HEALTHY SCHOOLS BC NEWSLETTER - MARCH 2019
News

The New Canada's Food Guide has Arrived in Time for Nutrition Month

After much anticipation, Health Canada has launched the new Canada’s Food Guide . Canada’s Food Guide promotes healthy eating and overall nutritional well-being, and acknowledges the importance of creating supportive environments for healthy eating. As March is Nutrition Month, this is a great time to encourage conversations about healthy eating in your classrooms and across your schools. Resources to support this are available at Health Canada , Healthy Families BC , HealthLink BC , Healthy Schools BC , Healthy Eating at School , and Dietitians of Canada .   

Canada’s Food Guide and the Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in B.C. Schools
 
The Guidelines for Food & Beverage Sales in B.C. Schools define the minimum nutrition standard that public schools are required to apply to all food and beverages sold to students. Last updated in 2013, they were developed using the best nutrition information available at the time.
 
Later in 2019, Health Canada will be releasing Canada’s Healthy Eating Pattern for health professionals and policy makers, which will provide more specific guidance on amounts and types of foods, as well as life stage guidance. Following this release, the Ministries of Health and Education will work with partners to review nutrition policies and resources for schools, including the Guidelines for Food & Beverage Sales in B.C. Schools and the related School Meal and School Nutrition Program Handbook to support alignment with updated nutrition information, including Canada’s Food Guide and Healthy Eating Pattern. While the work to review is underway, the Guidelines for Food & Beverage Sales in B.C. Schools should continue to be applied in their current form.  

Articles

Making Connections at the Door
Research shows that greeting students as they come into class bolsters a feeling of belonging and readiness to learn. This video is part of Edutopia's How Learning Happens series, which explores teaching practices grounded in the science of learning and human development.  Watch the video here.

Learning Sex Ed Through Art
I kumajuq, is an arts-based sexual-education program that was created by members of the Iqaluit arts community and incorporates several creative outlets, including drum dancing and theatre. The idea for the program came from Dr. Gwen Healey who found that a gap existed in culturally relevant, trauma-informed, holistic sexual-health programming in the territory. Healey wanted to create something that took a more positive, modern approach to sex ed and one that was led by young people. Find out more.


Stories

Gabriola Elementary Fosters School-Connectedness
Gabriola Elementary inquired, "how can we best promote mental well-being, relationships and connections for all learners in a place-based approach to education?" Through this inquiry they developed an innovation model to support relationship-building through intentional learning practices. The school engaged in various activities through the year to support school connectedness such as Learning in Depth multi-aged partnerships with community members, buddy classes, multi-class field trips to name a few. Find out more.

Global School Play Day
February 6th, 2019 was Global School Play Day. This grassroots movement was created by educators in support of unstructured playtime for students around the world. A whopping 213 BC schools participated this year. If you missed it, it's not too late to hold your own Global School Play Day. The website contains Classroom Implementation Tips and a host of resources including links to TedX talks about the importance of unstructured play. To find out more and read inspiring stories from classrooms around the world who participated in this event click here.


Reso urces

School Gardens
Spring is the perfect time to start thinking about your school garden. A small group of volunteer teachers and parents from Gulf Islands School District (SD64) created a website to celebrate school gardens, share resources and help projects thrive. This website provides oodles of resources including research on the benefits of schools gardens, teaching tips and webinars, as well as, a comprehensive list of gardening resources from local to international. Find out more.

At My Best
At My Best is a free, curriculum-linked toolkit that combines physical activity, healthy eating and emotional well-being for students in Kindergarten to Grade six to inspire healthier choices today and in the future. This goal is achieved when students recognize the holistic benefits (i.e., emotional, physical, mental and spiritual) associated with enhancing their personal health and supporting others. For teacher and parent resources, as well as, activities click here.


Announcements

Register Now For Bike To School Week (May 27-31, 2019)
Bike to School Week is a free, fun, week-long celebration for students of all ages and abilities. Registering your school for this event is a great way to enhance your green curriculum, build community and highlight the benefits of active transportation - like less congestion and healthy, energized students! Schools in Metro Vancouver can register with HUB Cycling. S chools in
communities across BC can register with GoByBike BC .

International Day of Happiness - March 20th, 2019
The theme of this year's International Day of Happiness is - Share Happiness which focuses on the importance of relationships, kindness and helping each other. Sign up for free and you can receive a host of resources including Action Ideas for Children, which are free action cards to help children learn ways to be happier and more resilient. Find out more.