Jesup Students Participate in Live Healthy Iowa Kids Challenge
Jesup students grades Kindergarten through 12th are participating in Live Healthy Iowa Kids, January 28th through April 5th. They are joining thousands of other Iowa students in the 10 week challenge to improve their health while engaging in fun, friendly competition. Live Healthy Iowa brings together friends, families, schools, businesses and communities in team-based wellness challenges promoting positive lifestyle choices. Live Healthy Iowa Kids is a FREE challenge for youth, designed to inspire them to be more active and make better food and beverage choices. The 10 week challenge is segmented into five 2-week periods. During the program, students aim to be active for 60 minutes each day for at least five days a week. They will also track their nutritional habits. Every two weeks, students will track different food items; fruits, vegetables, milk consumption, water consumption, and screen time during the final two weeks. The elementary teams consist of each classroom of students and their teacher is their team captain. In middle school, the homeroom teachers are the team captains for the students in their homeroom. If their homeroom consisted of 12 or more students, that homeroom was divided into two teams. The high school students are organized in the same way in their seminar groups. All students are given a chart to record their activity minutes and nutritional items on each day. Elementary students take their record charts home and middle school and high school students make recordings for the previous day on their personal chart during homeroom or seminar each day. At the end of each 2-week period, the charts will be collected and a new chart for the next 2-week period handed out. Mandy Gleiter’s sophomore Health Education I class will tabulate the totals that need to be submitted to the state. Heather Bergman, K-8 librarian, will help electronically submit the K-12 totals.
Several events were planned by the Jesup Schools Live Healthy Iowa Kids committee to help inform and prepare staff and students about this project. Staff meetings were held at each of the building levels. Elementary, middle school and high school assemblies were conducted to provide the students in an age-appropriate manner the “who, what, why, when, where, and how” of the challenge. These assemblies were researched, planned and conducted by Mandy Gleiter’s Health Education 2 class, an elective class of Juniors and Seniors.
Live Healthy Iowa provides some random awards and incentives throughout the 10-week challenge. During each of the reporting periods, teams who report will be eligible for a variety of items, including Subway gift cards. All teams who complete the challenge will be eligible for 1 – $1000 and 4 – $500 cash prizes. The Jesup Schools Live Healthy Iowa Kids committee also wanted to provide some incentives to the students. Although team totals are submitted to the state, a friendly interschool competition will challenge teams to post the best averages. The teams at each of the three levels – high school, middle school, and elementary, that post the highest averages of participation at the end of each two-week period will be identified in the school announcements and their team picture taken by Serena Andrews’ high school media class for the Citizen Herald. The 1st and 2nd place teams at the elementary level will be given additional gym time. The 1st and 2nd place teams at the high school level will have a dodge ball challenge during a seminar meeting and likewise for middle school during a homeroom meeting.
New for 2013 is the K-12 Cup Challenge. The state designed this award to help create a culture of wellness in schools. The school with the highest percentage of participation and completion among their students in the Kids 10-Week Wellness Challenge and school staff members in the Adult 10 Week Wellness Challenge will win the traveling trophy for the year. All schools who compete for the K-12 Cup Challenge will receive a vinyl banner for display. Adult teams can consist of 2 – 10 members. Currently, there are four adult teams among our district employees, putting us in competition for the K-12 Cup Challenge.
This is the first year that the Jesup School district, K – 12, has participated in Live Healthy Iowa Kids Challenge and the K-12 Cup Challenge. It is an attempt on our part to not only provide another avenue in educating and directing our students toward healthy lifestyle choices, but also to boost Buchanan county’s level of commitment and participation to help meet the Governor’s goal, and fellow Iowans’ goal, of becoming the Healthiest state in the Nation. Live Healthy Iowa is sponsored by Iowa Department of Public Health, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Iowa Food and Family Project, the Iowa Sports Foundation and fosters a strong partnership with Hy Vee, Subway and Scheels.