By

Jenny Terry,   Morningside El

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Topics:

Access to Healthy Foods,  Community Involvement

This year we were participating in the Medical City 21 Day Healthy Snack Challenge. I challenged my students to sign up for the 21 Day Challenge and start thinking about what they were snacking on. Through out the 21 Days, I would go to classrooms during their designated snack times and give stickers out to those students who had a healthy snack. This encouraged my students to think about what they were eating for snacks and remember to bring a healthy snack to school. They never knew when I would stop by. I also encouraged students and parents to take pictures of their families eating healthy snacks at home. Many students and parents would email me their healthy snack selfies. I made a "Healthy Selfie" wall outside the gym. This encouraged other students to start eating healthy and snap pictures of their snacks. Before long I had a wall full of healthy snacks. I love our "Healthy Selfie" wall and feel that it helps encourage and bring awareness to healthy snacking. I will leave the wall up way after the challenge, in hopes to encourage students to keep eating healthy snacks.

How do you plan to make this Play last during the school year and beyond?

I plan on leaving the "Healthy Selfie" wall up and encourage students to keep sending in their pictures. I also am going to continue to go into the classrooms at snack times. I will incorporate what they learned about healthy eating in my Jump Rope for Heart lessons when I talk about the heart and keeping it healthy. I am also planning on doing a lesson on digestion and diabetes. Healthy foods will play a part in all these upcoming lessons.

How did students and adults work together as a team?

I would have my student team make posters and report back to me on how their fellow classmates were doing on bringing in and eating healthy snacks. The teachers were interested in some healthy snack ideas and it started talk between teachers and students. My students' families tried new recipes and found some yummy snack ideas. Parents would also send healthy selfies which means they were actively involved in helping their child eat better. Our whole Morningside Community was involved!

What improvements have you seen at your school?

I have seen much overall improvement in the students choosing healthy foods. I will walk through the cafeteria and they all want to show me what they have in their lunches or what choices they made in the cafeteria. This has really taken off at Morningside, and I love that the students want to show me what they are eating.