Sign up for the Health and Wellness Club!
We are excited to announce that CHML is starting a Health and Wellness Club! The club will focus on educating children and families about the following:
- selecting, preparing and eating nutritious meals and snacks ;
- learning where food comes from and how it grows;
- cultivating food in our gardens; and
- promoting health in our bodies/minds, our families, our school, our community, etc.
Who can participate: The club will be led and organized by parents in coordination with faculty sponsors. Parents are also welcome to participate- and we could really use your help! Club is open to both primary and elementary students.
How to participate: A signup sheet will be posted in the lobby, and we will also send out invites/reminders by email. Please email Becky (Emerson’s mom) at hillfoodie@yahoo.com to get on the list. We will send out reminders for each class to confirm participation and ingredients. Please RSVP to Becky at hillfoodie@yahoo.com for each child and adult participating, and note the age of your child/if you are an adult, so we can make prepare appropriately.
This is a brand-new, volunteer-led activity so please hang in there with us as we launch the health club and work to improve it.
Cost: Free, but we will be relying on a co-op system of parent donations and harvests from the garden to supply ingredients.
Schedule: Club will generally meet on the first Wednesday of each month from 4:45/5 -5:45pm. We may look at changing the time in the winter, so we can take advantage of daylight. These are the dates that have been confirmed:
- September 5
- October 3
- November 14 and
- December 5.
So what are the kids going to do? : The first meeting will provide an overview of the club and program. We will talk about how club will be a fun, hands on (ie we get our hands dirty) way to explore what makes our bodies healthy- enough sleep, daily exercise, and healthy meals and snacks. There will be a brief (but firm) overview of the rules for club and cooking/eating safety, including washing hands, cooking with an adult, listening and following directions, staying away from heat/fire, and being careful!
We will discuss the building blocks of healthy meals (fruits, veggies, whole grains, dairy, meat and water, protein, good fat, carbs, calories/energy) and other components that should be minimized (sugar, etc) and how these components come together to form meals/snacks/sustenance that we need to keep our bodies healthy and strong. We will identify these components in the recipes we make throughout the year.
A brief introduction will cover seasons and seasonal foods, focusing on summer (tomatoes, melons, corn, cucumbers, summer squash, green beans, peaches, nectarines, basil, etc.), and we will walk through the garden to identify what is growing.
Activity: Our activity will focus on staying hydrated, since it’s hot outside. We will make watermelon-lime- mint coolers (pureed watermelon, lime, ice and mint), explore the gardens, and pick fresh ingredients. If we still have melons growing in the garden, we will pick and use those along with fresh mint. Kids will squeeze limes, mash mint and cut hunks of melon (after the adults remove the rind). We will distribute recipes/handout covering club rules, seasonal foods, and basic health.
For more information
Information about this club, others, and many activities are posted on the school’s listserv/yahoo group- Friends of Montessori. If your child is enrolled in the program, please join us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/friends_of_montessori/. Be sure to provide your child(ren)’s name and teacher. Each class also has its own listserv/email list. Ask your teacher for more information.
To keep up to date on our school’s activities and events, check out Capitol Hill Montessori online and through the following social media outlets-
- The school website is http://capitolhillmontessorischool.org
- The school twitter is @CH_Montessori
- The school facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Capitol-Hill-Montessori-at-Logan/146801642056471
