By Crystal Hayduk
Students in the Chelsea School District elementary schools spent the month of May counting their servings of fruit and veggies during the seventh annual Fruit and Veggie Challenge.
The challenge serves to help students increase the daily consumption of fruit and vegetables in an effort to promote stronger and healthier bodies. It is recommended that elementary school-aged children eat seven servings of fruit and vegetables a day. (More information and ideas can be found here: https://www.choosemyplate.gov/.)
Instead of competing between buildings as in the past, this year’s challenge remained within each school. The final assemblies, promoting physical exercise, involved both children and teachers.
South Meadows Elementary School
Fourth-grade teacher Jordan Miller coordinated the efforts at South Meadows Elementary School. Seven teams, named after common fruit and vegetables, each consisted of a third, fourth, and fifth-grade classroom, along with one teacher consultant.
Fourth grader Zoe Zimmer said, “I liked how the teams were divided. It was fun to have team names and it was fair because each team had older kids, younger kids, and kids in the middle.”
South’s final assembly was held in the gymnasium on May 31, opening with the viewing of each team’s unique music video. Miller, who is a singer/songwriter in his spare time, wrote themed parody lyrics to popular tunes as background for the fun team videos.
A number of students, nominated by teachers, participated in the games as they were cheered on by their teams. Games included cantaloupe bowling, grape toss, fruit and veggie relay, trivia, and a blind taste test.
“I was nervous to do the grape toss, but I had fun,” said third grader Ben Fisher. “I was nervous because I didn’t want to look bad, but now I know that it just matters if you have fun.”
Team Pear and Team Banana tied for the win with 46 points each. Principal Stacie Battaglia told the students, “It’s not really about today’s events, but eating fruit and veggies all month long.”
“It was fun to be a part of the change this year,” said Miller. “It’s good to see students and teachers who were hesitant in the past now get excited.”
North Creek Elementary School
Second-grade teacher Beth Newman coordinated the challenge at North Creek Elementary School. The school-wide goal was for students to eat 13,000 fruit and veggie servings, which they easily surpassed with a grand total of 14,729 servings. One student said, “Eating lots of fruit and veggies is easy when your parents help.”
Eric Robinson, second-grade teacher and musician, made a humorous video to culminate the month’s events: “Super Good Choices Bucket Filling Banana Hero.” (Two-minute video here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B89VS9FAhkH5OEVlUXhacGhyMmc/view?ts=59303020.)
North’s final assembly was held on June 1 in the cafeteria, with a game show in which contestants’ names were chosen from a bucket. Team leaders were North Creek Principal Luman Strong dressed as a bunch of grapes and South Meadows Principal Stacie Battaglia dressed as a tomato. Two teachers and two students joined the leaders on each team.
Indoor games included the Clementine toss, solving fruit and veggie riddles, and building Clementine towers. The school-wide event ended with Robinson leading the students in helping to write a rhyming rap song about eating fruit and veggies.
After the assembly, all students participated in active games, dance, and other exercise outside.
Strong encouraged students to continue to choose healthy foods. “Just because May is over doesn’t mean we stop. We want to keep eating healthy all [year] long.”
“The fruit and veggie challenge is great because it encourages healthy habits for a lifetime,” Newman said. “It really makes kids more aware of the choices they are making.”
Very nice. I know my kids were doing their best to fulfill the fruit and veggies challenge.
I liked the video.