The Healthy Crows test

The month of April and May is a time to plant in vegetable gardens and planters. The students in Mrs. Pezzaniti and Ms. Palmeri planted a variety of vegetables in small pots. The plants were placed by the windows with daily observations made by all each day. Students were assigned the role each day of being the farmer to determine which plant needed water and to supply it with a watering can located by the classroom sink. As the plants grew with the vegetable stalk growing upward and the roots beginning to come through the bottom of the pot, they were sent home with the students to plant in their home soil or in larger pot.

The kindergarten classes at Glen Cedar PS, were encouraged throughout the school year, for the parents to provide their children with healthy food choices. Parents were also encouraged to cut up the fruits and vegetables, thereby enabling the children to access their food in a user friendly fashion. Another focus was to implement the use of containers to hold the food, as the classroom policy is to boomerang everything back home in lunch bags.

On April 23rd, Ms. Lee’s Kindergarten class celebrated Earth day by sharing healthy food choices. Each child brought in a healthy food to share with their 23 peers and a celebration occurred with all students sampling a variety of fruits and vegetables. Some of the food included grapes, bananas, apples, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli and watermelon. It was a great time enjoyed by all.

With the support of the York Region Health Department, Glen Cedar has created a Nutrition policy. After much discussion between the school committee, staff and parent council and the creation of drafts the policy was created. The policy included rewards that are less food oriented, implementation of catered food meeting the standards shared by York Region Health Dietitian Rebecca Davids and that school celebrations with food be limited to two times per year. The full policy is in Glen Cedar’s Policy and Procedure binder.

At Glen Cedar PS, on Tuesday May 1st, 13 students from grade 6, 7 and 8, who had recently participated in the “You’re the Chef” program, met with York Region Health Professionals to further enhance their culinary skills. The education enabled the students to gain a further understanding regarding the teaching skills necessary to transfer their skills to educate younger students in grades 3, 4 and 5 as they made two healthy recipes.

On Thursday May 3rd, Glen Cedars PS educated grades 6, 7 and 8 students taught younger students in grades 3, 4 and 5 to make two healthy recipes. The experience was enjoyed by all. Adults could hear the younger students state “I’ve never tried red peppers before and it’s really good” and “I’m going to make a parfait at home, it’s delicious”.

Thank you to York Region Health Professionals for you support as we educate children regarding healthy eating that includes preparing and creating great tasting food.

Health professional and dietitian, Rebecca Davids, met with members of the Healthy School Committee at Glen Cedar PS to review the food options available for all the students daily at school. These included foods available for the breakfast and snack programs. Rebecca provided healthy options that then provided an healthy choices for the students. Thank you Rebecca for all your support.

During this school year, Rebecca Davids from York Region Health Department, has met with members of Glen Cedar Public School’s Healthy Schools Committee to review the catered lunches that arrive for the students each week. Food include Kid’s Kitchen on Tuesday, Pizza on Wednesday, and Pitas on Friday. It is the strong desire for the students of Glen Cedar, to receive catered food that is high in nutrition thus supporting a healthy lifestyle.

An incentive for Glen Cedar this year was to provide an opportunity for students to plant vegetable seeds, observe how they grow and enjoy them. Together, the Healthy School Committee and The Parent Council investigated options for indoor gardening. Grants and financial supports were also explored to support this project and this led to the purchase of the tower garden. Seeds that were planted included gourmet lettuce, cucumber, rainbow chard, cherry tomatoes and sweet basil. As the vegetables grow, students will be provided samples of the harvested crop.

During the school year, 2017-2018, Glen Cedar Public School staff and parents with the support from York Region Health Department, met many times to share ideas and create drafts that led to the creation of a Nutrition Policy. Positive incentives include a daily breakfast with options from the four food groups, healthy snacks provided daily from the food groups of fruit and vegetables and grains. As well, celebrations will occur twice yearly with food included, rewards will be encouraged that are not food oriented and fund raisers will promote a healthy lifestyle.

Health Professionals, Rebecca Davids, Dietitian and Anne Harkonen, Health Nurse, met with Glen Cedar Parent Council and presented information regarding the importance of implementing a nutrition policy at their children’s school. The policy would include the implementation of a daily breakfast prior to school beginning, healthy food choices, available through the school day such as apples, bananas, oranges, carrots and grain choices and celebrations that included food would be limited to two times per school year. The parents were very eager to implement such a policy and were looking forward to seeing the drafts, as they became available, that would lead to the creation of the School Nutrition Policy.

York Region Public Health professionals Rebecca Davids a Dietitian and Anne Harkonen, Health Nurse provided educational supports to the staff of Glen Cedar Public School during a staff meeting. The presentation promoted discussion regarding modeling healthy eating practices and the importance of classroom incentives and celebrations that were healthier with less food emphasize. Conversations occurred that promoted teaching staff to further explore their practices and other ways teaching and celebrating can be implemented.

On Monday February 26th, 2018, the students at Glen Cedar enjoyed healthy food choices that represented different countries, as we all began our school based Olympics. The healthy food choices were provided by the grade three, four and five students, and provided a small sampling of of food choices that are enjoyed in different countries of the world.
The students then proceeded to enjoy outdoor winter Olympic activities, that included hockey, cross country and alpine skiing and dramatic figure skating, representing many of the countries who were part of the Winter Olympics 2018, in South Korea.
All students and staff had fun and learned about healthy food choices around the world and different sports.

During the school year 2017 – 2018,Glen Cedar Public School participated in three fundraisers that contributed to a healthy lifestyle. Through QSP, families were welcome to purchase seeds for planting vegetables and flowers and magazine subscriptions with an array of topics for all family members. The third fundraiser, was courtesy of North Country Meats, which provided an assortment of meat (beef, pork, chicken) and fish (salmon, shrimp).
These fundraisers encourage further enhancement to a healthier lifestyle for all.

Twenty students from grades five to eight participated in You’re the Chef after school on April 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th for one and a half hour each time. Each Thursday the students prepared four to five recipes that were easy to prepare, healthy in choice and delicious in taste. The students gained insight as they learned to use cooking tools, operate heating equipment and clean up their work stations. Great times enjoyed by all.

On April 17th, 2018, the Healthy Crows of Glen Cedar PS visited grades Junior Kindergarten to grade eight and shared information regarding healthy eating, using the Healthy Nutrition Wheel. Each classroom participated with the Healthy Crows for 20-30 minutes engaging in true or false questions and multiple choice. This led to stimulating conversations regarding personal experiences and personal connections.

On March 28th, 2018 the Healthy Crows, from Glen Cedar PS, participated in a lesson from the Public Health Nurse and Dietitian with the Food Nutrition wheel. This education provided education to support the Healthy Crows to go into classrooms, with the Healthy wheel and provide peer to peer healthy eating and living education.

Glen Cedar held a Healthy Lunch Challenge during the week of January 22-26, 2018. All classes participated by challenging themselves to pack healthy choices of food to be enjoyed at school. Discussions occurred in classrooms regarding the benefits of eating healthy as it promotes brain power and a body that is ready to learn. Students recorded their thoughts about this challenge through journals.

The Big Crunch was enjoyed by the students and staff, of Glen Cedar P.S. on March 1st, 2018 at 2:30. After each classroom received their supply of apples, an announcement was made by three members of Healthy School Committee, with a count down from ten to zero to encourage everyone to take their first bite together. Discussions occurred in many classrooms regarding taste and how some liked sweet or sour apples.

During the weeks of February 20th to March 2nd, 2018, Glen Cedar classrooms participated in A Door Decorating competition. The theme was Healthy Food Choices and Colour. On March 2nd the students, from the Healthy School Committee, were joined by York Region Health Nurse and Registered Dietitian to judge the doors. The criteria was student generated artwork that included healthy food choices, messages and with a splash of colour. Prizes were awarded to the first place class, a tie between two classes for second place and third place to another classroom. The cheers from the winners could be heard throughout the building.

Each morning, at Glen Cedar, a breakfast program is offered to all students. The healthy food choices include an assortment of grains, fruit and dairy. If a student arrives as the breakfast program is tidying up they are given something that they can eat as they walk to their room, thus enabling them to have a healthy start to their day.

Glen Cedar Public School has a bowl of fruit/vegetables available all day, everyday for students to take from to ensure hunger never occurs at school. The fruit/vegetable options include apples, orange, bananas, carrot sticks and cucumbers.

We created a student led healthy eating club with students from grades 6, 7 and 8. Our goal is to promote healthy eating in our school and to start a healthy eating culture. We named our group The Healthy Crows. We met with our public health nurse and dietitian and learned about school food culture. We identified what some of the food and healthy eating issues in our school and we brainstormed ideas and activities to do improve our school’s healthy eating. We looked at the Bright Bites website and signed up as a team as part of our planning. We started planning our first activity – the door decorating contest.