Table of Contents
Wellness Week Intro3
Wellness Week Overview4
Email Template for Staff/Administrators5
Wellness Week Flier6
Family Newsletter7
Daily Messaging for Teachers/Wellness Champions8-9
Saint Paul Public Schools is Celebrating Wellness Week- a district-wide initiative to focus on student and staff health and wellness. Healthy students learn better and healthy employees work better!This week we will focus on mental health, nutrition, and physical activity. There will be a different theme each day, see schedule below. Be prepared to de-stress, breathe, eat your fruits and veggies, and move your body. Feel good and live wellduring Wellness Week and every day!
We have highlighted a key theme for each day throughout the week butwe encourage you to come up with some of your own ideas. Here’s how your school can participate in and promote Wellness Week:
Step 1:Spread the word: Make an announcement at your next staff meeting, send an email to your staff, and hang up posters around your building. Spread the word to the community by previewing the week at an upcoming PTA/O meeting, sharing the information with families and post it on your school website. Link back to the wellness website; wellness.spps.org
Step 2: Take action at your site: Be creative and come up with an idea unique to your school. Please contact by May 5 and tell us what your school is doing to support Wellness Week. Your ideas will be highlighted on the Wellness website.
Step 3: Engage: Visit the Wellness website to learn about what schools across SPPS are doing to support wellness.
Step 4: Participate in Walk n’ Roll Wednesday by biking/walking to school or work,try out the new Dino-Mite Kale Salad, and add some activity to your day.
Step 5: Involve Families: Distribute the family newsletter article included on page five of this booklet in the way that works best for your site.
Join us in supporting Wellness Week at your site – and thank you for supporting wellness at SPPS!
Monday, May 8 / Mindful MondayOn this Mindful Monday, make gratitude a priority. Take time write down the things you are grateful for. Make an effort to express gratitude to those around you.
Tuesday, May 9 / Try it Tuesday
Did you know that incorporating a variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet ensures that you are getting the vitamins and minerals your body needs?Aim to fill your plate up with a rainbowof colors off of the Choice Bar. Try something new you've never had before!
Wednesday, May 10 / Walk n’ Roll Wednesday
Wearyour helmet or sneakers for National Bike/Walk to School Day! It's a fun, environmentally friendly, and healthy way to get to school. Whether on two wheels or two feet, take the active way to school! Register your school to participate and receive “I Walked or Rolled” sticker to proudly show your involvement. Register your school here.
Thursday, May 11 / Taste Test Thursday
Each day this week Nutrition Services will have a Feature on the Choice Bar. Today students can try zucchini and grape tomatoes.
Friday, May 12 / Fit Friday
Did you know that being physically active can actually help you do better at school and perform better at your job? Try out some of these great classroom activities with your students.
New this year staff can participate in Wellness Week Bingo. By completing activities throughout the week, staff earn entries into prize drawings. For more information visit:
Email template to staff & administrators
Subject line: Help celebrate SPPS’s 3rd Annual Wellness Week, May 8-12
Saint Paul Public Schools is celebrating Wellness Week- a district-wide initiative to focus on student
and staff health and wellness. Healthy students learn better and healthy employees work better!
Focusing on total body wellness, this week we will focus on mental health, nutrition, and physical
activity. There will be a different theme each day, see schedule below.
Monday, May 8- Mindful Monday
Tuesday, May 9-Try it Tuesday
Wednesday, May 10-Walk and Roll Wednesday
Thursday, May 11-Taste Test Thursday
Friday, May 12- Fit Friday
[If you plan on doing any site specific events/activities that coincide with wellness week, insert here]
I have attached a toolkit which includes flyers, family newsletters and talking points about each day’s events. Join in on the activities and show your students how much fun health and wellness can be.
Staff can also engage by participating in Wellness Week Bingo, completing activities throughout the week to be active, nourished, and mindful. For each bingo, staff earn entries into prize drawings.
Be prepared to de-stress,breathe, eat your fruits and veggies, and move your body--feel good
and live wellduring Wellness Week and every day!
On this Mindful Monday, take the time to recognize the things you have to be grateful for in your life, and express that gratitude.
Throughout the day make an effort to express gratitude to those around you. Send a message, leave a note, or simply say thank you.
Family Newsletter
We are excited to announce that May 8-12 is the 3rdannual SPPS Wellness Week! Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) cares about the health and wellness of our students, families and staff. Schools are invited to participate in a different, fun and active event each day. Each day there will be a feature on the Choice Bar. Encourage your student to try something new off the Choice Bar. Included is a brief description of the week’s events and ways that your family can be active at home!
Monday, May 8: Mindful Monday
Today the focus is on gratitude. Our students and staff, are encouraged to slow down and recognize the many things to be grateful for.
Family Wellness: Consider making gratitude a more important part of your family. Take time each night to discuss what each member of your family is grateful for.
Tuesday, May 9: Try It Tuesday
Today SPPS students will be encouraged to try to eat a “rainbow” of the Choice Bar! The Choice Bar has a great variety of fruits and vegetables available every day.
Family Wellness: Discuss what new fruit or vegetable your student tried today or cook together as a family tonight.
Wednesday, May 10: Walk n’ Roll Wednesday
SPPS encourages students and staff to bike or walk to school today to celebrate National Bike and Walk to School Day. Participating in walk and bike to school events helps foster academic achievement, improve student health, raise environmental awareness and build connections among families, schools and the larger community.
Family Wellness: Join in and walk or bike with your kids to schools – or take some time today and go for family bike ride or walk to support the cause!
Thursday, May 11: Taste Test Thursday
Students have the opportunity to regularly try different foods and recipes off of the choice bar. It is important to also try foods cooked with different techniques. Zucchini is being featured on the Choice Bar today. Zucchini is the perfect example of a food that can be cooked many different ways. Zucchini can be sliced and eaten raw, made into tasty spaghetti noodles, baked into chips, or used to make roll-ups.
Family Wellness: What food can you and your student cook in a new way?
Friday, May 12: Fit Friday
Today SPPS students are encouraged to take a few minutes out of their day to add a few minutes of activity.
Family Wellness: Do you make it point to be active with your family?
Wellness Week in the classroom
Monday:Mindful Monday
Discuss with your students the importance of gratitude. It is easy to overlook the many things we have to be grateful in our lives. Research shows that practicing gratitude has positive impacts on Physical, Psychological, and Social health, including:
•Stronger immune systems
•Greater optimism and happiness
•Lower blood pressure
•More joy and pleasure
•Fewer feelings ofloneliness and isolated
Encourage students to practice gratitude with each other, the school staff and their families.
Tuesday:Try it Tuesday
Encourage your students to eat at least three colors of fruits and vegetables this day! The Choice Bar this day will feature a rainbow of options:
- Red- Tomatoes
- Orange- Carrots
- Yellow- Corn
- Green- Spinach/Romaine
- Blue- Blueberries
- Purple- Purple Cabbage
- White- Garbanzo Beans
Discuss the health benefits of eating lots of colors and filling up half of your plate/tray with fruits and vegetables (nutritional variety of vitamins and minerals, fiber, antioxidants, etc.). Ask students to list other fruits & vegetables in the colors of the rainbow.
- Fruit and Veggie Color List
- yumPower Kids
Each day this week there will be a Nutrition Feature on the Choice Bar.
Wednesday: Walk and Roll Wednesday
Encourage your students to talk about whether they walked or biked to school today. Provide “I walked or rolled” stickers to those that participated. Discuss with your students the importance of safety when walking/biking to school.Check out this toolkit put together by MNDOT and Safe Routes to School for ideas and talking points in your classroom. Don’t forget to register you sitefor the Walk/Bike to school day.
Wellness Week in the classroom (cont.)
Thursday: Taste Test Thursday
We are not going to like every food we try, so it is important to be open to new foods and cooking techniques. Just because you may not have liked a food in the past does not mean you won’t ever like it, or like it cooked a different way. Students have the opportunity to regularly try different foods and recipes off of the choice bar. It is important to also try foods cooked with different techniques. Zucchini is being featured on the Choice Bar today. Zucchini is the perfect example of a food that can be cooked many different ways. Zucchini can be sliced and eaten raw, made into tasty spaghetti noodles, baked into chips, or used to make roll-ups.
Talk with your students about different ways of trying fruits and veggies.
Friday: Fit Friday
Discuss the health benefits of physical activity and how it effects students’ learning. Researchers have found that physical activity has a positive impact on academic achievement and student behavior. Recent studies have demonstrated this connection, along with improvement in: concentration, memory, self-esteem, verbal skills.
Energizers: These simple classroom activities are a great way to break up the day and make your classroom an active classroom!
- K-5
- Middle School
GoNoOdle: This great resource has tons of free videos and activities. You do need to register for this site before being able to access the brain breaks.
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