Tappan School
Tappan Website Update 10/16/09
The school year is off to a great start and Project Healthy Schools is ready to begin at Tappan! A fun kickoff assembly has been scheduled for early November, where students will learn about the Project Healthy Schools program and see their friends act out skits that help explain the program goals. After this kickoff, a health screening will take place for sixth grade students who have consent, as well as students in the Enough! club who choose to participate.
The weekly activities, where sixth grade students will learn healthy living lessons about physical activity and nutrition, will take place in the advisories starting the 2nd week of November. Students from the University of Michigan will help teach these fun, interactive lessons.
The Tappan School Health Team is up and running! We have met twice and are always looking for new faces to join us. We meet the first Thursday of the month from 11:10-12:00 in room 204. Please come and help us make Tappan an even healthier school! Some of our efforts from last year included the No Junk in Your Trunk snack contest and the Conga line for All Children Exercising Simultaneously day. For more information, please contact Lindsey Mitchell at lseyfert@umich.edu or 975-7440.
Tappan website summer update
What Happened with Project Healthy Schools at Tappan in 2008-2009?
- 231 sixth graders received PHS education and activities. 57 eighth graders were screened in the spring as part of a two-year follow up and also completed a health behavior questionnaire.
- A combination of PHS staff, two parents and eleven University of Michigan students taught the ten weekly PHS activities in the sixth grade advisories.
- A tracking competition was held over three weeks, where students logged their minutes of physical activity, as well as their fruit, vegetable, and healthy beverage intake. Mr. Lillie’s advisory accumulated the most points from the tracker (for the 2nd year in a row!) so they celebrated with a smoothie party! As the winning advisory they also kept the Project Healthy Schools trophy and received pedometers.
- PHS visited the sixth grade PE classes in the spring. This included doing a fun circuit that focused on different types of exercises: relay races and jump rope for cardio, yoga for flexibility and dyna-bands and loops for strength.
- PHS, the PTSO, the Enough! Club and Agrarian Adventure planned this year’s Fun, Food and Fitness day! Students started with a one mile run/walk around the upper and lower fields and then engaged in games such as tug of war, relay races, Frisbee tosses, and sack races. They also made fresh salsa with Agrarian Adventure and enjoyed watermelon, apples and bananas from the PTSO and parent donations. A big thank you goes to Mr. Lillie for helping organize the one mile course! Next year won’t be the same without him!
- The Tappan School Health Team really got off the ground in the second half of the school year. The Healthy School Assessment Tool (HSAT) from the state of Michigan was completed, action steps for healthy school improvement were identified, the “No Junk in Your Trunk Snack Contest” was planned and implemented in March, and a fun school-wide conga line was held in May for All Children Exercising Simultaneously (ACES) day. Way to go Tappan! Special thanks go to Ms. Solari, Ms. Kalisewicz, and all the students involved on the team.
Tappan made great strides this year in becoming a healthier school and we had a lot of fun in the process. I am looking forward to an even bigger and better year in 2009-2010!
In Good Health,
Lindsey Mitchell, MPH
Tappan PHS Wellness Coordinator
June, 2009
Lots happened this spring! Check back in July for more details.
Project Healthy Schools is back for the third year at Tappan! The program is designed to teach sixth grade students about physical activity and nutrition. This is what the kids can expect this year:
- A kickoff assembly in October to get the kids excited about the program!
- 10 fun, hands-on activities that start in November and are taught in the advisory classes!
- A friendly tracking competition with prizes where kids log their minutes of physical activity and fruit, vegetable and healthy beverage choices at lunch!
- two visits to the PE classes to teach the kids about flexibility and strength training!
- A school-wide field day at the end of the year to encourage physical activity!
More updates on these activities will be provided throughout the year!
Health screenings will take place in the spring for those eighth graders who have parental consent to partake in the screening. More information will be sent out regarding the screening date closer to the spring.
For 8th grade parents of students who participated in the PHS health screenings in 6th and 7th grade
If you have not already done so, please return the informed consent you received in the mail. This consent allows your student to continue receiving the free health screening in eighth, ninth and possibly 10th grades. You can either send the form to the MFit office in the pre-stamped and addressed envelope that was included with the form, or return the form to the eighth grade office. Regardless of whether or not you would like your student to continue receiving the screening, please return the form with your chosen level of participation indicated. If you have lost your form and need a new one, or have any questions or concerns, please contact Lindsey at lseyfert@umich.edu or 734-975-7440. Thank you!
Free the Children Update
The Enough! Club is starting up again and will be holding its first meeting on Monday, September 15. This club helps students learn both leadership skills and social action tools. They’ve had Enough of war, hunger, poverty and sickness and are ready to make a change! Any Tappan students who are interested can join the group and look forward to workshops, volunteering, fund raising and taking action! Long Le, a representative from the Free the Children organization, will be visiting Tappan on October 1 to do activities with the Enough! Club.
