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McCurdy Elementary Students Strive To Get Fit, Eat Better
Tammarra Lewis and her fifth grade students have resolved to eat healthier, exercise more and to lose weight. Lewis, a teacher at McCurdy Elementary School, starts a new health lesson with her students every week. Her students worked from their textbook, “Healthy by Choice,” from which they have learned a variety of health information such as–drink approximately eight glasses of water per day, eat more fruits and vegetables and exercise regularly.
“When the Hazelwood School District nutrition guidelines came out, we got to talking about them and the kids started saying things like, ‘I want to lose weight’ or ‘my clothes won’t fit me anymore’ so I said ‘let’s do something about it.’” Lewis said. They all set goals, including Lewis, to achieve by the end of the school year. McCurdy’s physical education teacher took photos of them in August and will do so again soon. “You can already see the difference,” Lewis said of her students.
On a recent Monday, Lewis quizzed her class about what healthy activities they performed over the weekend. She asked for a show of hands on who drank water. Boys and girls happily reported they ate strawberries, grapes, peaches and other healthy foods. Students said they jumped on a trampoline, rode their bicycles, one boy did sit-ups and another student used a treadmill.
Lewis asked her class why they must eat good, balanced meals and exercise. Students replied that doing so helped prevent diseases and eating well is better than a diet of fatty foods or always eating at fast food restaurants. They discussed serving sizes and other components that appear in the Nutrition Facts data that appears on every type of food package sold in the United States..
Lindsey Wilson, 10, showed off her folder; each student in Lewis’ class has one. In them are a variety of sheets detailing the students’ activities, what they ate, how their week went, good or bad and journal entries.
“My goal is to lose weight and to do the mile run quicker,” Wilson said. She said she runs a mile in 12 to 13 minutes now but she would like to cut that time to 10 minutes.
According to their books, the average person should consume 2400 grams (g) of sodium per day. Using an example of a pretend sugary cereal in the book, Lewis’ students learned that a mere half-cup of the cereal has 270g of sodium but most students eat far more than a half-cup.
Jesse Martens, 10, also desires to lose weight. He recounted some of what he has learned so far. “I learned that a person should eat about 2,000 calories per day and you shouldn’t eat too much sugar or you will get bigger and bigger,” he said.
Lewis said that since the start of school she has already dropped one dress size by eating better “Losing weight helps me because I want to model weight loss for the kids,” she said.
Before going to lunch, Lewis had the students meet in small groups and offer pointers and advice to each other in a positive manner. Lewis mentioned future health activities, including guest speakers, such as a marathon runner and one of the student’s parents, who works as a nutritionist. Lewis said she is trying to bring a pediatrician to her class too.
“The parents seem to really like the program. and the students are into it as well,” Lewis said. “They’ll come up to me now and say, ‘Guess what? I had my fruits today’ or ‘I drank two glasses of water before I came to school.’” (story courtesy of Hazelwood Communications Dept.)
