North Coast
Regional Award Winner
Regional Award Winner
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Helen Lehman 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 While students, teachers, and parents at Helen Lehman Elementary School have focused on nutrition for the past six years, we continued during 2007-08 to significantly impact our students with regard to good eating habits. At Lehman, we have numerous programs in place focusing on health and nutrition. Teachers noticed in the past that children were coming to school without breakfast in their bellies. We decided to apply for a federal Local Incentive Award nutrition grant that would allow us to promote healthy eating on a daily basis, among other health and fitness-conscious programs. Today, teachers are stunned by the way our culture as a school has changed. A 150-square-foot, student-planted garden is teeming with vegetables and herbs. Our garden teacher works with students year-round to plant, harvest and cook these edibles. Our teachers implement nutrition units from the Dairy Council, Power Play, and Nutrition to Grow On. Our Backto- School Night has a 5-a-Day theme. We offer after-school cooking classes to students and parents about balanced eating and share the joy in preparing nutritious meals. We also offer a federal free breakfast program. Most recently teachers have written to parents to request vegetable and fruit snacks for birthdays instead of cupcakes and chips. Parents receive bulletins, particularly during STAR testing, about the importance of a healthy breakfast with lists of appropriate foods. Also, students are not allowed to bring chips, sodas, and other unhealthy foods to our school. During our recess break all students are given free apples and oranges to snack on for brain power. During our annual breakfast week we supply each classroom with healthy cereals, fruit, and milk. Our students truly understand what a difference good, healthy food can make. Essay 2 - Support of Students’ Physical Activity and Fitness Lehman School has found many ways to support our students’ physical activity and fitness. We believe through proper nutrition and exercise, students live healthier lives, thereby improving academic achievement. During the past six years at our school, this has been proven. While our minority population has steadily increased, so have our API scores, rising from from 592 to 763. Our school was awarded a ranking of “10” compared to similar schools based on last year’s STAR testing scores. We believe there is a direct link between the improved health of our students and this educational success. Some of the physical activities we implement at Lehman include weekly 20-minute fitness runs for the entire school; physical education in-service for the kindergarten teachers; development of a peaceful playground to promote activity and cooperation at recess; sixth-grade walks building in succession of five, ten, fifteen, and twenty miles; and regular physical education homework that requires charting health and fitness plans for students of every grade level. Children also engage in annual events including a jogathon fundraiser; Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser; Fifth Grade Fitness Day; the Governor’s Challenge; President's Physical Fitness Program; and our school Health and Fitness Day, which includes nutrition awareness games, bicycle safety and many physical relay events. Two of our teachers volunteer in a district soccer league, involving many of our fifth- and sixth-grade students who would not otherwise be able to participate in afternoon sports. During the STAR testing week we help students put forth their best effort by providing fun exercise routines for classes in the afternoon. Students at our school look forward to the STAR testing period because of this. Put simply, heart-raising physical activity is a regular part of our students' daily lives, and they love it! Essay 3- Need For a New Fitness Center A physical fitness center at Lehman School is not only imperative but would be a wonderful fit and reward for our students. They have proven their commitment to physical fitness through the Governor's Challenge for the past two years, taking extended walks with their teachers, running every Friday as a whole school, and staying active year-round. According to Tori Meredith, Lehman's physical education teacher, our school is the most needy and deserving school she knows of with regard to a central fitness location. She currently shares a portable building with the school's music teacher, which makes it impossible for her to teach tumbling and gym activities. She works with students around a piano, music stands, and instruments. During rainy weather, the multi-use room is often unavailable due to lunch or assemblies. The room doesn't have a basketball hoop or lines, and isn't set up for other sports games. A new fitness center would be used year-round for our physical education program, allowing for group activities such as gymnastics, dance, basketball, and perceptual motor skills. Walls would display motivational posters as well as diagrams of physical education techniques. The center would be a focal point of our school. Most students at Lehman come from low-income families, with parents or caregivers who work full-time. Our students do not have the same access to organized sports that many children do, yet they arrange neighborhood basketball, soccer and other activities because they like to be active and know how good it feels. Many of Lehman's students will never see the inside of a fitness center outside of their school environment. They deserve to be supported by a fitness center at their school that would honor their commitment and help them continue to strive for their physical best. |
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