Let’s Go on an Adventure!

With winter break fast approaching, kids will soon be home from school full-time if they aren’t already. This year already looks different in so many ways – from modified holiday celebrations to museum closures, out-of-home activities are hard to come by. Health Powered Kids is here to help.

 

Release Energy

Health Powered Kids has a variety of Power Chargers for your family to choose from. Your kids can stay active and engaged all while playing bingo for a chance to win prizes from Health Powered Kids. Complete different Power Chargers to make a bingo, take a photo of your bingo sheet and email it to [email protected] for a chance to win! Choose from 2-, 5-, or 10-minute activities depending on the time and space available. Use Power Chargers to wake up kids in the morning, energize them after lunch or help them focus before a big activity!

 

Virtual Field Trips

Who says staying at home means you can’t visit your family’s favorite places? Tour the Colosseum in Rome, ride your favorite rides, explore the rainforest or share a lesson at the museum. You can do all this and more through virtual field trips, a fun and safe way for the family to spend winter break!

• Go on a virtual ride at Disneyland
• Check out the live cams at Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Visit the Colosseum in Rome, Italy
• Explore the Amazon Rainforest
• Take a virtual tour of the Alamo

Involve the whole family and ask kids and adults alike to share about their experiences. For a full list of virtual tours, check out this list.

It Takes a Community to Feed a Community!

October is Farm to School Month, an annual 31-day campaign to acknowledge, appreciate and celebrate the connections between families and their food systems. Although this year is the 10^th anniversary of National Farm to School Month, celebrations look a little different!

 

Show Thanks

Farm to School Month is a time to honor and appreciate all those who contribute to feeding our kids and communities – from growers and farm workers, harvesters and distributors to nutrition professionals, educators, garden and food shelf coordinators, bus drivers, volunteers and more! They are all essential in providing healthy, nutritious meals to our communities.

 

Virtual Farm Tours

Minnesota Ag in the Classroom is partnering with Midwest Dairy to host a series of free Virtual Field Trips in October. Students and classrooms are invited to tune in for virtual farm tours and meet the farmers who provide fruit, vegetables and more to Minnesota school cafeterias. At home or in the classroom, you can plan meals featuring local food highlighted in the weekly tours.

All Virtual Field Trips will occur at 10 a.m. Dates and locations:

• Tuesday October 13: Revol Greens, Owatonna, MN
• Thursday October 22: New Roots Produce Farm, Morehead, MN
• Thursday October 29: Ahlgren Dairy Farm, Central MN

For more information and to register visit: https://minnesota.agclassroom.org/educator/virtual.cfm

 

Give Back

The pandemics we’re facing bring additional challenges to our communities. Here are a few things you can do as a family to support a healthy food system:

• If you can, donate healthy food or other resources to your local food shelves.
• Ask your neighbor if you can pick anything up for them on your next grocery run!
• Color a “Thank You” card from our Merch shop and send it to a local farmer, grocer, food shelf coordinator, school staff or other food system hero!
• Set aside time before each meal to express gratitude for the work that went into bringing the food to your plate.
• Schedule a visit or order delivery from a local farmers market vendor to support community growers.

 

Learn More

The food system is SO big and there is so much to learn! Start a conversation with your family about where food comes from and find out how it got from there to here. Check out the post “So our food isn’t grown in a grocery store?” to get started! For more ideas on how to incorporate lessons into the classroom, visit Minnesota Ag in the Classroom.

Raising a Monarch

In the wild, monarch eggs and larvae have a small chance of survival with only 10% of eggs reaching adulthood. By raising a monarch at home, you can bring the outdoors inside for a fun activity for the whole family while helping an entire species! Kids will have the opportunity to learn about life stages of a monarch while responsibly caring for another being.

Timeline:

The entire process takes 14-28 days.

What you’ll need:

• A large ventilated jar or container, clean fish bowl, or aquarium
• Access to fresh, untreated milkweed

 

Step by Step:

Step 1: Find the milkweed

Search for milkweed in your yard or a nearby park and look for eggs or larvae on the leaves. Eggs and larvae are usually found on the underside of leaves or on buds and flowers near the top of the plant. Once you find a leaf with an egg or larvae, remove the entire leaf and transport it safely into your home.

Step 2: Make a home

Place the leaf in a container with a damp paper towel at the bottom, egg- or larvae-side down. Set the container in natural light away from the direct sun. Place a ventilated lid, screen, or mesh covering on the container. Eggs only take 4 days to hatch and caterpillars form a chrysalis within two weeks.

Step 3: Feed your larvae and clean the container regularly

Keep an eye on the container and clean it regularly first by removing and setting aside the leaf with the caterpillar on it. Dump out the remaining contents of the container including the damp paper towel. Wipe down the jar with a wet rag or paper towel and replace the damp paper towel at the bottom. Gather fresh, untreated milkweed, rinse it off and place it in the clean jar. Once the caterpillar has moved to the fresh milkweed leaf, discard the wilted leaf.

Note: caterpillars can eat up to 200x their weight in milkweed so it is important to give them a fresh supply to keep them growing!

Step 4: Caring for the chrysalis

Once the caterpillar reaches its 5th molting stage, it will climb to the top or side of the container and create a chrysalis. Note: Do not move the chrysalis or a motionless caterpillar because they are likely preparing for or recovering from a molt. The caterpillar does not need more milkweed or for its container to be cleaned at this stage. Watch what happens as the chrysalis begins to turn colors and the caterpillar begins to turn into a butterfly!

Step 5: Release your butterfly

The chrysalis will turn clear before the adult butterfly emerges. Once this happens, it is important not to touch the butterfly for at least 5 hours so their wings can dry. When the butterfly’s wings begin to flutter, it’s time to let it go…but check the weather first! If a storm is on the horizon, you may need to move the butterfly to a larger cage or place in an upside-down laundry basket until calmer weather returns. When you’re ready, choose a location and set it free!

Visit www.saveourmonarchs.org for more information. Like this activity? Check out our lesson page for more activities for the whole family to enjoy!

 

OWATONNA [Dec. 8, 2017] — Congratulations to Lincoln Elementary School students who collected 171.1 pounds of candy during the recent Halloween Candy Collection event, Nov. 1-2. They won a Health Powered Kids prize pack and cash prize of $250 from Allina Health.

“This was a great way to engage our local schools in an event that promotes healthy living and candy in moderation,” said Natalie Ginter, director of Community Engagement and Development. “Plus, the generosity of each child did not go unnoticed…the troops definitely appreciate this.”

During the two-day event, students were asked to bring their Halloween candy to school. For each pound collected, Allina Health donated $1 to local food shelves and the candy was donated to programs, through Operation Gratitude in California, that send gift boxes to troops overseas.

To read the full article, click here.

Research suggests that practicing gratitude can help promote mental wellness, school success, generosity and physical health. Although approaching life with an attitude of gratitude is not something we are born with, it is a simple practice to incorporate into daily life.

Consider talking to kids about the importance of gratitude and lead a sharing circle where they can share things they are grateful for and things they are grumbling about. To learn more, check out the full activity here!

Looking for more on youth health? Check out our board on Pinterest!

What is a concussion? A concussion is a form of brain injury which occurs from a hard blow to the head, causing the brain to get knocked against the skull. Young people who play sports or are active in other ways are at risk for concussions. Signs and symptoms of a concussion can occur right away, hours or even days after the injury occurs, and can include headache, memory problems, upset stomach, dizziness, sensitivity to light or sound, and confusion.

While seeking medical attention and following a doctor’s instructions are important, preventing concussions in the first place is the best thing to do. Here are a few tips for prevention:

• Always wear a helmet that is fitted and maintained properly when playing certain sports, riding a bike/horse or skiing/snowboarding
• Use the correct protective equipment during athletic games and practices

Be informed and take action to keep youth safe this sports season by sharing the Concussion Conundrum Lesson and activities!

 

Looking for more on youth health? Check out our board on Pinterest!

As the weather gets colder and the leaves start changing colors our minds begin shifting away from summer and towards the new school year. While this typically brings feelings of excitement, parents of a child with a food allergy can be filled with mixed emotions often provoking higher levels of stress and anxiety.

Around 6 million children in the United States have food allergies, which is equal to about two children in every classroom. Food allergies among children are on the rise and have increased about 50 percent from 1997 to 2011. A total of eight foods account for 90 percent of all food allergies, which include:

• Milk
• Eggs
• Peanuts
• Tree Nuts
• Wheat
• Soy
• Fish
• Shellfish

Some allergies (milk, egg, wheat, and soy) may resolve in childhood while allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish are typically lifelong.  Nearly 40 percent of children with food allergies are reported to have a history of a severe reaction. With a severe reaction, symptoms can occur within minutes to several hours after eating the food and can affect the skin, gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract, and in very severe cases the cardiovascular system. Anaphylaxis is the term for a potentially life-threatening reaction that occurs after exposure to an allergen.

Policies on food allergies will vary from school to school, but the bottom line is to follow the guidelines and recommendations of your school to ensure the safety of children. Here are some tips and ways to support others with food allergies in the classroom (these also work at home):

• If possible, restrict identified allergens from the classroom. Even a small amount of the allergen ingested, or through contact with the skin, can cause a reaction in those with severe allergies.
• If food is brought to school, make sure it is properly labeled and packaged so allergens can be identified and avoided if needed.
• Celebrate in ways that do not involve food. Birthdays and parties can be celebrated with games, crafts, and time outside. Treat bags can be filled with small toys and other non-edible trinkets.
• Discourage your children from sharing their food, beverages, and utensils and ask them to always wash their hands after eating.
• If a food allergy is recognized in your child’s classroom all classroom members can use this time to explore new foods and ingredients they may enjoy to replace the one that is restricted
• For teachers and staff: Avoid using food as a reward or as a part of curriculum. A classroom movie, time outside, guest speaker, or field trip can help motivate students.
• For parents of a child with a food allergy: Consider a medic alert bracelet for them to wear to help remind others of their allergy. These can be personalized and the child can choose a fun design to include on the bracelet.

Want to learn more about this topic? Explore this lesson below!

• Food Allergy Awareness

Looking for healthy, allergy-friendly recipes to share? Check out our Healthful Recipes board on Pinterest!

 

School lunches, both packed and supplied by the school, play an important part in meeting a child’s daily nutrition needs. Most elementary age students need about 1,500 to 2,000 calories each day and eating a balanced lunch helps them meet that goal. By helping students choose a variety of colorful foods from the five food groups (vegetables, fruits, dairy, grains and protein) they will have a healthful meal and learn the importance of balanced eating.

Help your student make healthy choices this fall – establishing good, life-long, eating habits starts now!

Want to learn more about this topic? Explore these lessons!
“Oversweetened: The Truth about Sugary Drinks”

“Love Your Lunch”

“Get the facts: Know your food label” 

Looking for healthy recipes to share? Check out our Healthful Recipes board on Pinterest!

Ask a five year-old where her food comes from and you may hear her say the name of your local grocery store. And, why not? That answer makes perfect sense to a youngster. Your family needs food, so you take a trip to the grocery store. It’s likely your child hasn’t given a lot of thought to how the food gets to the grocery store. Teaching kids about where and how healthy food is grown is a good lesson to share.

So just where do our fruits and vegetables come from? Fruits and vegetables grow in many different ways:

• They can grow on trees like apples do
• They can grow underground from a root like a carrot
• They also grow on vines and bushes

In fact, all food has to “grow” somewhere, whether it’s an animal for meat, grains for processing into flour and other products, or artificial flavorings made in a lab to mimic whole food flavors found in nature.

It’s best, however, to eat food as close to their natural state as possible. That means that not much has been done to them before they get to us. Fruits and vegetables are the easiest type of food to find in a natural state. Foods that come in boxes and can be stored on shelves for months, for example, have been processed and have had things added to them to preserve them long before they get to us, in particular lots of them may have added sugar.

For more information about growing healthy food, and even planting a garden this summer, check out our “Gardening – Growing Goodness” lesson. You can help your kids understand where healthy food comes from and maybe even inspire them to grow their own.

Riding a bike is a great way to stay fit, have fun with friends and enjoy the outdoors. While bike riding can be good for our health, it’s also important to do everything we can to stay safe while riding.

Bikers typically share a trail with other bikers or walkers. Sometimes riding on a trail can mean rough terrain. When we ride on the road, we likely have to share the space with cars. No matter where we bike, these safety tips are important to remember:

• Follow the law: It’s important to know the rules of the road such as riding on the right and in a straight line, and always signaling your stops and turns.
• Be aware: Pay attention to your surroundings, as well as to yourself and your equipment.
• Be visible: Make sure all bikes in your family have reflectors. Ride during day light and wear bright clothing.
• Save Your Brain: Always wear a helmet…no matter what your age!

Cycling has lots of great benefits and is fun! Taking these simple but very important steps will help you teach your kids to bike in the safest way possible. Check out our “Drive your Bike! Keys to safe and healthy cycling”  lesson to review the four keys to staying safe on your bike.

Read more about teaching your child to ride a bike, visit Healthy Set Go blog article, “Learning to ride a bike – a challenge for kids and parents”.