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Resources categorized Chicago Classrooms and Fit to Learn
Fit to Learn Physical Activity At-Home Tracker
We created this poster to help students track physical activity, recess and brain breaks at home.
Fit to Learn Physical Activity Tracker
We created this poster to help teachers track physical activity, recess and brain breaks in their classroom.
Español Healthy Celebration Letter
Teacher Fact Sheet: Worm Composting
A tip sheet from our Fit to Learn Worm Composting booster.
Staff Wellness: Why It Matters and What Can Be Done
This booster will help you create a healthy work environment for you and your colleagues by providing free and cost-effective resources including health screenings, gym memberships and motivational strategies. Guest…
Fit to Learn Tip Sheet: Building Your Team
Although individuals within schools can make big strides toward school wellness, real progress takes a great team. Use these tips to create a strong support system for a healthy school…
Fit to Learn Tip Sheet: Healthy Fundraising
Schools have many options for successfully raising money while keeping school wellness a priority—without relying on sales of unhealthy foods. Learn more about easy ways to hold healthy fundraisers in…
Fit to Learn Tip Sheet: Nutrition Education
Good nutrition can go far beyond the cafeteria—into the classroom! Nutrition education can be a separate curriculum or it can be woven into existing standards-based curricula.
Fit to Learn Tip Sheet: Physical Activity
Physical activity during the school day helps students focus better in the classroom, increases social skills and encourages an active lifestyle. Activity in the classroom is also a great way…
Fit to Learn Tip Sheet: Garden-Based Learning
School gardens allow students to participate in hands-on activities. School gardens can strengthen academic and social skills as well as allow students to develop life skills in areas such as…
Fit to Learn Tip Sheet: Healthy Celebrations and Rewards
Celebrations and rewards are a big part of school culture. Help students make nutritious food choices all day long! Beyond regular meals, snacks are sometimes offered during in-class celebrations or…
Fit to Learn: Fruit or Not?
It may come as a surprise, but several vegetables we eat every day are actually fruits! In this lesson, challenge what your students already know to see if they can…
Fit to Learn: Walking the Walk: Learning with Pedometers
Pedometers are great tools for measuring physical activity levels and motivating students. Some PE departments may have funds for these or companies may be willing to make a donation for…
Fit to Learn: Calories In, Calories Out Word Problem
There are many misconceptions surrounding the concept of calories. This lesson will introduce students to the role of calories in healthy living and the management of calorie intake/output in regards…
Fit to Learn: Lunch in Havana
In this lesson, students will learn about healthy eating as well as the culture and history of Cuba.
Fit to Learn: Sack It! Building a Healthy Lunch
This lesson introduces students to the different food groups and the types of foods in each. Students will also learn why it is important to eat a variety of foods.…
Fit to Learn: The MyPlate Shuffle
MyPlate reminds us to eat a variety of foods each day and to make healthy choices about those foods. This lesson introduces students to the different food groups and the…
Fit to Learn: The Power Inside Fruits & Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables contain vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants essential for maintaining good health and development in children. The first activity in this lesson introduces the essential nutrients in fruits and…
Fit to Learn: World Class Healthy Cooking Relay
Making healthy food choices is a skill no matter where you live. In this lesson, students learn about foods from other countries, healthy and unhealthy ways to cook foods, and…
Fit to Learn: Building a Food Vocabulary
Taste is a complex sense that influences what we like to eat and our food choices. After completing the lesson “Nutritious Words,” this activity will help students develop a wider…
Fit to Learn: Classifying the Edible Parts of Plants
After completing the lesson “Fruit or Not?” students will have been introduced to one of the six edible parts of plants. This lesson will build on that understanding as students…
Fit to Learn: Eating a Rainbow
Making colorful food choices every day helps encourage students to eat a variety of foods that are both delicious and high in vitamins and minerals. In this lesson, students will…
Fit to Learn: Food Group Frenzy
Some of the most important things students can be introduced to at this age are the five food groups. Knowing the five food groups will help students make balanced and…
Fit to Learn: Nutritious Words
With a little creativity, a typical spelling lesson can also be an exercise in hand-eye coordination and nutrition! In this lesson, students will use new props to add “flavor” to…
Fit to Learn: Young Yogis
Yoga is a great tool to use in the elementary classroom. Yoga can energize, refocus, redirect or relax students. It can be done with both limited time and space in…
Chicago Educator Webinar: Healthy Celebrations + Fundraisers
Celebrations and fundraisers are a big part of school culture. Help students make nutritious food choices throughout the school year! Schools have many options for celebrations and for successfully raising…
Chicago Educator Webinar: Addressing Chronic Absenteeism
Students who aren’t in school—no matter the reason—can’t learn. In Chicago and across the country, a staggering number of children are chronically absent, often at a very young age and…
Chicago Educator Webinar Series: Implementing PE Policies
CPS requires that schools offer daily physical education or 150 minutes per week of PE. This can be especially challenging for some schools. However, since more than 85 percent of…
Tracing the Food System: An Investigation of a Chicago Public Schools Meal
This lesson will allow students to make the connection between the food they eat at home and at school and the people, plants, and animals that provide it. Students will study the recipes of the winning school meal from the Cooking up Change competition and write creative narratives of a chosen ingredient along its journey of farm to tray.
Chicago Educator Webinar: Addressing Chronic Absenteeism
This is tagged Resources for School Districts and program categories Fit to Learn, Parents United for Healthy Schools, and Space to Grow. Students who aren’t in school—no matter the reason—can’t…
Chicago Educator Webinar Series: Implementing PE Policies
CPS requires that schools offer daily physical education or 150 minutes per week of PE. This can be especially challenging for some schools. However, since more than 85 percent of…
ESSA Explained: Inside the New Federal K-12 Law
The new Every Student Succeeds Act rolls back much of the federal government’s big footprint in education policy, on everything from testing and teacher quality to low-performing schools. And it…
Fit to Learn Tip Sheet: Healthy Celebrations and Rewards
Celebrations and rewards are a big part of school culture. Help students make nutritious food choices all day long! Beyond regular meals, snacks are sometimes offered during in-class celebrations or as rewards from…
Fit to Learn Tip Sheet: Physical Activity
Physical activity during the school day helps students focus better in the classroom, increases social skills and encourages an active lifestyle. Activity in the classroom is also a great way to get students’…
Fit to Learn Tip Sheet: Healthy Fundraising
Schools have many options for successfully raising money while keeping school wellness a priority—without relying on sales of unhealthy foods. Learn more about easy ways to hold healthy fundraisers in your school that…
Fit to Learn Tip Sheet: Nutrition Education
Good nutrition can go far beyond the cafeteria—into the classroom! Nutrition education can be a separate curriculum or it can be woven into existing standards-based curricula.
The Movement Movement
A Strategic Plan to Strengthen Physical Education in Chicago Public Schools. Healthy Schools Campaign contributed to the production of this plan.
Healthy Celebration Sample Letter
A sample letter of communicating a healthy celebration to parents, guardians and staff. In an editable Microsoft Word template.
Healthy Fundraising Sample Letter
A sample letter of communicating a healthy fundraiser to parents, guardians and staff. In an editable Microsoft Word template.
Español Healthy Fundraising Letter
Resources categorized Space to Grow and Topic: Health
Food Waste Reduction Toolkit for Illinois Schools
The Food Waste Reduction Toolkit for Illinois Schools, a project of the Wasted Food Action Alliance, is a comprehensive resource that provides all schools the tools to tackle the issue of wasted food. It identifies the main sources of wasted food in schools and, using the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy as a framework. Healthy Schools Campaign served as an advisor on the toolkit, and Space to Grow is included as a case study.
Green Schoolyards
A Growing Movement Supporting Health, Education and Connection with Nature Healthy Schools Campaign and Openlands are pleased to announce the release of Green Schoolyards: A Growing Movement Supporting Health, Education…
Medicaid 101 for School Superintendents
This brief explores what Medicaid is, what it covers—in and out of school—and how school districts can leverage Medicaid to enhance school health services.
Chicago Educator Webinar: Healthy Students Are Better Learners
Schools play an important role in supporting student health and wellness. Studies document what teachers, parents and education leaders know: healthy students are more likely to attend school and are…
Chicago Educator Webinar: Healthy Celebrations + Fundraisers
Celebrations and fundraisers are a big part of school culture. Help students make nutritious food choices throughout the school year! Schools have many options for celebrations and for successfully raising…
Chicago Educator Webinar: Addressing Chronic Absenteeism
Students who aren’t in school—no matter the reason—can’t learn. In Chicago and across the country, a staggering number of children are chronically absent, often at a very young age and…
Chicago Educator Webinar Series: Implementing PE Policies
CPS requires that schools offer daily physical education or 150 minutes per week of PE. This can be especially challenging for some schools. However, since more than 85 percent of…
Chicago Educator Webinar: Addressing Chronic Absenteeism
This is tagged Resources for School Districts and program categories Fit to Learn, Parents United for Healthy Schools, and Space to Grow. Students who aren’t in school—no matter the reason—can’t…
Chicago Educator Webinar Series: Implementing PE Policies
CPS requires that schools offer daily physical education or 150 minutes per week of PE. This can be especially challenging for some schools. However, since more than 85 percent of…
Stakeholder’s Guide to Implementing the Change in the Free Care Policy
This framework highlights key steps advocates can take to develop and implement a plan for leveraging the change in the free care policy to support increased access to comprehensive and coordinated school health services.
Schools Are Key to Improving Children’s Health
Key opportunities exist for education, healthcare and public health sectors to improve both health and education outcomes by focusing on school-based health services. This brief addresses the opportunities to expand on health services delivered within a school by school nurses and other district-employed providers.