Featuring healthy messages by connecting to parents and kids, Jenard Gross Elementary is serving up a second course of healthy success! They are

• Sending parent newsletters twice each month to 840 parents
• Reaching kids using a bulletin board display
• Helping PTO host “A Taste of Healthy Snacks” for parents to try healthy snacks
• Using “Square Meals” a Texas Department of Agriculture program to provide ideas for non-food rewards, flyers about “portions,” and a newsletter for staff
• Gathering newsletter and bulletin board ideas from the Healthy Kids Challenge WOWS newsletter, Dole 5 A Day, “Square Meals”, and HKC materials – “Acting Up”
• Implementing activities in the classrooms for 2nd and 4th graders
  • using Nutrition Expedition from Dairy Max for 2nd grade
  • using “Recipes for Success” for 4th graders in April
• Incorporating ideas from the HKC booklet “Acting Up” for games/exercise with kindergarten class.

“We have added 45 minutes per week for the kindergarten class with a special time for recess.
Our PTO and class parents have been very supportive....it’s a slow process,” reports school nurse, Rosa Saucedo, “but we keep working on what we are doing.”

Any recipe calls for small amounts of several ingredients combined with patience to make a great food item. Then it takes several different foods to make a great meal. Healthy change in schools starts with the right ingredients and some patience to reach goals! Jenard Gross Elementary is brewing up success with small steps towards a great “meal” of healthy changes.

Creative Changes

Jenard Gross Elementary School is cooking up success! Creating awareness, measuring change, networking, recognizing results, and carrying the message home are the essential ingredients being used in making a difference for kids!
Rosa Saucedo, school nurse, is stirring up FUN for all ages with healthy messages.

• Wellness activities with the K, 2nd grade and 4th grade
• An interactive pilot project with a chef and 4th graders
• An aerobics day for K that includes a fruit snack and water
• Kids completing 5-a-day charting and comparing results at the end of the week
• A "Snack Attack" bulletin board displaying pictures of students having a nourishing snack
• A parents and teachers healthy tips newsletter that includes the HKC WOWS ideas

Plans focusing on teachers and parents are underway now. Watch for even MORE creativity to be stirred into Jenard Gross activities for health in the spring semester!