Children spend a majority of their time in the classroom. Break up long days in class by showing them how nutrition and physical activity can be incorporated into all areas of life—even school. Below, we offer School Health Facts, School Health Resources, such as ideas for working nutrition and physical activity into the curriculum, and School Health Lesson plans for different age groups.
School Health Facts
One in every four Utah students grades K-8 is overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.
That is enough students to fill 124 elementary schools, or 2,067 classrooms.
With obesity on the rise among children, schools have become the ideal place to teach students about physical activity and nutrition. Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher identified schools as a key setting to prevent and decrease the prevalence of overweight and obesity. Schools can provide many opportunities to engage children in healthy eating and physical activity and to reinforce healthy diet and physical activity messages.
All of these healthy habits combined can also produce better overall mental health, self-esteem, and academic success.
Whether you are a parent or a school faculty member, we hope to make it easy for you to give your students good information about physical activity and nutrition through our resources and lesson plans.
School Health Resources
The following are list of PDFs that might be useful in helping you make your school a Gold Medal School.
Nutrition 5 A Day Resources You can teach students the importance of eating at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day through tours, puppet shows, activity sheets and more. School Nutrition Programs Overwhelmed by the idea of teaching nutrition? Learn more about nutrition programs and find one that is right for your school. School Nutrition Ideas Find new and creative ways to encourage healthy eating and teach nutrition in the classroom.
Physical Activity 5-Minute Energizers
It's too hard to sit all day. Learn how you can take short breaks in the classroom to get students moving. Let's Get Moving Ideas for taking physical activity breaks outside of the classroom. Walking to School Remember walking to school? Most students today don’t. Find out how you can get more students to experience the joys of walking to school.
Lesson Plans
We want kids to know that being health-conscious doesn’t have to be “boring.” We hope you find these lesson plans beneficial in teaching nutrition, physical activity and heart health in the classroom as well as in your home.
