Organizing a Walk-to-School day can be one great way of keeping kids healthy and active. It can also serve to improve neighborhood safety, and capture the attention of parents, local school officials, and policymakers. According to a success story from the California Endowment, Latino children in Santa Ana organized a successful walk-to-school day event in 2007. Before the event, students conducted a walking audit of their neighborhood streets to identify sidewalks and intersections that needed improvements. Then students and teachers presented pictures of the areas that needed repairs to the police department and school board before Walk-to-School day. Organizers say that by taking something negative and turning it into a positive, like Walk-to-School day, they were able to ...
Organizing a Walk-to-School day can be one great way of keeping kids healthy and active. It can also serve to improve neighborhood safety, and capture the attention of parents, local school officials, and policymakers. According to a success story from the California Endowment, Latino children in Santa Ana organized a successful walk-to-school day event in 2007. Before the event, students conducted a walking audit of their neighborhood streets to identify sidewalks and intersections that needed improvements. Then students and teachers presented pictures of the areas that needed repairs to the police department and school board before Walk-to-School day. Organizers say that by taking something negative and turning it into a positive, like Walk-to-School day, they were able to ...
Learn more about the latest trends in walking and biking to school. According to this 2013 report produced by the National Center for Safe Routes to School, more kids are walking to school across the country. The report found that the percentage of kids both walking to and from school increased between 2007-2012. This perhaps is due to the rise in Safe Routes to School programs across the country. To learn more about this growing trend, access the October 2013 report here. ...
Alliance for a Healthier Generation provides a guide for healthy fundraisers, giving these 10 examples of how to replace food sale fundraisers with healthy alternatives; Crestview Elementary in Carlisle, PA held a fundraising campaign called Promotion Motion. Students obtained sponsors and then participated in various challenges each week such as TV Free Week, No Fast Food Week and a Family Fitness Challenge. Teachers and parents participated and there was a tremendous response from local businesses. They raised $31,322 in six weeks of healthy activities!
High Bridge Elementary School in Prince George’s County, MD raised $3000 during a 30 minute “Fun Run.” Students asked for donations per lap and ran as many as they could in 30 minutes. The funds were to be used for a new ...
New research by the Yale Rudd Center explains how marketing negatively not only affects young children, but also impacts adolescents aged 12 and older. “[The food industry] considers children ages 12 and older to be appropriate targets for marketing that encourages consumption of products that can harm
their health. Yet recent research provides convincing evidence that unhealthy food marketing also negatively affects children 12 years and olde,” Yale Rudd Center notes in the report. Highlights from the report include: The adolescent brain is highly vulnerable to marketing, especially when it’s pushing really tempting stuff.
The ways kids are being targeted – through social media and mobile phones – can seem like fun and games. Making it even harder to ...
Researchers in New York say that having a school garden could boost physical activity levels by up to 10 minutes a day. In a recent study conducted across twelve different elementary schools in five New York Regions, researchers from Cornell learned that students were up to four times more active when attending schools with gardens. According to Nancy Wells, an environmental psychologist and the researcher who lead the two-year study, although kids were only spending one to two hours a week in the school's garden, significant increases in physical activity were seen. The initiative was part of the "Healthy Gardens, Healthy Youth" People's Garden School Pilot Project, which aims to introduce fruit and vegetable gardens to more than 4,000 kids in low-income schools throughout New ...
Looking for a way to get your children up and running? Wondering how to help your kids unplug and get them excited about physical activity? With childhood obesity rates climbing at alarming rates, it is more important than ever to instill healthy habits and introduce children to the rewards of an active lifestyle at a young age. So help your kids put their screen time on pause and join New Balance San Antonio as it encourages kids to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle, help increase their self-esteem, and make new friends through the Healthy Kids Running Series, a national series of events designed to provide kids with a positive, educational and fun experience in the world of running. The Healthy Kids Running Series (HKRS) is a non-profit youth running program that motivates kids to ...
Voices for Health Kids has put together a comprehensive toolkit on Competitive Foods. The toolkit includes the 100+ page Master toolkit, "Make Food Choices an Easy A," which includes sections on recruiting, engaging, and mobilizing advocates to fight for healthier school foods. By engaging, organizing and mobilizing communities across the country, Voices for Healthy Kids aims to ensure that every child has access to healthy foods and drinks at home and in school, safe streets for biking and walking and safe places to play after school. This toolkit is designed to help coalitions educate their communities on ways to make this vision a reality. Along with the Master Toolkit there are fact sheets to give to advocates and decision makers, flyers, postcards, web banners, print ads, ...
Oceano elementary is starting the day off right by getting kids to move before classes even begin. In order to get kids ready to learn, sixth-grade teacher Jim DeCecco and fellow educators have created a morning jog for students.
According to a news report from The Tribune, the initiative launched in February 2014 just months after the school held their first jog-a-thon fundraiser in October. After the school hosted the jog-a-thon, teachers realized that students really enjoyed running, so they decided to make running part the school's everyday activities.
Since the school launched the morning jog program, over 200 students from grades K-6 have shown up to participate in the morning activity. Some walk, while others jog or run a lap around the school's empty parking lot. Watch the ...
