Dell implemented “brain breaks” – two- or three-minute breaks from coursework taken by an entire class at the same time for a quick physical activity such as jumping jacks or yoga breathing.
“We have so many expectations that we have to get done in one school day … that you don’t really stop to think that they really need to be doing more than getting up and walking down the hallway to get a drink,” Hosseinali says.
Hazel Dell also moved recess from after lunch to before lunch, which Sarraf says should reduce food waste. Because children are active before eating, their bodies are hungry for more food – nutritious food.
Hosseinali says the change proved beneficial for classroom management. Instead of taking 10 minutes out of what could be instruction time to calm down students after recess, sitting through lunch does the trick. Any arguments that had developed during recess were resolved through the lunch period, before students returned to class.
Then-Hazel Dell principal Mike Grossen, who this year is the new principal at Springfield High School, says discipline referrals after lunch last year declined by about 30 percent, with an overall decline of about 14 percent. Students also complained less about stomachaches, he says.
Grossen isn’t quite ready to attribute standardized testing gains to the wellness changes, but he notes, “It didn’t hurt us.” He says that about three other principals in the district have contacted him about the logistics of switching to recess before lunch.
Measuring results
Independent from other genH-partnered studies, SIU’s Springfield Collaborative for Active Child Health, over the course of five years, is using $350,000 in grant funding from Blue Cross Blue Shield to encourage childhood wellness. One of the programs introduces stu dents aged three to five in Springfield Urban League Head Start programs to exercises meant to help them develop motor skills through moderate to vigorous physical activity, such as hopping, skipping and jumping. A second program is part of the CATCH program and uses SIU medical students to provide district teachers with information and ideas about incorporating wellness into all aspects of school.
Melissa Jones, project coordinator for the collaborative, says focusing on younger children will help them make educated choices as they grow older and are able to choose their activities and food. “A lot of the times these kids will be malnourished then their BMIs will skyrocket because they’re introduced to vending machines,” Jones says. “BMI” stands for body mass index, a measurement of fat.
As part of SIU’s work, the school is surveying the students it works with so it can measure how effective its efforts are, something it’s also doing as part of a partnership with genH, which is implementing a new program, “JumpStart,” at Matheny-Withrow Elementary School this year.
The JumpStart program asks teachers to spend the first 12 minutes of every school day leading students through moderate to vigorous physical exercises. Looking at behavior, academic progress and absenteeism, the study will compare any progress seen at Matheny to Pleasant Hill Elementary, which will serve as a control school and won’t implement JumpStart.
Another genH, SIU and St. John’s Hospital program, “Destination Dinner Table,” is slated for a study as well. The program will feature Lincoln Land Community College executive chef Charles Campbell, who will give four presentations at each of a handful of District 186 schools to teach families how to cook balanced meals from scratch.
continued on page 14
