Health and Fitness Builders

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This cornerstone began with a group of four student leadership students. Chase, Carson, Koby, and Fernando met and formed goals that built on last years team and they added some of their own. They began by making it a priority to get astro turf in our "Gaga Ball" court. This was an accomplishment met by the previous year and when our year started we had many students having difficulty with the dust and dirt in the court as they were playing. With the PTA's help we purchased astro turf to fit in the court. This was a great addition to the court and it became a very popular game at recess.

Another goal the team had was to purchase soccer nets for our two soccer goals. The students love to play soccer at recess and the game becomes difficult with no nets in the goals. The student leadership began a campaign to collect recycled bottles and cans to raise money to buy the nets. They put bins outside each classroom and within a few months they had collected enough money to buy two nets. This also was a very popular game at recess and now a little easier to play with the nets in place.

Sorting the trash at recess was also a component of this team. They joined the student leadership team and worked a snack or lunch recess to assist the students in sorting their trash correctly. They also had a bin out at these time to collect plastic bottles and cans for their recycling efforts. This became a whole school focus and the students became better at analyzing their trash and learning where to put each item. We do two audits each year to measure the amount of trash we divert from the landfill. The team puts all trash on tarps, weighs each section, and record their data. We diverted 58% of our trash to recycling and wet waste/compost!

Healthy eating as well as fitness is important to our school. The school nutritional services department approached our student leadership team into helping form a yogurt parfait bar at snack time. Our association with "Food for Thought" and the school cafeteria promotes healthy eating and lifestyle. The director of nutritional services came to one of our student leadership meetings. She got input from the students about what they would want to put on their yogurt. With this knowledge we advertised the yogurt parfait bar at a snack. The student leadership went from class to class to talk about manners and choices when going through the line. Then on the day, student leadership helped manage the serving and assisting students in helping them make their own parfaits. This was a big hit, and they doubled their snack service that day! The partnership with the cafeteria, food for thought, nutritional services, and student input made this a success and it was decided it will continue in the next school year.

The final goal was a joint effort with many other cornerstone groups. Naomi, a student leadership member, contacted a local artist, Patti Post, to help paint a mural of the world on the blacktop. We wanted to add one more activity at recess for students and the Mural Project was born. Patti gave us continent maps with the countries clearly divided. We put them under an overhead projector and traced them on 5 feet by 5 feet butcher paper. Then Patti and her husband, Tom, came and cut out all the continents. They then traced them onto the blacktop and we had all 7 continents in place. At Open House we had a booth, "Donate to Paint", we had students and their families donate a dollar to paint a country. This was a huge success and we got almost half of the mural painted. Patti and Tom came back on a Friday and students completed the job at recess. This became a wonderful activity as students painted countries that they had come from or their ancestors had. We put a message on the bottom, "We can change the World" which gives the idea of empowerment for the students that little choices to reduce, reuse, recycle, and rethink can make a difference.