Other School-Based Activities that Promote Student Wellness

Integrating Physical Activity into Classroom Settings

For students to receive the nationally recommended amount of daily physical activity and for students to fully embrace regular physical activity as a personal behavior, students need opportunities for physical activity beyond the physical education class. Toward that end, the school district will:

offer classroom health education that complements physical education by reinforcing the knowledge and self-management skills needed to maintain a physically active lifestyle and to reduce time spent on sedentary activities; discourage sedentary activities, such as watching television, playing computer games, etc.; provide opportunities for physical activity to be incorporated into other subject lessons; and, encourage classroom teachers to provide short physical activity breaks between lessons or classes, as appropriate.

Optional Issues

Communication with Parents

The school district will support parents’ efforts to provide a healthy diet and daily physical activity for their children. The school district will:

offer healthy eating seminars for parents, send home nutrition information, post nutrition tips on school web sites and provide nutrient analyses of school menus; encourage parents to pack healthy lunches and snacks and to refrain from including beverages and foods that do not meet the established nutrition standards for individual foods and beverages; provide parents a list of foods that meet the school district’s snack standards and ideas for healthy celebrations/parties, rewards and fundraising activities; provide opportunities for parents to share their healthy food practices with others in the school community; provide information about physical education and other school-based physical activity opportunities before, during and after the school day; support parents’ efforts to provide their children with opportunities to be physically active outside of school; and, include sharing information about physical activity and physical education through a web site, newsletter, other take-home materials, special events or physical education homework.

Food Marketing in Schools

School-based marketing will be consistent with nutrition education and health promotion. The school district will:

limit food and beverage marketing to the promotion of foods and beverages that meet the nutrition standards for meals or for foods and beverages sold individually; prohibit school-based marketing of brands promoting predominantly low-nutrition foods and beverages; promote healthy foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products; and market activities that promote healthful behaviors (and are therefore allowable) including: vending machine covers promoting water; pricing structures that promote healthy options in a la carte lines or vending machines; sales of fruit for fundraisers; and coupons for discount gym memberships.

Examples: Marketing techniques include the following: logos and brand names on/in vending machines, books or curricula, textbook covers, school supplies, scoreboards, school structures, and sports equipment; educational incentive programs that provide food as a reward; programs that provide schools with supplies when families buy low-nutrition food products; in-school television, such as Channel One; free samples or coupons; and food sales through fundraising activities.

Staff Wellness

The school district values the health and well-being of every staff member and will plan and implement activities and policies that support personal efforts by staff to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Each school should:

establish and maintain a staff wellness committee composed of at least one staff member, local hospital representative, dietitian or other health professional, recreation program representative, union representative and employee benefits specialist; develop, promote and oversee a multifaceted plan to promote staff health and wellness developed by the staff wellness committee; base the plan on input solicited from employees and outline ways to encourage healthy eating, physical activity and other elements of a healthy lifestyle among employees.