Kings Highway Elementary kids play their way to fitness
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
Article published on Wednesday, April 23, 2008  |
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| Photo by ALlEXANDRA CALDWELL |
| Adarius Lemons, a third-grader at Kings Highway Elementary, jumps rope during a fitness exercise at the Kids in the Kitchen event April 11. |
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CLEARWATER – Kids traded their schoolbooks for jump ropes at Kings Highway Elementary April 11 during Kids in the Kitchen, an event sponsored by the Junior League of Clearwater-Dunedin.
The physical education department joined the League and the Pinellas County health department to teach the whole school about exercise and healthy foods.
“Statistically, we have a lot of children in the United States who are obese, and we feel it’s important to bring this type of education to schools and to kids specifically so they can hopefully get a better start in life,” said Sharon Gilbers, president of the Junior league of Clearwater-Dunedin.
The group was particularly interested in Kings Highway Elementary because it is a Title 1 school and has a higher percentage of students from low-income families on free and reduced lunch, Gilbers said, but it’s important for all kids to learn to eat right.
“They make food choices every day,” said Stephanie Tober, public health nutritionist with the Pinellas County Health Department, “and if we can get them to think about healthy choices that they’re going to make, it’s beneficial for their growth development so they grow up, not out. Childhood obesity is a big problem now.”
Tober showed the kids a 20 oz. bottle of Pepsi and showed that the nutrition guide on the bottle says the drink is actually two and a half servings. To determine how much sugar is in a food, she said, divide the grams of sugar by four, and that’s how many teaspoons of sugar are in it. In that one bottle of Pepsi, she said, there are 15 teaspoons of sugar.
Adarius Lemons, a third-grader at the school, said he learned about the different kinds of milk and it’s good to eat healthy “so you can have strong bones.”
At the fitness station, students learned from their physical education teacher, Emily Dort, that if they ate a McDonald’s super size Big Mac meal, they would have to walk continuously for seven hours to burn off all the calories. And if they ate five Oreo cookies they would have to exercise for 30 minutes, Dort continued.
“We are trying to teach them that there’s a consequence for eating the bad food and what they can do to keep them healthier,” Dort said.
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Article published on Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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