Programs and Services Offered - Elementary Healthy Schools Program

Research suggests behavioural change is influenced by the amount of nutrition education students receive. Implementing the following two recommendations will help to ensure teachers are up-to-date with the most current nutrition science and have access to appropriate classroom resources.

1. Ensure Current Nutrition Education is Provided for Students

• Discover Healthy Eating! A Teacher's Resource for Grades 1-8 is a curriculum-matched resource for teachers to help students identify and choose a variety of foods for healthy eating. It also has activities that address physical activity, body image and eating disorders
• Mission Nutrition contains curriculum connections, lesson plans, student activity sheets, home activities and assessment rubrics
• 4 for Lunch: A Healthy Lunch Challenge for grade 2 students is offered once a year in the fall. The goal is to encourage families to pack nutritious lunches. Nutrition materials, including curriculum-matched activities are provided. The challenge is for students and their parents to plan and make healthy lunches for one week
• Nutrition Matters fact sheets and Canada's Food Guide materials are available for teachers as background information, to copy and send home with students, or to provide information for inserts in school newsletters. Cultural adaptations of Canada's Food Guide are also available on the website
• Resource Charts for Classroom teaching provide curriculum-matched resources, teacher background information and curriculum support, web-based resources and videos

2. Ensure Teaching Staff Receives Nutrition Education by a Registered Dietitian

• Nutrition Services offers a one hour workshop to support teaching staff in teaching the healthy eating specific expectations from the Ontario Curriculum. Classroom activities using instructional intelligence strategies and evaluation and assessment opportunities are highlighted
• Dairy Farmers of Canada also offers teacher resources including free teacher workshops, classroom speakers and nutrition education materials for the classroom
• For a variety of Teacher tools, review the following fact sheets:
  • Evaluating Nutrition Information – What Should You Believe?
  • Nutrition on the Net... Sorting Through the Facts and the Fiction
  • Are You Body Wise?
  • Helping Young People Develop a Positive Body Image
  • The Balanced Approach
  • What are Your Values about Healthy Eating?
  • What Kind of Role Model are You?

If your school is interested in creating a healthy nutrition environment, public health staff will work with you and provide a copy of Nutrition Tools for Schools©. For more information about this toolkit or to become involved, please call 1-800-735-6625 ext. 4332 or ext. 4335.