Hazel Strauch Elementary
School of the Year
School of the Year
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Hazel Strauch Elementary School, a Regional Award winner in the 2007 Governor’s Challenge Competition, expanded its support of physical activity and good nutrition in 2008. Led by Principal Axel Hanneman, the school instituted creative rewards to incentivize physical activity and link it to student achievement. The school rewards good attendance by giving the opportunity to ride the “smoothie bike,” which enables them to burn calories while powering a blender. The school also honors students who improve on district test scores with monthly dance parties. Principal Hanneman created a Friday Walking Club in which Hazel Strauch students logged 1,250 miles this year. The school’s commitment to fitness goes beyond the principal, as students, teachers and community members join together to bike ride to school several times a week. In support of good nutrition, Hazel Strauch has installed and cultivates a healthy garden on campus; hosts “Camp Eatawella,” and has developed its own Healthy Cultural Day in which students have an opportunity to sample healthy foods from different cultures. Hazel Strauch Elementary submitted the following three essays for consideration of the Governor's Challenge Competition Grand Prize: Essay 1 - Commitment to Promoting Healthy Eating on Campus Strauch understands healthy eating starts with us. For the second year, we have encouraged healthy eating habits. Hot cheetos, soda and candy are banned. Recess is called, “Healthy Snack Recess.” All students are allowed to snack, as long as it is healthy; nuts, fruit, veggies and more. Parties have focused on veggie trays, cheese trays and fruit combos. Our cafeteria has switched to more fruits, lowfat products, fresh vegetables and less on fast food meals. Testing rewards focused on veggies. We totally removed the soda machine from student access and replaced it with a fruit juice and water only machine. Yard monitors carried healthy treats to reward active kids. Fundraisers have included fruit snacks, water, trail mix, healthy cookies and pressured cooked chicken (instead of fried). Fruit smoothies were sold instead of ice-cream bars. It is common now to hear kids request a water bottle, which they drink all during the day. Tomatoes, strawberries and veggies are school grown treats. Before we started the challenge, we surveyed our students on their health knowledge. Listed are before and after responses. 1) Tried a new fruit or vegetable: 310/525. 2) Physically active during recess: 325/643!! 3) Consider physical activity an important part of their educations 412/622 (many others) Intel came to school and helped us create 3 compost bins. This made kids more aware of healthy choices and mulching added nutrients to our garden and health to our students. Staff members are on our district’s wellness committee to provide low fat breakfast and lunch items, no sugar cereals, and healthier snacks. Teachers monitor student lunches and discuss healthier choices with their parents. Staff continue to encourage students to eat healthy here and at home. Buddy classes promote healthy eating by sharing healthy tips! Essay 2 - Support of Students’ Physical Activity and Fitness Our entire staff and school promoted our 100% participation during not one, but all complete Governor’s Challenges. Music during lessons promoted more activity. Dance testing parties were held every month to honor those who improved on district tests. All recesses and lunches were deemed “Full Activity Days,” by all staff. Lunch and before school jogging club was continued. A total of 325 (from 250) students completed at least 30 laps (over 500 attempted.) 100% of our students participated in our Jog-A-Thon fund raiser. Our Talent show included teachers and staff in an, active dance. Several teachers rode their bikes to school joined by students and parents several times a week. Money from our Governor’s awards allowed us to purchase a “Smoothie Bike.” Kids are eager to be the winning attendance class so that they can pump themselves to a healthy fruit and ice smoothie. Absent students are assigned a 4/5th grade activity buddy to exercise with when they return. Sacramento State helped teach exercise habits. Friday Walking Club continued with 1250 miles logged. Over 70% of our students and staff walked. We averaged over 30 miles every Friday with 4th graders averaging 12.5 miles per week. Walkers were honored to attend the kickoff of Governor’s Challenge 2008. Students play baseball, soccer, kickball and other sports daily. Students walked 2 miles to the library, Save-Mart and the pool. Save-Mart helped teach about healthy fruits and vegetables with journals to record student consumptions. Lessons included Ca Healthy Kids, California Grown, Camp Eatawella, Healthy Cultural day, Tolerance Fair (included healthy foods from Germany, Poland and Israel) Staff buddied up with kids who needed extra encouragement to eat healthy. With or without the challenge, students continued to work to improve their overall health. Essay 3- Need For a New Fitness Center Daily, at all recesses, before and after school, children were seen swinging from monkey bars, sliding down slides and playing outside. All that changed last month when fires destroyed our play yard. Flames shot into the sky as children watched in horror as their play area turned to ashes. A huge part of our community’s ability to exercise went up in smoke. Physical fitness and health are not always a priority in our low socio-economic school yet our kids were trying to be active. Now they have little to keep themselves active. Attending gyms is a luxury most cannot afford even with our free Governor‘s Challenge passes. A fitness center would allow our community a place to exercise without fear of it being destroyed. This center would attract our families to stay in our neighborhood. Total parental and staff support ensure that our fitness center will be used to its fullest extent. Our new fitness center would offer us an incredible amount of support toward our healthy lifestyle programs. Our latch key kids will be encouraged to stay at school and work out. Currently, all inside activities occur in our small classrooms, or our tiny cafeteria. All 643 students must remain in our classrooms because of our lack of a gym on poor air quality, too cold and too warm days. Space limitation prevents quality exercise times. In spite of this, we still completed all challenges of the 2008 Governor’s Challenge. Lack of a place to use our “smoothie bike,” prevents us from optimal usage. Making changes now, will improve a generation of adults. Habits are formed early, having a fitness center will form life-long habits. Our children and community need and deserve a safe place to remain active. |
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