopped lettuce and tomatoes; a side of cooked corn and fruit salad.
    
3. Develop a grocery list for the needed ingredients and include the kids when shopping.
    
4. Assign age appropriate tasks for each child when cooking (see KidsHealth.org Cooking With Preschoolers and Cooking With School-Age Kids for suggestions). Provide supervision and assistance as needed, but let the kids explore what they can do on their own.  

See the "Stirring Up Health™” Web pages for information and details. View the entry form which can be submitted online or mailed.

Come Blog and Tweet with HKC! Connect with us! 

http://www.healthykidschallenge.com/newsletter/confirm/remove/

Welcome to Wednesday WOWS!
W-wonderful O-opportunities W-with S-schools

March 3, 2010

Healthy Eating and School Gardens 

HEAR  Help people hear the healthy message

Since the day the First Lady broke ground for the White House Kitchen Garden, community and school gardens have gained attention! Government funding has been allotted to promote school gardens as a way to teach and help kids practice healthy eating. "Get on board" to start a school or youth garden with the kids you lead!

SEE  Show people HOW to make healthy changes

• KidsGardening.org - this great resource provides tips for parents, teacher resources, classroom projects, grant information, and more
  
  
• KinderGARDEN "Starting a School Garden" Dept. of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A & M University - provides a step by step guide to start a school garden 

DO  Help people practice and make healthy changes

1. Work with school administrators to designate a specific land area or classroom space for gardening. If space is limited consider a "container garden" to start.
   
   
2. Form a garden team of teachers, parents and administrators to help plan and work with the garden program.
   
   
3. Encourage involvement with your school garden by sponsoring a "Garden Design" contest! Have kids submit plans and ideas to a panel of judges who will select the winning design for implementation that year.
   
   
4. Seek out school garden grant opportunities for funding.  

Welcome to Wednesday WOWS!
W-wonderful O-opportunities W-with S-schools

March 3, 2010

Healthy Eating and School Gardens 

HEAR  Help people hear the healthy message

Since the day the First Lady broke ground for the White House Kitchen Garden, community and school gardens have gained attention! Government funding has been allotted to promote school gardens as a way to teach and help kids practice healthy eating. "Get on board" to start a school or youth garden with the kids you lead!

SEE  Show people HOW to make healthy changes

• KidsGardening.org - this great resource provides tips for parents, teacher resources, classroom projects, grant information, and more
  
  
• KinderGARDEN "Starting a School Garden" Dept. of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A & M University - provides a step by step guide to start a school garden 

DO  Help people practice and make healthy changes

1. Work with school administrators to designate a specific land area or classroom space for gardening. If space is limited consider a "container garden" to start.
   
   
2. Form a garden team of teachers, parents and administrators to help plan and work with the garden program.
   
   
3. Encourage involvement with your school garden by sponsoring a "Garden Design" contest! Have kids submit plans and ideas to a panel of judges who will select the winning design for implementation that year.
   
   
4. Seek out school garden grant opportunities for funding.  

"Stirring Up Health™" Recipe Contest Deadline

There's still time to enter the Healthy Kids Challenge "Stirring Up Health™" National Middle School Recipe Contest! Deadline is March 13th! 

The contest represents a "simple solution idea" to get 7th and 8th graders involved in basic cooking skills, develop healthier eating habits and set healthy goals while having fun!

Those of you who work with 7th and 8th graders or have family and friends with middle school kids, share the following information today!

See the "Stirring Up Health™” Web pages for information and details. View the       entry form which can be submitted online or mailed.

Entry Deadline - March 13, 2010 

For questions about Healthy Kids Challenge, please contact:
Vickie L. James, RD, LD, Director
vickie@healthykidschallenge.com
1-888-259-6287
www.healthykidschallenge.com  

http://www.healthykidschallenge.com/newsletter/confirm/remove/

Welcome to Wednesday WOWS!
W-wonderful O-opportunities W-with S-schools

February 24, 2010

National School Breakfast Week 2010 

HEAR  Help people hear the healthy message

The "School Breakfast-Ready, Set, Go!" campaign aims to teach kids that breakfast prepares them for an active day at school. Share the following information with school nutrition services and teachers to help them promote National School Breakfast Week, March 8-12.

SEE  Show people HOW to make healthy changes

• School Nutrition Association National School Breakfast Week - the official Web site that provides menus, tools, publicity ideas, a kids' art contest and anything you need to know to celebrate the week
  
  
• Healthy Kids Challenge Resources to Support the Breakfast Habit:
  
  
• A La Cart Breakfast booklet - fun and easy activities for kids to encourage a daily breakfast routine
  
  
• Monthly Action Ideas - check the December and June links for Breakfast GO POWER group activities
  
  
• CIGNA Fit & Fun Families toolkit "Breakfast GO POWER" - a breakfast encouraging download to send home to parents
  
  

DO  Help people practice and make healthy changes

1. Share the National School Breakfast Week Web site with school nutrition services for fun menu ideas and recipes like Mighty Muffin Squares, Fuel Up with French Toast, and Breakfast Burrito Boost.
   
   
2. Provide the downloadable kids' activity sheets during classroom free time to support school breakfast week!
   
   
3. Try a fun activity from HKC's A La Cart Breakfast booklet, "Cereal Sampling", pg. 24. 
• Materials Needed: 4-5 different ready to eat cereals in the box (for label reading), 3 oz. paper cups (for tasting cereals), measuring cups (for volume), small scale (for weighing)
• Divide students into groups, or do the activity as a class.
• Talk about cereals and grains represented in the MyPyramid Grains Group.
• Look at the ingredients listed on the cereal boxes and list how many different kinds of grains are identified. 
• Weigh 1 ounce of each type of cereal.
• Determine the volume for each 1 ounce serving.
• Sample different cereals and see if the kids can tell which grains they taste.
• Talk about how the Grains Group provides energy for GO POWER!

Welcome to Wednesday WOWS!
W-wonderful O-opportunities W-with S-schools

February 24, 2010

National School Breakfast Week 2010 

HEAR  Help people hear the healthy message

The "School Breakfast-Ready, Set, Go!" campaign aims to teach kids that breakfast prepares them for an active day at school. Share the following information with school nutrition services and teachers to help them promote National School Breakfast Week, March 8-12.

SEE  Show people HOW to make healthy changes

• School Nutrition Association National School Breakfast Week - the official Web site that provides menus, tools, publicity ideas, a kids' art contest and anything you need to know to celebrate the week
  
  
• Healthy Kids Challenge Resources to Support the Breakfast Habit:
  
  
• A La Cart Breakfast booklet - fun and easy activities for kids to encourage a daily breakfast routine
  
  
• Monthly Action Ideas - check the December and June links for Breakfast GO POWER group activities
  
  
• CIGNA Fit & Fun Families toolkit "Breakfast GO POWER" - a breakfast encouraging download to send home to parents
  
  

DO  Help people practice and make healthy changes

1. Share the National School Breakfast Week Web site with school nutrition services for fun menu ideas and recipes like Mighty Muffin Squares, Fuel Up with French Toast, and Breakfast Burrito Boost.
   
   
2. Provide the downloadable kids' activity sheets during classroom free time to support school breakfast week!
   
   
3. Try a fun activity from HKC's A La Cart Breakfast booklet, "Cereal Sampling", pg. 24. 
• Materials Needed: 4-5 different ready to eat cereals in the box (for label reading), 3 oz. paper cups (for tasting cereals), measuring cups (for volume), small scale (for weighing)
• Divide students into groups, or do the activity as a class.
• Talk about cereals and grains represented in the MyPyramid Grains Group.
• Look at the ingredients listed on the cereal boxes and list how many different kinds of grains are identified. 
• Weigh 1 ounce of each type of cereal.
• Determine the volume for each 1 ounce serving.
• Sample different cereals and see if the kids can tell which grains they taste.
• Talk about how the Grains Group provides energy for GO POWER!

Welcome to Wednesday WOWS!
W-wonderful O-opportunities W-with S-schools

February 17, 2010

Back to Basics with National Nutrition Month

HEAR  Help people hear the healthy message

"Nutrition From the Ground Up" is the theme for National Nutrition® Month March 2010. The emphasis is balancing physical activity with a healthy diet; eating a variety of MyPyramid foods with less fat, salt and sugar.

Help administrators, school staff and youth leaders encourage kids and families to get back to the basics of healthy eating and physical activity by sharing the resources and ideas below!

SEE  Show people HOW to make healthy changes

• USDA MyPyramid.gov - offers healthy eating tips and guidelines along with     fun kids worksheets and posters to use
  
  
• Michigan Team Nutrition Booklist - provides a list of over 400 books with   positive food and physical activity messages for kids K-2
  
  
• CIGNA Fit & Fun Families toolkit - "simple solutions" downloadable healthy  eating and physical activity sheets for parents and kids
  
  
• KidsHealth "Nutrition and Fitness" Center - offers parent suggestions to help kids get more physical activity and develop lifelong fitness

DO  Help people practice and make healthy changes

1. Discuss the MyPyramid food groups using the Kids Poster for reference. Show kids HOW to eat healthy by choosing a variety of nutritious foods. Discuss how physical activity, plus healthy eating, equals a fit body! Print copies of the MyPyramid kids poster for kids to take home and share with their family.
   
   
2. Ask the school library to highlight books about healthy eating and physical activity for the month. A healthy eating and physical activity reading center or coloring contest would be fun to offer!
   
   
3. Create an inviting nutrition quiz center in the cafeteria! Provide a nutrition or physical activity question each day of the month. Kids complete an answer form and place it in a box, which is emptied daily. During morning announcements, name the winners!

Welcome to Wednesday WOWS!
W-wonderful O-opportunities W-with S-schools

February 10, 2010

Let's Move...Helping America's Kids Get Healthy

HEAR  Help people hear the healthy message

First Lady Michelle Obama has revealed a national campaign to get kids
healthy and keep them healthy called, Let's Move. Healthy Kids Challenge
commends the First Lady for her attention to kids' health.

Let's Move will engage people across the business, school, community,
healthcare and family sectors. The extensive plan will generate actions to
provide schools, families and communities simple tools to help kids be more
active, eat better, and get healthy.

Let's Move is a four prong approach -

• Helping parents make healthy family choices
• Healthier foods in schools
• Access to healthier, affordable foods
• Increasing physical activity

SEE  Show people HOW to make healthy changes

Let's Move - A snapshot of the campaign and what's to come. Sign up for updates, read fact sheets, get involved today for kids health!

What can YOU do to help?

1. Review the content on the new Let's Move Web site and CHALLENGE yourself to MOVE and do something. Whether it be a personal healthy change within your family, volunteering time with youth programs, or supporting systems change in your community, take that first step!
    
2. Share your ideas, tips, and success stories with us, and with
   others because we're all in this together! Support systems are critical to sustainable healthy change!
    
3. Blog with HKC! We would love for the HKC blog to serve as an opportunity to build a healthy community of followers interested personally and professionally in kids' health. Your challenges, best practices, frustrations, and vision for kids' health are important for us to move to the next level of helping combat childhood obesity in a real world, financially feasible, time sensitive way.
    
4. As a leader for kids' health, if you are seeking resources to help you with your change process, consider HKC simple solutions. If you need training, teaching tools, or distance assistance Healthy Kids Challenge is positioned to help guide leaders looking for simple solutions to eat, move and enjoy a healthy balance.

See the "Stirring Up Health™” Web pages for information and details. View classroom ideas and the entry form which can be submitted online or mailed. Enter now!

Cut and paste a HEAR-SEE-DO tip each week into your own parent newsletters!

Small Steps for Healthy Change
Use snacks as healthy additions to your day! The following snack provides foods from the Dairy and Fruit groups:

Smooth Bananas 
Top 1/2 cup low fat pudding with several banana slices and 1 vanilla wafer. Yummy!

(Quoted by First Lady Michelle Obama in her address February 9, 2010
unveiling the Let's Move campaign)

For questions about Healthy Kids Challenge, please contact:
Vickie L. James, RD, LD, Director
vickie@healthykidschallenge.com
1-888-259-6287
www.healthykidschallenge.com

Come Blog and Tweet with HKC! Connect with us! 

http://www.healthykidschallenge.com/newsletter/confirm/remove/

"Stirring Up Health™" Recipe Contest Reminder

The U.S. Surgeon General's Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation 2010 has called for us to "take action" for healthy change. The Healthy Kids Challenge "Stirring Up Health™" National Middle School Recipe Contest is one way you can do that today! 

The contest is a prime example of a "simple solution idea" to get 7th and 8th graders involved in basic cooking skills, develop healthier eating habits and set healthy goals. Kids get practice creating healthy food that tastes great!

It's not too late to enter! If you work with or know of 7th and 8th graders, share the following information that helps kids work toward healthy change while having fun!

See the "Stirring Up Health™” Web pages for information and details. View the       entry form which can be submitted online or mailed.

Entry Deadline - March 13, 2010 

Act Now!

For questions about Healthy Kids Challenge, please contact:
Vickie L. James, RD, LD, Director
vickie@healthykidschallenge.com
1-888-259-6287
www.healthykidschallenge.com  

http://www.healthykidschallenge.com/newsletter/confirm/remove/