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Childhood Overweight and Obesity Prevention InitiativeSurgeon General's Pledge and ChecklistsSchools and Teachers ChecklistSchools and teachers can play a critical role in providing a health-promoting environment, healthy food options, and other information, tools, and practical strategies to help students engage in physical activity and healthy eating. Here are some selected actions schools, teachers, parents, and students can take.
Encourage healthy eating habits.
Help kids stay active.Increase opportunities for students to engage in physical activity The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that young people (ages 6-19) participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity on most, if not all, days of the week. The Institute of Medicine’s Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance report recommends that young people be given the opportunity to participate in at least 30 minutes of this recommended amount during each school day. The school setting offers multiple opportunities for all students, not just those who are athletically inclined, to enjoy physical activity through physical education and other opportunities outside of physical education classes such as walking to and from school, enjoying recess, physical activity clubs, and intramural sports programs, and having classroom lessons that incorporate physical activities.
Implement physical education curriculum using state or national physical education standards. Physical education provides opportunities for students to be active during the school day and helps them develop the knowledge, attitudes, skills, behaviors, and confidence needed to be physically active for life. School districts should conduct a clear, complete, and consistent analysis of written physical education curricula, based upon national physical education standards. The Physical Education Curricula Assessment Tool is available for self-assessment and is customizable to include local standards. The results from the analysis can help school districts enhance existing curricula, develop their own curricula, or select a published curriculum, for the delivery of quality physical education in schools.
Encourage healthy eating habits.Implement a healthy classroom snack and classroom party policy to promote healthy nutrition in the classroom. Teachers, and schools, can implement full-time or part-time classroom snack and classroom party policies that promote those foods in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, including plenty of fruits and vegetables. One school in Texas has demonstrated success with “Fruity-Friday.” Implementing a classroom snack policy may also include an all-staff or all-student in-service assembly with fruit and vegetable taste-testing, and parent letters orienting all parties to the rationale and importance of the policy. Ask parents to help reduce chips and sweetened drinks at classroom events. Plan classroom parties that include 100-percent juice or water, cheese/cracker trays, and vegetables with low-fat dip, as well as items such as animal and graham crackers, fruit cups, and multi-grain bars.
Whoa! Slow! Go! – Implement a kid-friendly nutrition information sharing program in your school cafeteria. All foods sold in the cafeteria should be analyzed for nutritional content. When students pass through a serving line, they should be provided simple, easy-to-understand information on the items they select. One HHS-supported Steps to a Healthier US grantee has implemented Whoa! Slow! Go! in their cafeteria. Items such as pizza are labeled Whoa! Items such as spaghetti are labeled Slow! Fruits and vegetables are labeled Go! As such, students are able to quickly determine which foods are the smarter choices. Nutrition lessons in the classroom can help supplement this program.
Ensure that all foods and beverages sold or served outside of school meal programs are nutritious. Many of these food and beverage choices are low in nutritional value and the most commonly available items are high-fat salty snacks, high-fat baked goods (e.g. French fries), soft drinks, sports drinks, and fruit drinks high in sugar, fat, and calories. School nutrition standards should provide students with healthy choices throughout the school day that are consistent with and reinforce positive nutrition education messages received in the classroom. The Institute of Medicine Report Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools provides specific recommendations for foods and beverages served outside of school meal programs that schools, districts and states should consider when developing or strengthening policies for nutrition in schools. For example, talk to your school’s vending company about offering more nutritious options in their machines. Ask the company to remove or reduce the availability of soft drinks and replace this with bottled water. Many vending companies have discovered that some of the healthier snacks in the vending machines sold just as well as candy and chips. As a result, these vending companies have traded candy machines for “healthy choices” snack machines that included nuts, crackers, snack mix, and other nutrient-rich items.
Promote Healthy Choices.Implement a staff wellness challenge. Staff wellness programs can contribute to improvements in physical and mental health outcomes and increase morale and productivity. These programs also support positive role modeling for students. Consider a staff wellness challenge that might include eating five fruits and vegetables per day, drinking water instead of soda, eating breakfast, walking 10,000 or more steps per day, and exercising 30 minutes per day.
Engage in a multi-component, school-wide program to address physical activity and nutrition through a Coordinated School Health Program. Assess the school’s health policies and programs and develop a plan for improvements. Self-assessment and planning provide structure to a coordinated school health program in the way that a map provides guidance to a driver. The self-assessment describes where the program is now, and the plan provides the destination and directions to get there.
Ask students to get involved in strengthening nutrition and physical activities. Students can provide motivation and leadership for improving their school nutrition and physical activity environments. In some schools, students have marketed nutrient-rich choices through a student store or created walking clubs to increase physical activity. Overall, students can create a significant change in attitudes toward healthier food choices and increased physical activity. Although some students may be skeptical at first, models have shown they became interested, respectful, responsive and, most importantly, customers!
Last revised: May 16, 2008 |
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