Healthy Schools

Students spend a significant part of their day in school – on average over six hours. They may eat as many as two of three meals a day at school as well as get much of their daily physical activity at school. Therefore, schools provide a fundamental setting for educating children on the importance of lifelong healthy behaviors. Therefore, schools provide a fundamental setting for educating children on the importance of lifelong healthy behaviors, along with opportunities to consume nutritious meals, snacks, and beverages, and get regular physical activity.

Studies show that healthy students perform better in school. Good nutrition and physical activity are linked to improved academic, behavioral, cognitive and emotional functioning, along with reduced absenteeism.

OCHD is partnering with the Syracuse City School District to improve student health and wellness by striving to carry out four critical strategies:

• Wellness policies: Revise, implement, and assess local wellness policies to improve the school environment.
• Healthy food environment: Increase access to healthy, affordable foods and enhance school districts’ ability to meet federal nutrition standards for foods sold outside the school meals programs.
  • The foods and beverages sold and served outside of the school meal programs will meet the USDA Smart Snacks in School nutrition standards. The Smart Snacks Food Calculator is a tool with a series of questions that can be used to determine if a product meets the Smart Snack standards.
• Food marketing: Restrict food marketing to children.
• Physical activity: Establish Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (CSPAP). 

 

	Click on the picture to read the Syracuse City School District’s Wellness Policy!
Spell Swell Spell Swell promotes physical activity and spelling at the same time. It is a great way to get students out of their seats to spell ‘apple’; reach up for A, down for P’s, reach left for L, and up again for E! Use Spell swell to practice their weekly spelling words! For double letters like the ‘P’s’ in Apple they reach down and touch their toes in between them, or another movement you dream up! Spelling is fun!
	Ideas to Earn Surprise Rewards These rewards are to encourage certain behaviors in your classroom. They can be given right when a student satisfies one of the tasks; for example if one student helps another, the teacher gives immediate praise and removes the goal from the reward board and thereby encourage the other students to notice and follow suit. Or they can be rewarded at the end of a task like lining up quietly to leave the room. Underneath the post-its you will have written what the end surprise reward will be, a list of ideas is included below. Once all the post-its are removed from the board it will reveal the reward the class earned.
Sensory Trail at Syracuse Latin School!

Cardio Drumming!