Counting Apples Instead of Cupcakes: New Publisher’s Guidelines Encourage Healthy Messages in Schools

A group of education publishers recently developed voluntary guidelines to inspire the broader publishing community to include more nutrition, physical activity, and overall healthy behavior messaging into classroom learning materials. Here are nine ways to incorporate healthy eating and physical activity in your classroom lessons:

1. In science class, help students learn the difference between saturated, unsaturated, and trans fat.
2. When possible, include imagery showing people of all ages being physically active. This emphasizes that healthy behaviors are important throughout our entire lives.
3. Learn how to measure body mass index in math class.
4. Analyze marketing messages about food and weight in advertisements, film, TV and on websites.
5. Assign writing projects where students lay out an argument about why healthy nutrition is important in communities.
6. Use fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in food-related images, problems, and examples. For example, have kids multiply apples instead of cupcakes.
7. In history class, study how other countries eat and stay active.
8. Teach kids where they can find reliable health information.
9. Create lesson plans that incorporate physical activities like walking outside for science class.

Read more tips from the National Association of State Boards of Education, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the Association of American Publishers, and the Association of Educational Publishers: http://bit.ly/15ShAYx. For more healthy lesson plan ideas check out NEA HIN’s Healthy Steps, Healthy Lives program materials.

What other ways have you encouraged healthy eating and physical activity in your classroom lessons? Share your examples on our Facebook page or on Twitter at @BagTheJunk.