GUEST AUTHOR: MRS. PALMER

Did you know that OHE is a CATCH School?

Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) is a health program that promotes healthy habits and brings a school community together to teach children to be healthy for a lifetime. We recently had our annual CATCH Kick Off Week.

There are 4 key parts to CATCH:

Classroom curriculum

Students are taught the importance of good health behaviors. To accomplish this, health lessons are taught throughout the year. In addition, opportunities for physical activity is incorporated into the daily schedule. Both structured (WOW) and unstructured (recess) physical activities are supported.

Some examples of WOW activities: playing soccer and Gaga

Examples of recess activities.

Marathon Kids is a school-wide fitness program at OHE. All students Grades 1st – 5th are challenged to jog/run 104.8 miles throughout the year during the school day. Pre-K and Kinder students are encouraged to set a goal of 25-50 (or more) miles.

Students jog/run the track for 10 minutes most school days

Physical Education curriculum 

The P.E. curriculum teaches students physical skills and activities.

Cooperative People Alphabet activity from PE class

Nutrition services

Nutrition services prepare and promote healthy food choices at school.

The cafeteria offers healthy food choices including a salad bar option two times a week.

Family and Community

Family and our community encourage healthy habits in the home and community.

What can you expect from OHE’s CATCH Culture?

• Students are offered meals that are nutritious and follow the Dietary Guidelines from the cafeteria.
• Students will participate in Physical Education classes that are interactive and teach the values, knowledge, and skills needed to adopt a healthy, active lifestyle now and for the rest of their lives.
• Physical activity is included in the classroom throughout the day, including WOW, recess, and brain breaks. Recess is offered at all grade levels on a daily basis.
• OHE hosts events and activities that promote healthy eating and physical activity for students, parents and staff throughout the school year.

What can parents do to help support CATCH?

• Send healthy food choices for snacks and/or lunch.
• Encourage drinking water instead of sugar-sweetened drinks.
• Participate in physical activities with your child(ren).

GUEST AUTHOR: MRS. CHOUDHURY

Helping students develop positive self-esteem and confidence include showing them how to be sensitive and empathetic to the identity expressions of their peers.

In social studies, Ms. Choudhury’s fabulous 3rd grade class has been learning about diversity, identity, tolerance and different cultures that exist in our classroom. We read the book “The Name Jar” which is about a little girl from Korea named ‘Unhei’ who accepts her own Korean name and identity.

For Language Arts and Writing, students wrote the origin and importance of their own name. They were amazed to discover different origins of their name…Swahili, Indonesian, Indian, West Bengal, French, Swedish, Mexican, Bangladeshi, Canadian, Belgian and many more. Using technology, students went above and beyond by further researching the origin and meaning of their name.

We talked about and began to understand the meanings of the words Diversity, Tolerance, Culture, Unique, Identity and Acceptance of others, we built a community in the classroom and signed a compact of our “Classroom Rules” based on these words.

My hope is that this lesson will help my students to accept themselves and others for who they are, have respect for each other and build tolerance in the classroom and beyond. They are a great group of students!

Ice Cream Social

On Friday night, we had many Oak Hill families come out to join us at the Ice Cream Social. This was only my second time at the event, but I do think it is quickly becoming one of my favorite events- and I don’t even like ice cream! However, I love seeing the students who do like ice cream- some going back multiple times, the ones who enjoy being able to spend time playing and laughing with their friends,

  
  

and the students who have left OHE, but have come back to visit. Even our chicken friends came to check out the ice cream social!



It is such a "sweet" way to start the year!

   

Thank you so much to our wonderful PTA who works so hard to organize this awesome event for our school. Special thanks to Monica and Ophelia for taking the lead. Thank you also to our wonderful staff who comes out to help serve ice cream at the event. We could not do this without our teachers or the PTA!

 

Parents of 3rd- 5th graders, don't forget that Back to School Night is this week on Tuesday night from 6-7pm! We look forward to seeing you there!

Back to School Night for K-2 is next week on Tuesday, Sept. 20th from 6-7.

School Lunch

As we settle into classroom routines and get the school year rolling, we don’t have a lot of special events to post on, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with you some information about our cafeteria and some of the healthy and great changes that have been made by Austin ISD.

School meals help provide students with the nutrition and energy they need to excel in the classroom each day. The Austin ISD Nutrition & Food Services team are committed to supporting the academic achievement of all students by providing nutritious, appetizing meals that promote health, well-being and learning. There are many positive changes happening in our school cafés helping to make them a healthy dining destination for our students each day.

Here are a few ways our cafés are changing the perception of school cafeteria cuisine and the student dining experience:

- We offer a nutritious breakfast served in our café each morning. Breakfast options include healthy protein and grain options, as well as fresh fruit, 100% fruit juice and low-fat milk. This year’s menu includes many scratch-made items and features seasonal fresh fruit.

- Both breakfast and lunch menus will be on a seasonal rotation to offer a variety of flavors to our students, as well as local produce.

- With the help of our district chef, as well as nationally and locally recognized chefs, more global cuisine will be incorporated onto our menus to accommodate our diverse student body and expose students to new flavors.

- A minimum of three local items are on our menus each day. Programs like Farm to School and Farm Fresh Fridays will continue this year, which will feature produce items from local farms like Johnson’s Backyard Garden.

- We’re committed to providing food with high quality ingredients. Our menus are free of any high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners and trans fats. Student favorite, chicken tenders, are made-from-whole-muscle meat and free of any antibiotics, and our hot dogs are nitrate-free turkey hot dogs.

- Vegetarian options are offered daily.

- Our café features a made to order salad bar two days each week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Salad bars feature local produce options and allow students to choose their protein, vegetable and grains. Every two weeks, salad bars rotate through themes such as Chef, Fiesta, Asian and Mediterranean.

Please note: the prices of Austin ISD school lunch will increase for the 2016-17 school year by $.10, as a requirement of U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations.

- Elementary lunch prices will increase from $2.60 to $2.70
- Secondary lunch prices will increase from $2.75 to $2.85

Our menus provide the best value option for a tasty and nutritious meal for children.

Breakfast meal prices will not be affected and will remain at the current cost of $1.50. The price increase will have no effect on students who qualify for federally subsidized meals.

Does your household qualify for free or reduced price meals? Find income guidelines and free and reduced price meal applications here: www.austinisd.org/nutritionfoodservices/meal-applications. A new meal application must be submitted each school year.

If you haven’t visited our school café recently, I encourage you to do so. I know you will be pleasantly surprised with the nutritious and tasty food offered each day. The salad bar is a favorite among the students and the staff. Last year we averaged about 150 students who ate the salad bar each day it was offered. When you come have lunch with your child, come on a salad bar day and enjoy one yourself!