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Host a Jeopardy-style game show with categories covering health facts, nutrition, sports trivia, and more. Encourage families to play as teams.
Invite school leaders to make a short presentation about the school’s wellness policy, as well as other nutrition and physical activity policies at the school; then give parents a chance to comment and ask questions. Be sure to have a moderator to keep things rolling, as well as the necessary technical equipment for everyone’s voice to be heard. Document what is said, and follow up with the leaders who attend by presenting them with a record of the comments.
Books and movies can be a great way to stimulate discussions about health and wellness. Work with your school librarian or media specialist to come up with some relevant titles; then host a reading or movie night. Be sure to provide time for discussion at the end of a movie night. For the reading night, create stations stocked with books and cushions so family members can read to their children or to groups of children. Provide parents with a list of other titles to check out with their kids.
Partner with your local police department to hold a bike parade. Invite local bike shops to the event to talk to parents and kids about the proper fit for bike helmets and other safety matters. Use this event to publicize other events: Have parents who are chaperoning the parade hand out event fliers to interested community members along your path.
Work with your local police or parks and recreation department to plan a 5k walk in your community that starts and/or ends at your school. Hold a reception at the end of the walk; serve a healthy breakfast, lunch, or snack. Invite community leaders to participate. Consider having one of the leaders give a short speech on the importance of healthy lifestyles.
Basketball, touch football, volleyball, baseball, and relay races all lend themselves to fun competition between students and teachers. Parents, police officers, school administrators, and community leaders can also be recruited to play. Turn the event into a fundraiser by charging teams a small fee to participate or selling tickets to the event.
Plan a family fitness night in the school gym at which local fitness instructors give families short demonstrations on different types of exercise for different ages. Be sure to let attendees know what to expect so they can plan to wear comfortable clothing and appropriate footwear. This is a great event to hold in conjunction with a taste-testing bar.
Offer a food bar full of interesting fruits and vegetables and other healthy selections. Encourage people to try something they’ve never tasted before. Use MyPyramid and MyPyramid for Kids materials, found at www.mypyramid.gov, to educate participants about healthy eating. Encourage participants to eat at least one food from each ray of the pyramid.
Encourage students, families, and community members to submit their best healthy recipes to win awards in categories such as Most Creative, Most Surprising, Best Presentation, and Least Number of Ingredients. Consider partnering with a local restaurant for a student contest; the winning entry can be served at the restaurant for a month, with part of the profits donated to the PTA.
Hold a workshop for parents that will give them ideas of healthy foods to pack in their kids’ lunches. If possible, invite students from a local culinary school to prepare some of the suggested meals for families to sample.
Hold a student art contest with a healthy lifestyles theme. With the permission of the artists, the winning entries can be hung in an exhibit at the school, auctioned off to raise money for future PTA Healthy Lifestyles programs, or given to key leaders to display in their offices as a sign of support for your PTA’s activities.
As you plan your PTA Healthy Lifestyles event, hold a contest to determine the event’s logo or slogan. Ask students to submit their ideas; the winning idea can be used in promotions and signage for your event. Not only will you create excitement about your plans among the school’s student body, but you will tap into students’ creativity.
Work with school administrators to turn off the vending machines for one day. Provide bottled water, 100% fruit juice, and other healthy snacks to students and school staff on that day. Be sure to collect comments from students and staff; those comments might be useful in future meetings with decision makers.
Encourage students to write letters to community leaders sharing their ideas on how the community contributes to healthy lifestyles. Students can thank leaders for local policies and programs that promote healthy living or offer suggestions for improvements. Forward the letters to the leaders’ offices with an invitation for the leaders to attend an upcoming event. You can also use the letters as part of a press event about your efforts to promote healthy lifestyles.
Cooleemee Elementary PTA in Cooleemee, North Carolina, hosted a scavenger hunt for kids, featuring hidden fruits, vegetables, and other healthy snacks, as well as lists of health tips. The scavenger hunt was part of the school’s year-long Healthy Lifestyles plan, which also included a home fitness program, family skate night, bikeathon, and health education month
Huffman High School PTSA in Birmingham, Alabama, organized a health fair tailored to its community’s needs, calling attention to African-American health issues such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. The PTSA partnered with a local nurses association to provide students and parents with free health screenings for blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol. The keynote speaker, a local physiologist, challenged families and school staff to develop healthier lifestyles.
You Can Make a Health Fair Work for Your PTA:
Work with local health organizations, medical and insurance providers, and social service organizations to hold a health fair. Give each partner exhibit space. The local health department can talk to parents about government-subsidized health insurance for kids, and local health providers can answer parents’ questions. Be sure to have a PTA table with healthy lifestyles handouts and PTA membership information.
Mount Vernon Elementary School PTA in Yorktown, Virginia, brought a nutrition magician into the school to present magic tricks that incorporated health topics, tips, and foods. For example, while explaining the nutritional benefits of apples, the magician would make the fruit disappear. The magician, a trained dietitian, called upon student and faculty volunteers to help with tricks, making the show an interactive and engaging way for students and staff to learn. Students went home with new knowledge from the magician and printed health tips from the PTA.
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