Scarlett School

What’s Going on with Project Healthy Schools at Scarlett?

• The weekly PHS activities at Scarlett have just started! There are 10 activities that will be taught once per week.  Thank you to all of the teachers and volunteers who help make this program possible!
• The students recently started a tracking competition. The first week they tracked their minutes of physical activity, the second week they will track their fruits and vegetables at lunch and the third week they will track their healthy beverages at lunch.  There will be individual winners after all three weeks of tracking, as well as an advisory winner!
• The PHS coordinator at Scarlett, along with school staff and PTSO and Health Place 101 representation, completed a Healthy School Environment Recognition Program application to award Scarlett for its hard work.  Thanks to everyone for making Scarlett a healthy school environment!  Stay tuned for more information on the award!
• The Free the Children/Life in Action club, led by Mrs. Grissing and Mrs. Justyna, is doing very well!  So far, they have raised $700 for a school in Sierra Leone!  What is the Free the Children/Life in Action club?

Previous Information

Project Healthy Schools is back for the second year at Scarlett and we’re off to a great start! On Friday, Oct. 26 we participated in the first Scarlett Family Fun Night. We had a healthy Halloween foods table filled with “apple fangs” and “blood” (raspberry sauce), “jack-o-lantern orange smiles,” and healthy popcorn. We kept the popcorn popping all night long and everyone really seemed to enjoy it.

The Project Healthy Schools kickoff assembly for the 6th graders was on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Students were introduced to the program and they took part in a fun dance. Mr. Broom dressed up in a carrot costume and talked about physical activity! Mr. Strempek talked about the importance of eating fruits and vegetables. The Project Healthy Schools weekly advisory activities begin in January, so be sure to ask your kids what they are learning! Physical activity and MyPyramid are topics discussed the first couple of weeks.

An excellent motivational speaker, Long Le, from Free the Children who works with Life in Action groups also joined us at the Project Healthy Schools kick-off. He talked with the Life in Action club after school and will be back several times during the year to give workshops and guidance to the staff and students. The Life in Action club will be run by Mrs. Grissing and Mrs. Justyna on Tuesdays after school.

In November we taught yoga and Pilates to the sixth graders in their PE classes. Small groups of students rotated through our stations learning moves such as, the cobra, downward dog, tree pose and the plank! The students ended the session with a corpse pose focusing on concentrating their energy into relaxation – not an easy task for 11 year olds! We are looking forward to circuit training in PE in December when we share strength training exercises using stability balls, medicine balls and elastic bands and loops. The students always love to learn these new activities and find them challenging.

The upcoming holidays and ever-present cold and gloom in the winter months in Michiganmake it difficult to realize our fitness and nutrition goals. Most Americans gain 1-2 pounds during the holiday season (not the 5-10 that is usually reported). The problem is that we tend to never take off these 1-2 pounds and over the course of 10 years the pounds add up! Counteract the usual gluttony with these activities:

• Outdoor walks or hikes to look for wildlife
• Viewing stars on a clear evening
• Taking your family to one of the fitness facilities in town (YMCA, Washtenaw County Recreation Center or one of the University facilities)
• Shooting hoops
• Going sledding, then walking back up of those hills – talk about a calorie burner!
• Trying a new winter sport like snowshoeing, cross country skiing or downhill skiing

6th Grade News and Dates
- PHS staff and volunteers were at Scarlett Monday, Nov. 19 and Tuesday, Nov. 20 to do Pilates and yoga with the 6th graders in PE class!
- Keep your eyes open for the changing PHS bulletin board in the cafeteria!

Do you want to find out more about Project Healthy Schools or Life in Action, please contact Lindsey Seyferth at 975-7440 or lseyfert@umich.edu.