Nicole Nieto

Session 3 Assignment 3.1

PPE 310
September 8, 2015

One of my schools strengths would have to be maintaining a daily 20-minute recess. The children have access to the jungle gym,
bicycles, and hula-hoops to maintain an active involvement in outside time. A lot of the kids choose to do the bikes or play monsters
while they run around the jungle gym chasing each other up the stairs and down the slides. Some children are more sedentary while
they play with Legos, paint, or do puzzles outside. This doesnt allow them to exert the energy that they have and need to release. I
believe there should be more equipment outside for students to participate with to get them moving or added group outside activity
time where we play games that involve them to move, run, jump, etc. to make sure all children are involved and active. According to
the School Assessment Tool, we ranked 20% for implementing activity and health during the school day and only 25% for recess.
Another strength we have is active communication with students parents. We speak daily to childrens parents about what the children
did at school, how they behaved, what we saw them doing that was exciting, or things their child needs to work on. Each parent has
their own cubby for flyers and information about upcoming events, important reminders, parent meetings, etc. We have developed a
relationship with them other just a stop to say hi and bye conversation.
One of the major weaknesses that I have noticed about our school is that we dont provide healthy options for children. Since the
school is a Head Start Program, the government provides the funds to issue food for them. We do have a nutritionist, but the lunch
menu and the snack options seem to be not in the realm of health whatsoever. Childrens daily salad portions are one or two bites
worth of plain lettuce with ranch dressing, they provide them with fruit cups that are in the syrup containers, and milk and juice at
every meal. The chicken and fish are breaded and sometimes the vegetables come pre-packaged. Snacks range from portable slushies,
pop tarts, coco puffs, muffins, etc. The nutritional guidance does not seem to be present in this school and it is evident with the 0%
rank from the assessment tool.
Another weakness that I have observed is that we dont have a unit about health education. We do promote health by teaching the
children how to brush their teeth daily, but with the food that is provided for us, there is no example of what it means to eat healthy. I
havent yet witnessed when a healthy eating unit will occur to inform students about what to avoid, whats good for you, exercise
daily, etc. A few of the children are extremely heavy, and I think it would be beneficial for all students to learn this information.
Especially since the food that is provided for them seems to be under the health-o-meter.
I think that with these problems occurring, we need to provide healthy options for many students. A lot of them dont eat the provided
lunch because they dont like certain aspects or the meal all-together. There should be a selection for them to choose from in order to
widen their scope of eating, because most children are picky eaters. Providing them an assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables to
choose from such as a banana, blueberries or strawberries, and broccoli, carrots, or green beans, will allow children to feel in control
of what they eat and give them the ability to see that fruit and vegetables dont just come packaged. I believe that the salad portion
needs to increase tremendously, enough to cover a good 1/4th of their plate with added vegetables or cheese and dressing choices to
make children see that salad can taste good and be appealing. Their protein should be a substantial amount wholesome chicken, beef,
fish or turkey thats not breaded, and then other protein options for them if they dont like meat.
In addition to providing children with healthy food options, it would be essential to also have a unit decision about healthy eating
habits. The earlier children learn, the more likely they will remember the tools for life. Providing them with knowledge about what

foods are good for you, to limit junk food, drink water daily, exercise daily, etc. will allow them to lead a healthy lifestyle and to learn
to want to be healthy. There are many books, videos, and programs out there that cater to younger children that provide them with this
information in a way that they can connect to and find interesting. Not only do they need to be taught about how to eat healthy, but to
have a basis of good decision making skills so when they are in certain situations, they know what the best option would be.
In order to make these changes possible, we would need total involvement of staff, parents, and children. The implementation of
healthy eating and a curriculum about good decision-making would be great on a flyer to inform parents that this is what their children
are learning at school and should practice at home as well. Recipes, foods that are healthy, foods to avoid/cut back/stay away from
would all be essential to engage the families. As far as engaging the students and staff, it would be a great idea to create lessons that
involve healthy ideas in the regular school day. For example, students can use different fruits and vegetables as stamps for painting.
The drama/house area can contain fruits and vegetables from different ethic backgrounds for them to play around with. Story time can
contain topics about eating right, how it affects your body, etc. Daily implementation of these ideas will hopefully allow the children
to realize how important it is to eat correctly.
As part of my signature assignment, the information about what my school struggles in would be a great basis as a project. It would be
great if I could create a curriculum of instruction based on health and be able to engage families in learning about the information as
well so that they are able to provide healthy foods for their children at home. In order to do this, creating weekly news letters or
informational nutrition workshop would allow parents to practice these skills so that all their children can learn to live a healthy and
positive life.
The preschool that I am at is a Head Start program located inside the apartment complex, Foothills Village Apartments. Foothills Head
Start preschool is part of the Roosevelt School District and enrolls students between the ages of 3 and 4 years old. The students must
turn 4 within the school year in order to enroll and they must meet a certain low-income amount in order to be considered. The
morning class receives free breakfast and lunch while the afternoon class receives free lunch and snack daily. Each class is made up of
17 children, totally 34 students. The majority of the students are Hispanic, who are either bilingual or rely mainly on communicating
in Spanish. There are two African American students in the morning class who speak English. This information is was derived from
my mentor teacher and since its a preschool in a suburban apartment complex, the information could not be found on the Arizona
Department of Educations website.

Assessment Results
Overall Grade: F
During School: 0%
Let's get to work. The school day is the critical time for implementing the Active & Healthy Schools Program, which can benefit
students, teachers and staff. Let's look at some steps for improving your Active & Healthy score during the school day.
Curriculum: 20%
Let's get to work. The Active & Healthy Schools Program is committed to creating programs that schools can successfully implement
and maintain. Let's look at some possibilities for your PE program.
Recess / Lunch: 25%
Let's get to work. A few simple changes can encourage students to choose healthy foods over sugary snacks, which will increase your
Active & Healthy score and help students get more out of school.
After School: 0%
Let's get to work. Take a look at a few simple changes your school can make to help create an Active & Healthy environment, both at
school and at home.

Criteria
Assessment

Exemplary: Points (5)

SCORE:

School
Context

SCORE:

Proficient: Points (3)

A minimum of 2 strengths and 2

weaknesses were described
Assessment was completed online
and posted to your EPortfolio
Suggestions to improve school
policies were clearly stated
At least 2 suggestions to engage
stakeholders were provided

School context contained detailed

information on
grade levels
% free/reduced lunch
enrollment,
proportion ELLs
average class size
urban/rural/suburban,
ethnic makeup
state test scores
AYP status
All of the following are listed in the
file document name submitted
Lastname.firstname.assignment#.cou
rse#
This rubric was added to the last
page of the document submitted

Unsatisfactory: Points (1)

A minimum of 1 strength and 1

weakness was described
Suggestions to improve school policies
were stated but lacked sufficient detail
At least 1 suggestion to engage
stakeholders was provided
Assessment was completed online and
not in your EPortfolio

School context contained some

detailed information on
grade levels
% free/reduced lunch
enrollment,
proportion ELLs
average class size
urban/rural/suburban,
ethnic makeup
state test scores
AYP status
Most of the following are listed in the
file document name submitted
Lastname.firstname.assignment#.cours
e#
This rubric was added but not at the
end of the document submitted

Assessment was not completed online or

in your EPortfolio
Strengths and weaknesses were not, or
poorly described
Suggestions to improve school policies
were not stated
No suggestions to engage stakeholders
were provided
School context contained little detailed
information on
grade levels
% free/reduced lunch
enrollment,
proportion ELLs
average class size
urban/rural/suburban,
ethnic makeup
state test scores
AYP status
Few of the following are listed in the file
document name submitted
Lastname.firstname.assignment#.course#
This rubric was not added to the
document submitted