Fatima Falcons test

The Grade 3 students at our school were given Facts and Snacks booklet provided by Nutrition Canada. The booklet included recipes for students to make at home with parents. It also provided parents and students with ideas for packing nutritious snacks. This was a great way to spread the word about healthy eating habits at home and at school!

Ms. Arena’s Grade 3 students took part in a demonstration that had a juice box, a can of pop, an electrolyte drink, a bottle of water and a glass of milk. The students were asked to match sugar amounts in a clear cup with the beverages. This helped promote healthy beverage students among the students as they realized how much sugar is in pop, juice and electrolyte drinks in comparison to water and milk.

Ms. Arena’s and Mr. Galloro’s Grade 1 classes got to have some fun being artists while learning about nutrition. They were asked to design a party invitation that had to include food items from the four food groups as the food that they would serve at the party. They were encouraged to decorate their invitation with whatever creative items they could think of. The Grade 1’s were very creative and learned what healthy food options they could serve from the 4 food groups.

During parent council meetings, we now promote water as our beverage of choice and avoid juices, pops and caffeinated beverages. We want to mirror what we are promoting among the students in the school. We are trying to reduce our consumption of sugary beverages and excessive caffeine!

Ms. Arena and Mr. Galloro arranged for a drum fit session with the Grade 1,2 and 3 classes. As part of this fun activity, they asked the students to bring in a healthy snack to have after their amazing drum fit workout. This was promoting fun, physical activity followed by refueling their bodies with a nutritious snack. Fun was had by all and the healthy snacks re-energized them all!

Ms. Arena’s JK/SK classes got to have some fun packing a picnic basket. The students were given a picnic basket that they had to use to collect healthy lunch choices that they would pick to have with their friends. They had the opportunity to participate in a drama activity while learning about healthy lunch options. They had a great time pretending to go on a picnic with their friends while choosing healthy foods!

Our Luke 14 committee, which is made up of students from Grade 6-8 and volunteer teachers, raises money for Sharelife. Instead of selling treats in school to the students, the students sold bracelets for a loonie. The money raised went to Sharelife and the students got to enjoy a bracelet to wear instead of sugary or fatty treats in their bellies!

Our Luke 14 committee which is made up of students in grades 6-8 and supervised by teacher volunteers, raises funds for Me to We. Instead of selling treats to students, they have come up with the idea of selling civies days throughout the year. This way we limit the non-nutritious treats and encourage raising funds through civies days. It is a great initiative overall as the funds go to a great cause and the students get to enjoy a civies day without their uniform.

There is a no treats and no food sharing policy in our school. At Christmas, the school administration and volunteer teachers organize a sing-along in the gym on the last day of school in December to celebrate the Christmas season. This is in place of classroom Christmas parties and where treats would be featured. This promotes school community, fun and singing without the added sugar and fat that we would usually see in treats.

For Halloween, the parent council funds a Halloween dance for all the grades. Divisions attend an assigned time during the day to go to the gym where there is a DJ playing music. The students are encouraged to dress up and there are no treats allowed other than the treat of dancing with their friends. This is another way to promote physical activity and discourage celebrating a holiday with sugary treats.

Since March is Nutrition month, Mr. Litrenta and Mr. De Bartolo included a healthy eating message in the school newsletter. The insert was provided by our public health nurse and was added to the March newsletter. This was to help promote healthy eating awareness for parents and to help parents encourage their children to choose healthier food options.

In October, the Grade 7 students took part in a field trip to Fortino’s for a cooking session on healthy pizza. The students were taught about healthy pizza topping options versus the poor nutritional value of toppings like pepperoni. The students also made and cooked the pizzas with their healthy toppings and enjoyed eating the end results.

Our school sports teams are being educated and encouraged by the coaches to drink water before and after sports games as part of healthy living. The coaches are teaching the benefits of water to replenish thirst during and after games. They are also asking all students participating in sports games to bring water and not beverages with sugar. This continues to promote our mandate for healthier beverage choices as part of our nutrition campaign.

At our Math Night held in February, the parents attended a math workshop while students were entertained in the gym by a company that hosted a physical fitness obstacle course. For beverages, water was offered rather than juice or pop. This promoted healthier beverage options with less sugar than juice or pop. The water was provided by the parent council and the evening was funded by the Pro Grant and parent council.

This year our school’s fundraiser was Fresh from the Farm which sells fresh Ontario vegetable bundles and fruit to our school community and part of the sales are received by the school and part are received by the Ontario Farmers. As an extension of this, parents were also given the option of purchasing vegetable bundles and/or fruit bundles that would be donated to Second Harvest. This was a great way of helping those less fortunate while at the same time encouraging healthy and nutritious food options for those less fortunate also. Our school’s commitment to advocating Nutrition has extended beyond and into our community!

This year our annual school fundraiser in October promoted healthy eating and support for Ontario Farmers. We did Fresh from the Farm fundraiser which involves Ontario farmers that supply vegetable bundles (carrots, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes) and fruit bundles (apples) for purchase which provides revenue to the school and also provides revenue to Ontario farmers. The fundraiser was a big success! Our school families received fresh Ontario vegetable and fruit which is a great way of promoting healthy eating in our school community. We had volunteer students and parents working together to bundle the packages for pick-up. This was a great team effort for everyone involved and healthy food choices were highlighted!

Eva Spanoyannis who chairs our Hot Lunch Committee reviewed our Catering Menus in January and made changes to ensure better food choices are available on our lunch options. She applied Bright Bites recommendations to Hot Lunch Menus. All lunches comply with PPM 150 guidelines, Just Catering includes a fruit and/or vegetable with each meal, 3 out of the 4 food groups are all included in our lunch choices and we have increased the number of veggies offered in our Hot Lunch Menus. These changes will help to promote healthy eating at lunchtime for our students and discourage poor food choices. The hot lunch program is also a fundraiser for our school.

This year, Ms. Wojewoda’s Grade 1’s planted a bean seed in April. The initiative was part of their science curriculum however, the Grade 1’s are encouraged to plant their bean plants once they grow big enough. This will promote planting and growing vegetables for healthy eating. They are patiently watering and watching their beans sprout and grow and hopefully, by the end of May, the students will be able to bring the plants home to plant in their gardens!

On April 31, the students at Our Lady of Fatima participated in a Fitness Day as a reward for completing the Healthy School Challenge. Soccer Plus hosted the event at the school. The students participated by grade in the gym and had fun activities that involved soccer. It was a great incentive for the students to participate and complete their Healthy Challenge.

Ms. Arena provided her Grade 1-3 students with a dry erase menu planner. The Menu Planner was provided by Dairy Farmers of Canada together with Breakfast for Learning. The Menu Planner encourages the students to plan and track their food choices. It provides the four food groups with examples and provides examples of healthy choices for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It also encourages better beverage choices. The students were encouraged to complete it over a week to be better aware of making healthy food choices.

Ms. Arena’s grade 2’s had the chance to be both artist and nutrition expert when they had to participate in Design a Lunch Box. They were asked to design lunch boxes which had to include all four food groups. This promoted awareness of healthy eating and what healthy choices can be chosen to pack in a lunch box. They were encouraged to pack the choices that they drew in their actual lunches and bring them in for school.

Ms. Arena and Mr. Galloro had their Grade 3 classes complete a comic strip about “One Morning in the Life of a Superhero”. In the comic strip they had to include a healthy aim for four breakfast and a healthy aim for 2 snacks. The students were very creative with their superhero stories and the comic strip promoted them to focus on all four food groups for breakfast and two healthy snack options. It was a fun way to incorporate healthy eating while being creative with writing and drawing.

In October, Mr. Piccone’s and Ms. DaSilva’s Grade 7 students at Our Lady of Fatima walked to our local Longo’s grocery store. All students were asked to bring in a loonie or toonie and together in groups they had to make healthy choices of food items to purchase for the school food drive for the local food bank. This promoted choosing healthy non-perishable food items, working together as a group, using math skills and gaining physical activity by walking to the store. The students had a great time choosing healthy items for those less fortunate!

In January, all classes at Our Lady of Fatima participated in My Healthy Lunch Challenge Week. My Healthy Lunch Challenge promotes the awareness of healthy food choices in a packed lunch with an emphasis on recognizing all 4 food groups. It also encourages fruits and vegetables as part of lunches and primary grades were provided with examples of healthy food options to choose. Students checked off their healthy choices and their sheets were collected and the division classes with the highest participation won a soccer day.

On March 1, 2018, the entire student body at Our Lady of Fatima participated in the Big Crunch to promote eating crunchy apples or other crunchy fruit or vegetable. The activity was coordinated over the P.A. with student leaders in grade 7 so that everyone bit into a crunchy apple or other fruit or vegetable at the same time to make one loud crunch! The activity promoted awareness for healthy snack options and it was a great way to start of Nutrition month in the school.

With our recently installed water bottle filling station, we have promoted students and staff to use reusable water bottles and fill up with fresh water to drink. This encourages students and staff to drink more water and limit sugary beverages which have little nutritional value.

For our end of year BBQ our parent council will provide our students with fresh fruit as snacks to balance out our food choices. This provides healthy food options rather than junk food with no nutritional value. We also serve water rather than sugary beverages.

Our parent council funded and hosted a math night for our parents in February. Instead of having unhealthy snack choices, there were real fruit options and cold water. In addition to the math information session for our parents, we had a company come in to provide fun activities and an obstacle course in the gym for our students while the math session was running.

Our school community has a no food for birthdays policy. Rather than bring in treats for birthdays, many classroom teachers encourage the birthday student to bring in a birthday gift of a new or gently used book for the classroom to enjoy.

In January, the school participated in Healthy Schools Challenge week. In each classroom, students were encouraged to pack all four food groups and ensure healthy choices in their lunches. The classes submitted the results of their lunches and were recognized for their efforts in making healthy choices.

At the beginning of the school year, we had a fundraiser for our school. The top fundraising classes from each division were rewarded with a funfilled soccer half day at an indoor soccer facility. This encouraged fun, physical activity rather than treats or ‘fun food’. All those that participated enjoyed the time to move and have fun for their fundraising efforts!

Since March is Nutrition month, we had student leaders provide weekly nutrition announcements to our students. The students that provided the announcements were from Grades 6 to 8. The nutrition announcements were provided by our Public Health Nurse liaison.