Elder's Mills Eagles test

We wanted to promote healthy snacks in our school, so we engaged in the Big Crunch. During the big crunch, students of the whole school engage in a moment of LOUD crunching. Two of our Healthy Schools Ambassadors introduced the crunch, and all the benefits of our primary cruncher, the apple! We made sure that all crunchy fruits and vegetables were welcome, and our students didn’t disappoint, there were apples, carrots, celery, oh my! It wouldn’t have been possible without our wonderful secretary, Cathy Consiglio, who is always promoting healthy snacks by ordering only the best for our healthy snack program. Thank you for your continued hard and mindful work, Cathy!

For the first time, Elder’s Mills invited students to join the Healthy Schools Ambassadors club, which would promote healthy schools initiatives surrounding mental health, physical activity, and healthy eating. Our first order of business was to get trained – and thankfully we had the help of the wonderful Nancy Bevilacqua. Nancy, our Public Health Nutritionist, led us in the Healthy School Ambassador training which taught us how to positively promote good nutritional practices in our school. She gave us great ideas to get started and ignited a passion that burned all year long. Thank you, Nancy! And of course, thank you to our dedicated Healthy Schools Ambassadors that received their training, and made sure to keep it in practice all year round! Way to go team!

Elder’s Mills took place in the Healthy Lunch Challenge which encouraged students to pack their own boomerang lunches featuring 3 or 4 of the food groups. Before lunch, grade 4s discussed which foods were part of which food groups. We tracked our progress by listing all the items in our lunch in a graphic organizer. We learned how easy it was to accomplish the goal of meeting the daily recommended food servings for our age groups, and how easy it was to pack a lunch that was delicious AND friendly to the environment!

To promote our nutritional learning, The Healthy Schools Ambassadors challenged students (grades 4-8) to create a healthy recipe for breakfast, lunch, snack, or dinner that is:
Easy and affordable to grocery shop for,
Simple to prepare,
Fun to cook,
and DELICIOUS to eat!
Students were asked to share their learning about three key nutrients in their recipe, and explain their importance. Through this learning, students became more aware of what foods contained beneficial nutrients to their growth and development. It was a great way to learn how to improve our meals!

WOW! What a transformation, that makeover makes us feel great. This year, our school looked at improving the menu options for our lunch programs by finding the most nutritious meals to recommend to families in our community. We are excited to have our best foot forward with the best menu options available!

To honour our participants in a healthy recipe contest, we offered the You’re the Chef training to our winners! Students are learning new cooking skills to apply towards nutritious recipes that are easy and affordable to shop for, delicious, and a great way for all to join in on the fun and enjoy a good meal together.

Our school participated in the Big Apple Crunch. We wanted to make the event exciting, so the fourth-grade students came up with the idea to record the sounds of the crunches, and make a song! Classes recorded their individual crunches and sent them to a DJ who created our very own Elder’s Mills crunch track, full of our ows, yums, and crunches. We listened to the track over the announcements and reflected on the health benefits of such a nutritious snack. A big thank you to our DJ, Bill Slinnton, and the classes for their recordings.

Our school wanted to promote the love of healthy food so we started a healthy recipe contest! We invited students to look for, or create their own, healthy recipes that would be made and sold at a “Taste of” festival. We had over 30 entries for the festival which included smoothies, healthy poutine, pita pizza, and lots more, and we picked 22 winners! The festival raised $970.00 in 45 minutes that will go towards Healthy Schools initiatives. However, the greatest result was the learning that took place. Students were amazed at how easy and delicious it was to eat their favourite treats, the healthy way. A great many thanks to our wonderful community and engaged students for their efforts in contributing to the festival and competition. A big thanks also to our Healthy Schools Ambassadors, who helped run, advertise, and organize the event. Way to go, Eagles!