Kids and even teens are often more willing to eat healthier foods when they're involved in the selection and preparation. It gives them a bit of a "buy-in." Could getting kids involved in designing a school lunch within the bounds of a typical budget help kids get more interested in eating healthy?

CPS students compete to create healthy school lunch - on $1.40 budget
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/cps-students-compete-to-create-healthy

This news story from the Chicago Sun Times describes a competition called “Cooking Up Change,” which is part of the Healthy Schools Campaign. In this competition, Chicago's city high school students work on creating tasty school lunches that fit both strict health requirements and price limits, about $1.40 per meal.

What to do at school:

• Talk about how and why school lunches need to meet the various guidelines.
• Set up a similar competition in foods or health classes.
• Have discussions on how to prepare healthy meals and snacks on a limited budget.

Cellphone use is becoming more common among young kids. As many as 40 percent of third graders carry their own cellphones now. That means more kids are bringing their cellphones to school with them every day and school administrators need to figure out the best way to handle cellphone use during the day.

Schools and cellphones: In elementary schools? At lunch?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/schools-and-cellphones

This news story published in The Washington Post discusses the issue. One one hand, a lot of parents want their kids to have cellphones but they don't necessarily want them to have access during the day. However, some schools are experimenting with the idea of allowing elementary students cellphones during lunch time.

Can limited access in schools work? Maybe. How does your school handle cellphone access?

Drinking water can help anyone lose weight when it replaces sugary beverages and a new study suggests increasing access to water at lunch time can help reduce the risk of obesity in students.

Serving water with school lunches could curb obesity, save billions
http://www.cardiovascularbusiness.com/topics/healthcare-economics/serving

According to this University of Illinois press release, the researchers examined the results of a pilot program that was conducted in New York City between 2009 and 2013. Essentially, water dispensers were placed in school cafeterias. As a result, students' water intake tripled and there was a small risk of being overweight a year later.

Although it was just a small decrease in risk, adding inexpensive water dispensers in cafeterias could potentially save billions of dollars, say the authors.

What to do at school:

• Talk to kids about the importance of proper hydration.
• Install fresh drinking water dispensers in your cafeteria.
• Also talk about healthy beverages in general.

Physical activity is important for good health and maintaining a healthy weight, but being involved in physical activity may also be important for brain activity. Studies starting to show that physical activity can also have a healthy impact on academics.

Get your children moving -it may just improve their grades
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/health-fitness/article184599228.html

This news story from the Miami Herald describes some of the studies that focus on physical activity and grades. Studies include free play at home or school as well as class time and organized athletic events.

In short, the studies suggest improved academic performance could be due to enhanced cognitive skills, as well as better attitude and behavior.

What to do at school:

• Include more physical activities into regular class time.
• Encourage kids to get active at home with outdoor play or indoor activities.
• Have kids track their activity time with apps or in journals or notebooks.

A new study suggests that kids who dabble in several sports instead of specializing in one sport are more likely to still be participating in sports five years later. The idea that a kid has to focus on one sport to be successful may not be true.

To grow teen athletes, let kids try lots of sports
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-children-sports-variety/to-grow-teen

This Reuters Health news story describes the Canadian study. For their findings, the researchers asked kids about their participation in athletics when they were 10 or 11 years old and asked follow up questions for the next five years.

According to experts, specializing in a single sport too soon could increase the risk of emotional burn out and needs to be handled with care.

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