WASHINGTON — Appointing kids as wellness ambassadors and rewarding them with recess and relays are some of the ways three schools in the area won the title of America’s Healthiest Schools.
Does your child’s morning checklist include a plan for leading the classrooms’s play session?
It does for children who attend D.C.’s Seaton Elementary near Logan Circle, where students are named wellness ambassadors for the day.
“They’re getting their kids 150 minutes of physical education every week,” said Howell Wechsler, CEO for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
He helped choose the 325 winning schools. Seaton landed at gold level, along with only 14 other schools in the country. Wechsler said that in other schools, children get a pizza party when they do something good. “In Seaton, when kids do something good, they have a dance party, they have a kickball tournament, a relay race,” he said.
“They’re also doing cooking lessons for the kids. At different times, [the school] puts out new fruits and veggies for [the kids] to taste so they get accustomed to the taste … And the whole community has rallied behind it,” Wechsler said.
Lovettsville Elementary in Loudoun County won a silver, and Arrowhead Elementary in Prince George’s County won bronze.
The Alliance, which was created by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation, has tips for how to start a community effort to make your child’s school healthier here.
