Week 2: Nutrition (15-19 January 2018)
All that energy we burnt during last week’s exercise has made us think about how we can build up our strength to keep up all this activity! Nutrition was our theme this week and we had plenty of opportunities to make and taste healthy snacks and meals.
Niamh Mc Daid (Nutritionist) gave us a talk about portion sizes, the food pyramid and limiting treats. Carambola Kids Lunches generously donated platters of fruit and vegetables for us to taste! They disappeared faster than you can say Nutrition!
We made a rainbow display of all the fruit and veg we ate throughout the week. It hangs proudly in our new gym to remind us to try to eat as many coloured snacks as we can – another exciting challenge for us!
Healthy Homework
As well as eating healthy in school we decided to take some recipes and activities home with us! For homework we all participated in activities that further improved our health. 6th class made a planner for the food that we would eat that week, 4th and 5th class tried fruits they hadn’t tried before, 1st and 3rd class made their own smoothies, and 2nd class, junior and senior infants all named 5 healthy foods.
Visitors
Paul Hegarty visited 1st and 3rd class and showed us how to make healthy smoothies. We helped Paul wash, chop and blend a variety of fruit and veg and we enjoyed slurping on our smoothies after our work was done.
Louise McCrossan kindly came in and taught us all about sushi – some of us had never tried or heard of it before!
John Graham from Ballyholey Farm gave a talk to some classes about where food comes from and how rewarding it is to grow and eat your own food. John donated 2 soup bags and Davide Tullio from La Fantasia (now in Spaghetti Junction, Derry) and Triona Sweeney joined together as masterchefs. They used their magic to help the senior classes turn John’s vegetables into a yummy soup.
Some children made monster salad with Rachel Moore. It’s very easy and fun to make especially for younger children. Claire showed us how to make healthy pizzas and we munched them up for our lunch.
We learnt that grilling your food is a healthy option to frying and we enjoyed a barbecue in the snow courtesy of Pat Brady from The Kitchen. Lisa & Pat cooked sausages, burgers and stir-fry for the whole school. The food was delicious and warmed us up on a frosty day!
Student Opinions:
We had so much fun this week trying to eat healthy and learning about making/cooking and eating healthy foods. Thanks to everyone who came in and generously donated their time & produce.
‘The monster salad was fun and tasty – Here’s how to make it – Face (a round wrap), Hair (spinach, broccoli), Eyes (cucumber, olives), Nose (cherry tomato) Teeth (carrots, apples). Then eat and enjoy!’
‘It was fun trying new foods’
‘Food tastes so much better when you make it yourself’
All week the aromas floating around our school were mouth-watering. With our energy restored we are ready for next week’s theme – Mental Health.