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Battle of the Pizzas at Durham Nativity School

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:18:21 +0100

On your mark, get set, go...competition was tough at today's Junior Iron Chef Durham's Battle of the Pizzas held at the Durham Nativity School. Students learned how to use a knife safely and even practiced their "bear claws" using a tennis ball. Students listened intently as DINE nutritionist Christy Perry demonstrated different types of knife cuts like dices and minces. Another DINE nutritionist, Kelly Warnock, showed students how to properly measure dry and liquid ingredients. Next, students put their skills in action and prepared for the competition ahead. Students divided into 2 groups and made either BBQ chicken pizza with homemade BBQ sauce or Hawaiian pizza using Canadian bacon and pineapple on whole wheat English muffins. Students showcased their knife skills and carefully diced and minced ingredients to put on the pizzas. The competition was tough, both pizzas looked wonderful, but in the end the BBQ pizza stole the show. Overall, students had a great time learning how easy it is to make your own pizza and that yes, pizza can be healthy! Stay tuned for the Battle of the Pastas next week...

Christy Perry

Exciting things are happening at the Durham Nativity School!

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:48:53 +0100

Exciting things are happening at the Durham Nativity School. Last Friday, we kicked off the Junior Iron Chef Durham series at the Durham Nativity School. The nine chefs in training blew us away. They were extremely well mannered, despite the fact that the program was held from 3:30 until 4:45 on a FRIDAY! Students asked questions while they learned the importance of following recipes through fellow DINE nutritionist Christy Perry's fun and interactive lesson. And then it was time for the competition. Two groups of students prepared smoothies using a master recipe. Students were able to choose from a variety of ingredients, such as mango and strawberries, to make a smoothie to remember! A representative from each group presented why they thought their smoothie was the best and why it was healthy, and then the students voted on which smoothie they liked the best. It was a close race, but in the end "Tropical Thunder" was crowned Junior Iron Chef Durham for the week. This tasty smoothie was prepared using bananas, mangos, pineapple, tropical mixed fruit, non fat frozen yogurt, and pineapple juice. I can't wait to see who is going to win Battle Pizza tomorrow!

Kelly Warnock and Christy Perry

The last Workout Wednesday at Smith

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:50:09 +0100

July 28, 2010
Today was the last “Workout Wednesday” at Smith, and I think we ended on a high note! Thank you so much to Kate, Brenda, her 2 children, Megan and Brian, and to Amanda for their awesome teaching and relating to the students. Their energy was amazing! We had 2 bigger groups today, and we managed to keep them busy with parachute games the entire time. The kids walked, ran, made waves, skipped, sang, slithered and much more – the whole while laughing and smiling. It was so much fun to see the children's faces (and adults too) as I looked across to the other end of the parachute.

I also asked each group what we talked about last week. To my surprise they were able to recall more than I would have expected. They talked about energy, calories and exercise and many of the students were able to tell me that it took longer to burn off a hot cheeto and a Hershey’s kiss than a baby carrot or a piece of mango because they contained fat (and sugar in the case of the Hershey’s kiss). Sometimes there is more learning happening than we realize! On a different note, when I asked the kids to name an ocean for one of the parachute activities, they gave me answers such as lake, Myrtle Beach and seashells. Finally, one boy in the 1^st group said the Atlantic and a girl in the 2^nd group said the Pacific. But, both of these students are the children of the director of this summer program. I wonder how many of these kids have been to the ocean...

Regardless, this experience truly helped me to get a better foot in the door at YE Smith, and I believe will allow me to put into place several programs that relate to wellness in the upcoming school year. It has helped me to think outside the box, and my creative juices are flowing.

One more Workout Wednesday at Smith

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:42:02 +0100

July 21, 2010

There is just one more “Workout Wednesday!” left at Smith. Thank you so much to Kelly, Becca and Jen for helping out today. These ladies were terrific!! Kelly and Becca led the students in a very short energy balance lesson, fed them a baby carrot, a piece of mango, a hot cheeto and a hershey’s kiss and then led them in exercises to burn off the calories. Jen and I talked about portion distortion, portion size vs. serving size, had kids look at the difference between portions served 20 years ago and the portions of today and, finally, had them exercise off the difference. The students were incredibly active, but I think Jen, Becca and Kelly ran around as much as the kids did – only they did it 3 times as the classes rotated through!

One observation today was that the kids had a great time, but their attention span was lacking. We all shortened the already shortened versions of these lessons I had adapted. Energy Balance is not an easy concept, but the students only seemed interested in moving about. It may be that our program is not such a novelty anymore, or perhaps they have come to associate us with being activeJ. Several children in the older group (3^rd – 5^th graders) did verbalize understanding of large portion sizes and without me prompting them, several told me me “that eating large portion sizes can lead to overweight, which can lead to diabetes and a heart attack”. At the very least I think we can be pleased that we are certainly helping them to realize that being active is lots of fun!

I had several students mention the Eno today, and they talked about how much fun it was.

Another wonderful exercise event at Smith Elementary School

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:40:18 +0100

July 16, 2010

We had 2 big successes this week, and I wish to both fill you in and thank you for your support.

On Wednesday, we held another “Exercise Event” with 4 different stations. Thanks so much to Kate for leading basketball (the kids absolutely loved this and even the staff would not rotate to my stationL because they were having so much fun at Kate’s station!), Susan for leading the dance station (we saw a lot of moon walking and fancy tricks, and Susan even got out the hula hoops and was leading the students in dancing with them!), and to Kim for teaching the students how to use the stretch bands (the science teacher at Smith was so excited about them that she asked me if we could get some for the staff who are involved with the Smart Steps walking program next fall. And Kim was so dedicated that she almost developed blisters on her hands from leading 12 different groups. What a trooper!) My station (balloon games) was a little bit more random but the kids seemed to enjoy it! We played balloon hockey with noodles as our sticks and balloon volleyball as if we were crabs. We held a contest to see who could throw his/her balloon into the air and spin around the most times before catching it. The winner spun 6 times!

I also want to congratulate Michele, Barbara and Amanda for doing such a fantastic job last week on the Fitness lesson. This week I did a short review and asked the students to recall what they learned. Many were able to state that they should exercise 60 minutes every day and that their muscles, bones and hearts became stronger because of exercising. Almost every child answered water when I asked them what was the best drink to choose when exercising. And all three groups remembered the sugar tubes they saw and were able to tell me that sweet tea and soda contained lots of sugar.

On Thursday the kids had a fabulous time at West Point on the Eno! The majority of the kids had never experienced anything like being at the Eno, and their comments were both sweetly innocent and shocking to me. It was a wonderful collaboration between the DPS Extended Learning department, YE Smith staff and those of us involved with DHI/AHL. From the time the kids hopped off the bus to when they got back on they hardly stopped moving. They participated in a hike/scavenger hunt (see Amanda’s wonderful pictures of things they might run into at the Eno – attached), had a science lesson at the water (thanks, Jen! And thanks to Casey for leading the science teacher’s group), played 4 active (!) games and finally ate watermelon (thanks Brenda and Elena for cutting it all and making sure the kids were hydrated). The students saw snakes, a turtle, birds, water striders and minnows, and collected lots of “treasures” from the water. When one group was drinking their water, Casey told me that one of the girls lifted her bottle and said, “Let’s make a toast to the best day ever”! The science teacher, after hiking back from the water, sweat pouring down her face, said, “This is fantastic! I want to plan a field trip with the whole school next year.” (Many of you might have heard different comments. I’d love to hear them if you get the chance.) Without a doubt, I believe the kids learned how exciting it is to explore nature and how fun being active is.