Team Nutrition in the Schools: Kansas
Students in Grades K-6 had a very special visitor when KC Wolf (Dan Mears) visited three elementary schools and one middle school. KC Wolf is the mascot for the Kansas City Chiefs football team and a popular character in Missouri and Kansas. KC Wolf also is sponsored by the Midland Dairy Council of Greater Kansas City to visit schools to talk about the importance of a balanced diet and exercise.
During his performance at the schools, KC Wolf discussed the food pyramid and what vitamins and minerals each food group contributes to our body. He also talked about the importance of exercise while demonstrating the stunts he does during football games. KC Wolf also used 4 flour tubes to demonstrate the amount of calcium in our bodies as infants, as 7-year olds, as teenagers and as adults. Students as well as adults were amazed at the range of calcium in our bodies. Because the students in Independence have had a nutrition education curriculum in each grade for several years now, they were active and enthusiastic participants during these sessions.
Eisenhower Elementary School
Independence, KS
Second graders received a nutrition lesson from Team Nutrition's Scholastic Curriculum, Food Time, entitled, "We are What We Eat." The lesson was taught by Coylene Speer, the Food Service Director and Kathy Raub, Elementary School Nurse.
In preparation for this lesson, the children had been asked to keep a food diary for one day of what they ate for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. They then used styrofoam cups to build their own personal food pyramids for that day. Staff helped the kids build their pyramids as some of them were a little short on the baseline!
During this lesson, children had a review of the food groups on the pyramid, discussed snacks they usually have, and then suggested some healthier alternatives. The students knowledge was impressive. The students correctly placed a popular food item labeled, "100% fruit product," at the top of the pyramid since they had read the nutrition label on the back and saw that it contains a lot of sugar.
