bryn mawr elementary school minneapolis, minnesota

Vol. 38

April, 2011

Families Take Advantage of Physical Activity Opportunities BRYN MAWR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

The Bryn Mawr School in Minneapolis, a member of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program, is showing its commitment to health educa-tion and physical activity through a variety of school based programs that engage students and families in exciting and innovative ways to help them prioritize eat-ing better and moving more. Every Tuesday the school hosts family open gym night. The two school gyms are open for families to use, the smaller gym for younger children and the bigger gym for older children and teens. Parents run floor hockey, basketball, soccer and other games. Physical educa-tion teacher Anita Chavez, in partnership with the Par-ent Teachers Association, requested a permit from the district for use of the facility. Chavez said she didn’t have a problem getting the permit for this use. “Our families and our kids come first,” she said, and when speaking about activities connected to the wellness action plan, “my principal fully supports everything we do.” In addition to gym night, for the past seven years

Chavez has partnered with the City of Lakes Nordic Ski

Foundation’s Executive Director John Munger to coordi-nate an eight week cross country skiing unit for third through fifth graders. All skis, poles, boots and gloves are donated to students for use in the program. Nutri-tion and physiology are taught as part of the program- students learn about the importance of calcium and iron as well as lessons on the functioning of the muscles, heart and lungs. “Even when the wind chill puts temper-atures below zero the students go outside,” Chavez said. At the end of the unit, the foundation sponsors a ban-quet of healthy food for students and families. Chavez says the program is not only engaging for students while they participate but stressed that the excitement about the sport carries on after the unit is over. “After the unit is done, parents and students are still skiing.” Chavez lends out skiing equipment to parents for family

use. Like the Tuesday gym nights, the skiing program engages both students and their parents, raising aware-ness about healthy living and creating community well-ness events that generate excitement. As the physical activity pieces get whole families moving, students at Bryn Mawr are receiving health education to teach them about healthy living. “The district doesn’t have funding for health education,” said Chavez, so she solicit-ed a donation of a K-5 health curriculum from a contact at publisher Houghton Mifflin. Teachers share donated ma-terials which include overheads and books. First and third graders also get health lessons from educators from the University of Minnesota Extension program. The community involvement and awareness of healthy living is paying off with students. Third grader Zach Carl-son informed his family that they could only eat half of a dessert they were eating because there was too much sugar. He also talked about dumping out dressing the family had because it wasn’t healthy. “We never told him to do that,” Chavez said as she joked with Zach’s father about the comment. Chavez has a student-choice focused approach to change. “Our program is about making kids more aware. I can tell you and show you and give you all the infor-mation [about healthy living] but it’s your body.”

SUCCESS STORIES APRIL | 2011 2

She describes a school with 32 students in every kinder-garten class. Many of them do not speak any English when they ar-rive and have never been in a preschool set-ting. “This is a hard transition for many of them and they need two recess periods to help them release the stress of the day. It is also essential that they learn cooperative games. Kids learn through play.” Nekumanesh believes that being part of the Alliance’s Healthy Schools Program has helped them start to turn things around. They used the grant from the Alliance to purchase balls, nets, hockey and tennis equip-ment and hula-hoops. “Districts everywhere are being forced to make cuts. This grant has helped us keep something that we believe is im-portant. I believe that the Healthy Schools Program has been essential- it has helped us look at what we offer, what we lack and move forward. We know that physical activity helps with academics. This helps us do more than just talk about it- this makes action a priority,” reports Neku-manesh. “I’ve used the toolkits and the Alliance website but what I enjoy most is having Dru, our Relationship Manager, call me and ask me how things are going. As a new principal I would be overwhelmed and frus-trated with everything that is on my plate. I’m successful because of her.”

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation would like to thank the fol-lowing funders for their support of the Healthy Schools Program in California: The California Endowment, Frankel Family Foundation,

Dolby Foundation and Ella Fitzgerald Foundation.

School Focused on Enhancing Time for Active Students SIERRA VISTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | MADERA, CALIFORNIA

“We used to call recess time ‘referral time’ as the kids would just go out-side and get into trouble because they had nothing to do! We had 100 kids sharing one ball! Now we have lots of equipment they can use to get their wiggles out and help get the exercise they need,” said Kathy Nekumanesh, the new principal at Sierra Vista Elementary School. Despite all of the pressures that a principal in her first year must face, Nekumanesh is focused on the idea that children should be treated as people and not test scores. “We live in a very rural area with a lot of gang activity. This discourages people from going outside. The only time they have to socialize with other kids and be active is here during recess, lunch and PE. We try to enhance that time as much as we can.” Fourth through sixth graders are getting 150 minutes per week of physi-cal education. They meet with the physical education teacher twice a week and classroom teachers trained in the SPARK program supple-ment the rest. Noon aides help supervise physical activity time after lunch and students are encouraged to use the new equipment pur-chased with a grant from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program. The physical education teacher is a trained SPARK facilitator who works with the classroom teachers to show them how to use the equipment effectively.

An adaptive PE teacher works with the teachers to show them how to work with special needs students. “We have high asthma rates here that we have to deal with. We take precautions but the students can still par-ticipate in PE and recess.”


Schools Gain New Tools to Fight Obesity SOUTHERN HIGH SCHOOL | DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA Written by Odile Fredericks, Reprinted with permission from Carolina Parent.

Teens at Southern High School in Durham have opted to have salads and vegetables available more often in their cafeteria instead of French fries and pizza. Since January, they've started a fitness club, where they go running and work out with their teachers. And they've lowered the price of healthy snacks and drinks at concession stands, so they can make wise—and economic— choices, like water instead of sweetened sodas. Students gained the tools to move to healthier choices thanks to a new program now operating in 36 schools in Durham County and eight schools in Orange County. The Healthy Schools Program encourages students to get involved in promot-ing physical activity and nutritious eating, while it fosters health edu-cation and employee wellness. It's an outreach effort of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which works to reduce childhood obesity. In 2005, the Alliance got started with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which has committed $28 million to the pro-gram. The foundation's funding supports the Alliance's work with 100 schools in North Carolina. Childhood obesity is an epidemic across the nation, but particularly in North Carolina. About a third of chil-dren ages 10-17 are overweight or obese statewide, compared with a national average of 31.6 percent, according to a 2007 National Survey of Children's Health. Yet, if lifestyle change is to catch on, school seems the place to do it, where the young are open to doing things differently. Mario Daye, a 12th grader at Southern High, said he was surprised to discover in a survey conducted last fall that 84 percent of students want-ed to eat pizza and fries once or twice a week and have healthier food more often in their cafeteria. "I was surprised because a lot of kids, they

had pizza and fries ever since they came Southern, so it was something they're used to," he said. Although the school still has pizza and fries on the menu, it's working on providing the healthier foods requested in the survey. "We serve salads in a little container, and we have fruits available to students in the lunch-room," Daye said. The survey was among the tools provided by the Alli-ance to help move schools in the right direction. The students were also asked what kind of activities they would like to participate in outside of what's offered. Their answers brought forth the fitness club and a Zumba class. Students also used the Alliance’s online "product naviga-tor" that allowed them to browse a range of healthy snack and beverage options available from companies with which the Alliance has agree-ments. Those choices allowed the students to put healthier, lower-priced options, such as granola, fruit snacks and fruit pops, in conces-sion stands. How It Works: Grassroots Student-led Initiatives Daye is on a student school health advisory committee whose members are from schools participating in the Healthy Schools Program. They work to develop a plan for getting students and staff on the healthy bandwagon using the Alliance's best practices. The students also re-ceive guidance from medical professionals from the community's Obesi-ty and Chronic Illness Committee and support from the Durham County Health Department. Shauvon Simmons-Wright, the Alliance's N.C. relationship manager, who helps support students' efforts, said she first made contact with school districts to find out which schools had a need for resources based on the socio-economic status of students. She says the changes made at Southern High School are now spreading to other schools, in classes from kindergarten through grade 12, in Durham County. Orange County schools are also looking into the healthy snack options and sur-vey. Simmons-Wright says any school or individual can sign on to the Healthy Schools Program online at www.HealthierGeneration.org and receive access to its resources free of charge. This article originally appeared on www.carolinaparent.com.


Graphing Our Galloping Gains with Gadgets DOUGLAS L. JAMERSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA

“This resource is such a gift to teachers,” said Emily Green, second grade teacher at Douglas L. Jamerson Elementary School. When Green signed up her school to participate in the Alliance for a Healthier Gener-ation’s Healthy Schools Program last fall she asked the Alliance for help in identifying resources and she learned about DonorsChoose.org, a site that connects donors to classrooms in need. “Since our emphasis at Jamerson is on math and en-gineering, I really wanted to find a way to connect those lessons with health education. I wrote up a profile on Do-norsChoose.org asking for funds to purchase pedome-ters. The name of my project was ‘Graphing our Galloping Gains with Gadgets.’ At first I just got a few five dollar dona-tions but then someone stepped us and gave $400!” Green used the pedometers to show her students how to track and graph their steps. She taught them about energy and calories and used them to teach place value, looking at numbers beyond the hundreds. To supplement the math and science lessons, Green select-ed articles on food and nutrition to share with the class. She facilitated discussions on topics such as if San Francisco should ban toys in fast food meals and had the students vote on the issues. Before Thanksgiving Green and her class made a pumpkin pie and sub-stituted healthier options. “I wanted them to see that you can do small things at home that make a difference. You can make better choices like taking the stairs instead of the elevator. They were able to make the connection that more steps on the pedometer meant more calories burned and they loved trying to get extra laps in during the day. We are

in a portable classroom at the end of the building and that helped get our steps up- we got an average of 7000 steps a day.” As part of her agreement with DonorsChoose.org, Green was required to write progress up-dates and send thank you let-ters to the anonymous donor through the site. “You earn

points by updating your profile and sharing your progress which allows you to come back and ask for more donations in the future,” she ex-plained.

Showing Students How Food Choices Affect their Bodies and Minds SMITHFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

“I have struggled with the eating habits of school children for more than 3 years and finally figured out a way to make it fun for the students this year,” said Heather Curtis-Sowell, 3rd grade teacher at Smithfield Ele-mentary. “It is so hard to teach students to begin with, but when adding in that many students eat only empty calories at breakfast, crash from the sugar high right after lessons begin, eat more junk at lunch, can't concentrate again afterwards and then fall asleep, it got really frustrat-ing. My hope is to bring awareness to the students and help them un-derstand how their choices affect their bodies and minds.” To do this she launched a fruit and vegetable challenge last fall. She divided her class up into teams and each team chose a name and creat-ed a healthy food poster. Now they are tracking what they eat for lunch (Curtis-Sowell signs off on their logs) and at home (parents sign off). Students can earn up to five points a day for getting in their five fruits and vegetables. At the end of each month the teams get together with their calculators and tally up their points. Since they have been working

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School Continues Focus on Wellness Despite Losing Building to Fire SOUTH BAY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | WEST BABYLON, NEW YORK

On February 18th, 2010, a fire broke out at South Bay Elementary School in the West Babylon, NY school district. Fortunately, this oc-curred during the school’s winter break so no one was injured but the fire destroyed the entire building. The community came together around this tragedy and classes resumed in a local church only five days later. The rooms in the church were converted to classrooms and the base-ment became the school “gym.” Although the basement is far from an ideal gym, the school has been working hard to make sure the students still have the opportunity to participate in physical activity. “I really have to hand it to my PE teachers this year,” said Principal Jo-Ann Scott. “They have gone above and beyond to maintain a viable PE and recreation program despite our space limitations. Students are moving in their classrooms and the hallways. We are fortunate that, when the weather cooperates, we have access to a great turf field at our site. Even though there is no playground equipment, the PE teachers haul lots of sporting and game equip-ment out to the field each day so there are choices for the kids.” During the long, cold winter they had to get crea-tive as their in-side “gym” was too small to support lunch and recreation time. In order to facilitate more active play they created a plan in which, on alternating days, one of the two grade levels assigned to recreation remains in the

play area, and the other grade level returns to their classrooms for some supervised lower-level activities. This gives the kids in the play area more room to move around in a safer space and allows a little more flexibility in terms of what types of games can be played. On December 21st and 22nd, the school hosted iGame4, a company that promotes physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle among children by integrating activity based video games into school curricula. iGame4 set up 12 stations at the church where students danced, canoed and jumped around to activity based video games projected on 100" screens. iGame4 tracked calories burned and heart rate increases for a select, and anonymous, sample of students. Principal Scott commented, “It was a great experience for the children, and even for some of the teachers who went down on their lunch hours to try out the games! Despite the difficulties, the students still have the opportunity to be physically active and are learning the importance of a healthy lifestyle.” South Bay received a Silver National Recognition Award from the Alli-ance for a Healthier Generation in 2009 so at the time of the fire, they had already established a culture around being healthy. As a result, it has been easier to maintain a focus on health than it would have been if they had not already made so much progress in this area. “We re-mained focus on health and wellness this year despite the challenges. We didn’t want to have to go back to square one,” said Scott. The school will be moving back to a rebuilt school in September and they are looking forward to having even more room to move with their upgraded gym, climbing wall and playground facilities.


Students Get Energized for Learning WASHOE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT | RENO, NEVADA Reprinted with permission from the Washoe County School District

Tracy Wolf is on a fitness mission to teach students the importance of developing healthy lifestyle habits. The Shaw Middle School physical education (PE) teacher instructs more than 150 students daily in her PE classes and is also the chairperson of the WCSD K-8 PE and Wellness Initiative Committee. The committee meets once a month and has set goals to help motivate and support teachers, children and families in the District to adopt active lifestyles. "It's my passion. I strive to provide the best quality PE lessons so stu-dents will experience a variety of physical activities and be able to make lifelong choices. During class the other day, after the students returned from a run, they took their own heart rates. I was thrilled to see my stu-dents using the knowledge from a previous lesson and apply it to the activity. All students need to understand the importance of 60 minutes of daily physical activity to help prevent obesity, heart disease, Type 2 dia-betes and other life-threatening diseases," Wolf said. Wolf's goal is to get every school in the District signed up with the Alli-ance for a Healthier Generation, a nonprofit founded in 2005 by the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation. The organization works to address one of the nation's leading public health threats - childhood obesity. The Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the K-8 PE and Wellness Committee are working together to provide innovative ways to keep our children physically fit. One example is weekly 'Energizers', which are quick activities to get students moving twice a day in the classroom. These are being sent to the elementary and middle schools on a weekly basis. The District's student activities coordinator, Ken Cass, says the 'Energizers' are one of many programs being offered to get students moving. "We know how important the correlation is between learning and physical activity. Even though there is not an allocation for a PE teacher in the elementary schools at WCSD, there are great programs going on districtwide that are benefiting our students. It's all part of our ongoing work with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation Healthy

Schools Program, which takes a comprehensive approach to student health by focusing on the promotion of physical activity, nutritious eating and health education." At the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, eight schools from the McQueen area joined the Alliance's pilot program, which included pro-fessional development for staff, assessing the school environment and identifying best practices that were not currently in place.

The Lincy Foundation has been funding the Alliance's work in Nevada since 2009. Through this funding, three schools have been able to se-cure $2,500 grants from the Alliance to support their efforts.

The Nevada relationship manager for the Alliance for a Healthier Gener-ation, Ben Schmauss, says he looks forward to expanding the Healthy Schools Program to every school in the WCSD in years to come. "I've really enjoyed working with the schools in Washoe County to get their students and staff focused on the importance of health and wellness," said Schmauss. "Whether it is incorporating physical activity into the classroom, providing healthy snack options or improving before and after school opportunities, these schools are all identifying what are 'best practices' and working toward implementing these practices on their campuses."

Wolf says the goal of the K-8 PE and Wellness committee is to have more schools sign up for the Alliance's program by this spring and next fall. "We are implementing programs that don't cost money, but in the end helps our students with academics."


Putting a Health Education Tool to the Test PERRY MERIDIAN MIDDLE SCHOOL | INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

One of the benefits of participating in the Alliance for a Healthier Gen-eration’s Healthy Schools Program is that schools can take advantage of free and discounted resources that are in line with rigorous stand-ards put forth by the American Heart Association. One opportunity that was presented to participating schools was a chance to try a mid-dle school health education curricu-lum created by HEALTH EDCO. Seventy Nutrition Learning Modules complete with lesson plans, activi-ties and 3-D models designed to involve students in the learning pro-cess were distributed to schools across the country. The module is valued at $600. In addition to this free resource oppor-tunity, the Alliance’s National Health Education Manager, Kathy Wilbur, conducted a one-hour Webinar training that provided an overview of the module and the wide variety of teaching strategies middle school teach-ers could use to present the material. Danielle Brooking, physical and health education teacher at Perry Me-ridian Middle School in Indianapolis participated in the training and used the HEALTH EDCO module with her seventh and eighth grade stu-dents. She divided the twelve lesson program between the grades and supplemented the program lessons with a guest speaker, a dietician from a local college. She also added homework assignments where students wrote down what they ate. Brooking’s favorite part of the cur-riculum was the plastic manipulative items that showed actual portion sizes for common foods. A serving size of juice, for example, is the size of a Dixie cup, and a serving size of pasta is equivalent to a muffin cup. According to Brooking, “portion control is a huge problem,” so the-se hands on tools were effective in showing students what a serving size of various types of foods looks like. “The module is an awesome hands-on tool for my students to gain the knowledge they need to make good nutritional decisions.”

Continued from Page 4 on learning division, they now calculate the average intake per student as well as the individual, team and class totals. Now the class is chal-lenging other classes to take them on. Curtis-Sowell has noticed a shift in her students since the project began. “My students take pride in their food choices when picking items in the lunch line. And it is carrying over to their homes. I’ve had parents get really excited because their child is finally eating more healthy food. My students have seen and felt the difference when they eat healthier foods. They are better able to concentrate and focus on their work.” “We try to do everything we can to promote healthy, active kids,” said Principal Allison Harris. “We do Dancing with the Principal every week. Rewards are all physical activity- five extra minutes of recess, dances, even our field trips are active! We do brain breaks in the classroom and we let kids have water bottles on their desks to keep them hydrated. Everything we do here is based on brain research and being a part of the Alliance’s Healthy Schools Program fits in perfectly with that.”

bryn mawr elementary school minneapolis, minnesota

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