Tappan School Spring 2010 Update
Project Healthy Schools (PHS) weekly activities at Tappan finished up in late January but many other things have been in the works!In January the Health Team sponsored a school Fun Nite. Healthier food options were available (thin crust plain cheese pizza, veggie trays, smoothies, air-popped popcorn, for example) and there was even a health expo with activities like yoga simon says, three-legged races, and jump rope contests! All kids who visited the expo had a chance to win some great raffle prizes! Swimming, dancing and dodgeball were also available activities. Below are some pictures from the expo.
| Serving size guessing game | Looking at germs on hand under a black light before and after washing |
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March was National Nutrition Month and Tappan celebrated with daily announcements for healthy eating tips. The students on the health team have continued this trend with all kind of healthy living announcements each week. In addition to the announcements in March, we did a milk promotion in the cafeteria during lunch. Students put on their “Got Milk” moustaches with low-fat vanilla yogurt and then posed in front of celebrity “Got Milk” posters. Their pictures were then taken, printed, and later handed out for the kids to take home.
Students who had parental consent participated in a health screening in April. This screening included cholesterol (optional), blood pressure, height, weight, a fitness test and a behavioral survey. Results will be mailed home to parents in the summer.
Other upcoming events include All Children Exercising Simultaneously (ACES) day on Wednesday, May 5th when the school will all do the “Cha Cha Slide” at 10am. In addition, there will be a field day on May 28th to celebrate the end of the year and to remind students to continue being healthy and active during the summer months. Tappan also won a 3rd place award in the Healthy School Environment Recognition Program (HSERP) from the state of Michigan.
Find out more about the Enough club, part of Life in Action and Free the Children
Tappan School
Project Healthy Schools (PHS) weekly activities at Tappan are going strong and are past the half-way point! So far, students have enjoyed creating PHS slogans, sampling a Balanced Choice lunch from the cafeteria, learning about healthy beverage choices, doing an exercise experiment, making fruit and vegetable salsa, and developing healthy advertisements. Time flies when you are having fun!
Over the next few months, students can look forward to:
- Finishing the PHS activities
- Receiving PHS gym class activities
- An advisory Healthy Habits Challenge
In addition, the School Health Team has been hard at work! It is sponsoring the Fun Nite on Friday, January 8th and it will be a little different! Healthier food options (thin crust plain cheese pizza, veggie trays, smoothies, air-popped popcorn, for example) will be available and there will even be a health expo with activities like yoga Simon Says, three-legged races, and jump rope contests! Swimming, dancing and dodgeball will also be available. All kids who visit the expo will have a chance to win some great raffle prizes including free passes for Zap Zone, Colonial Bowling Lanes and more! All proceeds from Fun Nite go to the Health Team.
Have any questions about Project Healthy Schools or the School Health Team? Contact Lindsey Mitchell at lseyfert@umich.edu or 975-7440.
Tappan website summer update
What Happened with Project Healthy Schools at Tappan in 2008-2009?
- 231 sixth graders received PHS education and activities. 57 eighth graders were screened in the spring as part of a two-year follow up and also completed a health behavior questionnaire.
- A combination of PHS staff, two parents and eleven University of Michigan students taught the ten weekly PHS activities in the sixth grade advisories.
- A tracking competition was held over three weeks, where students logged their minutes of physical activity, as well as their fruit, vegetable, and healthy beverage intake. Mr. Lillie’s advisory accumulated the most points from the tracker (for the 2nd year in a row!) so they celebrated with a smoothie party! As the winning advisory they also kept the Project Healthy Schools trophy and received pedometers.
- PHS visited the sixth grade PE classes in the spring. This included doing a fun circuit that focused on different types of exercises: relay races and jump rope for cardio, yoga for flexibility and dyna-bands and loops for strength.
- PHS, the PTSO, the Enough! Club and Agrarian Adventure planned this year’s Fun, Food and Fitness day! Students started with a one mile run/walk around the upper and lower fields and then engaged in games such as tug of war, relay races, Frisbee tosses, and sack races. They also made fresh salsa with Agrarian Adventure and enjoyed watermelon, apples and bananas from the PTSO and parent donations. A big thank you goes to Mr. Lillie for helping organize the one mile course! Next year won’t be the same without him!
- The Tappan School Health Team really got off the ground in the second half of the school year. The Healthy School Assessment Tool (HSAT) from the state of Michigan was completed, action steps for healthy school improvement were identified, the “No Junk in Your Trunk Snack Contest” was planned and implemented in March, and a fun school-wide conga line was held in May for All Children Exercising Simultaneously (ACES) day. Way to go Tappan! Special thanks go to Ms. Solari, Ms. Kalisewicz, and all the students involved on the team.
Tappan made great strides this year in becoming a healthier school and we had a lot of fun in the process. I am looking forward to an even bigger and better year in 2009-2010!
In Good Health,
Lindsey Mitchell, MPH
Tappan PHS Wellness Coordinator
June, 2009
Lots happened this spring! Check back in July for more details.
Project Healthy Schools is back for the third year at Tappan! The program is designed to teach sixth grade students about physical activity and nutrition. This is what the kids can expect this year:
- A kickoff assembly in October to get the kids excited about the program!
- 10 fun, hands-on activities that start in November and are taught in the advisory classes!
- A friendly tracking competition with prizes where kids log their minutes of physical activity and fruit, vegetable and healthy beverage choices at lunch!
- two visits to the PE classes to teach the kids about flexibility and strength training!
- A school-wide field day at the end of the year to encourage physical activity!
More updates on these activities will be provided throughout the year!
Health screenings will take place in the spring for those eighth graders who have parental consent to partake in the screening. More information will be sent out regarding the screening date closer to the spring.
For 8th grade parents of students who participated in the PHS health screenings in 6th and 7th grade
If you have not already done so, please return the informed consent you received in the mail. This consent allows your student to continue receiving the free health screening in eighth, ninth and possibly 10th grades. You can either send the form to the MFit office in the pre-stamped and addressed envelope that was included with the form, or return the form to the eighth grade office. Regardless of whether or not you would like your student to continue receiving the screening, please return the form with your chosen level of participation indicated. If you have lost your form and need a new one, or have any questions or concerns, please contact Lindsey at lseyfert@umich.edu or 734-975-7440. Thank you!
Free the Children Update
The Enough! Club is starting up again and will be holding its first meeting on Monday, September 15. This club helps students learn both leadership skills and social action tools. They’ve had Enough of war, hunger, poverty and sickness and are ready to make a change! Any Tappan students who are interested can join the group and look forward to workshops, volunteering, fund raising and taking action! Long Le, a representative from the Free the Children organization, will be visiting Tappan on October 1 to do activities with the Enough! Club.
