Desert Sierra
Regional Award Winner
Regional Award Winner
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Cottonwood Elementary submitted the following three essays for consideration of the Governor's Challenge Competition Grand Prize: Essay 1 - Commitment to Promoting Healthy Eating on Campus District-Wide: Our district has adopted Student Wellness Policy BP 5030 & AR 5030 whose purpose is designed to promote the health and well being of students and to promote a lifelong healthy lifestyle with a focus on Health, Physical Education and Nutrition. Our Governing Board recognizes the relationship between students’ nutrition/health status and their ability to learn. We have adopted a comprehensive school health program that implements school affiliated strategies, activities, and services designed to promote the optimal physical, emotional, social, and educational development of students. A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease and infirmity. School-wide: The staff, students and parents at Cottonwood have fully accepted the challenge of this program. We have started by eliminating the “junk food” that was available during lunch, classroom parties and sold at fund-raising events. We encourage everyone to pay attention to the portion size and ingredients of what they eat and have completely eliminated sodas and drinks high in sugar. Text books and materials have been purchased for Kindergarten through 8th grade and should be fully implemented into each grade levels daily curriculum by the beginning of the upcoming school year. This March, in recognition of this challenge, we kicked-off the month with a school-wide Jog-a-thon and designed a run/walk club before and after school to encourage students to make fitness a part of their daily routine. To promote the concept of eating small frequent meals throughout the day we have built into our schedule a morning “healthy snack” break and provide healthy food choices for our students. Essay 2 - Support of Students’ Physical Activity and Fitness It is our philosophy at Cottonwood that physical education should be exactly what the term indicates: educating students about their bodies and creating enthusiasm for physical activity. We have embraced the “New PE”, a shift to a fitness-based physical education program. One component includes incorporating the use of technology. This enhances the students’ ability to process their cardiovascular fitness and enables them to understand fitness as a lifestyle. We have implemented this by the addition of heart monitors. The heart monitors are used weekly to allow students to monitor in real-time their heart rate and adjust accordingly during exercise. They also gain an understanding of what is needed to improve or maintain their current fitness level. Another component is assessment. We have begun the process by developing an exercise science lab which is divided into four sections: Body Analysis I and II, Cardio-Vascular testing, and TriFIT assessments. Stations include: body fat %, blood pressure, recovery heart rate, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, bmi, hip to waist ratio, Vo2 max, etc. Students are able to track and document their health status to acquire the knowledge to sustain lifetime fitness. To attempt to break the monotony of what can come from repetitive training, we combine circuit training, 1.5 mile run and the use of a limited number of elliptical trainers into the required cardiovascular repertoire. A huge part of our student’s success comes from their personal meal planner that is individually designed for their nutritional goal. We start with their current eating habits and make adjustments which are put into their personal program along with their desired results. The program then creates a detailed plan of healthy food choices and gives alternative choices to replace the not so healthy foods. Essay 3- Need For a New Fitness Center Everything accomplished here has been done with no budget or facilities. We have no gymnasium, multi-purpose room or indoor facility that can house an entire class to use on a regular basis. A new fitness center would not only give us the opportunity to offer a wider variety of programs, it would also give us an indoor facility to utilize during inclement weather. Because of our rural status, students here do no have the freedom to stroll down to the local YMCA, public pool, or park to play. Our program here has started to touch the lives of our students and they are beginning to see the benefits of their hard work. This year I have had a number of students who have approached me for additional assistance with their nutritional needs and fitness routines. One student in particular has had a great deal of success. She has dropped 22 lbs. and has decreased her body fat by 8.7% from 36.3% to 27.6%. She has completely modified her eating habits and approaches me each day with an optimistic outlook (also putting her family on the same healthy eating routine). Take a program that has begun to touch the lives of students with minimal equipment and no facilities and place a tool as valuable as a fitness center into it. You will help to create a program that is not only effective, but will affect the lives of the students, staff, parents and the community. Our school is one of the only things that brings this rural community together for limited activities. A fitness center will be the glue that bonds this community together daily. If you are looking for an opportunity to impact a group of individuals with health and fitness then you have come across the group that will not only benefit from it on an individual basis, but as a community as well. |
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