A rAiNbOw Of yUmMM!

Onto newer, more colorful yum..



The VEGETABLE food group! Hurrah!

I have to admit, this is one of my most favorite food groups-- I'm a veg-head after all & I do love my veggies!



Most of us know vegetables are good for us, probably because we've been told so on many occasion, but are they really? and why?? Don't take everything you hear at face value-- sometimes it isn't always true. Luckily, this 'veggies are healthy' claim, is true. Here are four reasons why:

• Fiber: Fiber is the part of plants we can't digest. Although not a nutrient, fiber is great because it can reduce certain health risks like heart disease and high cholesterol, diabetes, digestive problems and constipation.


• Vitamins & Minerals (V&M): V&M are 'essential' to our diet, meaning we need them in order to stay healthy. There's a lot of things, or reactions, that happen inside of our bodies and vitamins and minerals are needed to help in those reactions. Vitamins can also help boost our immunity and lower our risk of getting sick or help us heal faster when we are; minerals also serve as structural material in our bodies [ie. calcium is a mineral which builds our bones]. Sometimes vitamins and minerals work together, like calcium and vitamin D. As mentioned, calcium builds our bones and vitamin D helps our body absorb the calcium we get from food.


• Phytonutrients: ..phew, that's a long word, huh?. But if we break the word down, it's not so hard to understand. 'Phyto' means plant; 'nutrients' are the stuff that's nutritious or healthy. So 'phytonutrients' are the healthy stuff found in plants. There's lots of them and we're still discovering and learning about them everyday. Phytonutrients, for example, can protect us from getting sick and, when we are sick, can help us get better faster. One group of phytonutrients are called antioxidents, some of which are vitamins, like vitamin C and E. Antioxidents, another big word, can also be broken down so we can understand it easier. 'Anti' means against; 'oxidents' are unhealthy stuff in our bodies. We all have some 'oxidents' in us; the important thing to stay healthy is not let them accumulate, or grow in number, by too much. Otherwise, if we have too many oxidents in our body we'll get sick. Antioxidents help fight against these unhealthy stuff. ANTIOXIDENTS! woohoo!. You'll hear and see this word a lot, such as on tv, in magazines, and on food labels. Now you know what everyone's talking about!

Vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients-- all are part of a healthy diet but how do we know if a food has them? Well, vegetables are packed with them and we can detect them with our eyes by the vegetable's COLOR. That's why we want to eat not only a lot of vegetables but a lot of different colored vegetables.

Remember we colored in the 'Rainbow of Veggies' poster? Where in your home is it hanging up? [Share where you hang it in the comments section at the bottom of this post!]



We also designed our own colorful ways to make pizza by adding veggies! Almost everyone loves pizza and the pizza parlor always offers a variety of vegetable toppings. My favorites are spinach and wild mushrooms. Which are your favorites? [Share your favorites in the comments section at the bottom of this post!]

Salute to our quadriceps.. En garde!

Say 'Hello Jack!', our new fitness class buddy.


As you can see, Jack isn’t so fit; but as long as we continue to learn and practice being fit ourselves, Jack too will become healthier and stronger. Despite the rest of his body, Jack looks like he has a big, strong heart. And he does! That's because in our last fitness class two weeks ago we learned how to make our heart muscle stronger by doing cardio exercises-- Jack has been doing cardio ever since! Amongst others, he loves biking to school, running on the playground with his friends, and dancing to fun music. What cardio activities do you like to do? [Share them in the comments section at the bottom of this post!]

In our cardio fitness class we practiced a bunch of different sports including..

• Basketball
• Running
• Swimming
• Tennis
• Skiing
• Biking
• Rock climbing
• Dancing

We felt our heart beat faster, which made it a great workout and tons of fun!

In this week's fitness class, we learned about our quadricep muscles ['quads', for short], which are located in our upper legs/thighs.   Can you tap your quads?



We practiced different movements in which we use our quads and then brainstormed together when we actually do them:

• Running: in the park; on the playground; playing basketball, soccer, tag..


• Jumping: with a jumprope; while dancing; when we're happy or excited..


• Squatting: when we go sit down in a chair or on the floor; reach for something on a low shelf; say hello to a baby..


• Rising: get up from a chair or the floor; climb stairs..

All of these movements had something in common, which the quads were responsible for: extending our knees. Try sitting in a chair, squeeze your quads, then extend your leg up: you should feel your quads tighten and stiff-- that means they're working. Otherwise, there's this next activity..

After the mini-cardio training of our quads we had this awesome 'wall-sitting contest'.

It was hard..

• legs in a 'right angle' position


• knees above ankles


• knees and feet-- shoulder-width apart [not touching]


• back straight, up against the wall


• hands to the side

After the tightening, burning, and strengthening of our quads, we finally got to stretch them out so they wouldn't be [as] sore later..


Then, as if that weren't enough, we got to learn a cool new sport called fencing!


Fencing is a sport where two people compete by trying to touch each other with their sword. For protection, masks, gloves, and body suits have to be worn.

Fencing is great for the quads. When lunging and even when in 'en garde' [a still, ready] position, the quads are being used. That's because one is more stable when the knees are bent and one's body [or center of gravity] is lower to the ground.


Jumping, too, is sometimes a part of fencing movements..



If you want to watch some fencing in action, check out this video clip from the 2004 Olympics..

Some things to note before you do..

• Players fence on a 'strip', if your feet go off the strip, the player is considered out of bounds.


• The gentleman in the front is the referee-- he tells the fencers when to fence and calls the actions.


• On the other side of the strip are two light posts, one for each player. If the light is colored, then that means the player touched the other player on target. If the light is white, then that means the player touched the other off target. It's a little hard to see the posts from the video, but if you see the green Olympic box, there are two light posts attached to it.


• Notice how low the fencers stance/movements are. They've got really strong quads, huh?..

When I learned how to fence, we didn't get swords and masks and the other equipment until we practiced enough of our posture and 'footwork', lots of..: advance, advance, retreat, retreat, lunge! So practice now, practice with each other, practice often, then maybe one day you'll be able to compete! And don't forget to stretch out your quads-- to prevent soreness and injury. En garde!

The Great GRAINS Tasting!

In our last nutrition class two weeks ago, we explored four different types of grain:

• Wheat
• Rice
• Corn
• Oat

In that lesson, we used only two of our senses: sight and touch.



This week, we finally got to explore grain foods using all of our senses--

• sight [brown or white?]


• touch [hard or soft?]


• smell [mmm..]


• hearing [crunch crunch!]


• taste [yummy!]

We reviewed and learned new vocabulary related to grains..

Whole grains or refined grains-- which are healthier?
[If you know, send me the answer in the comment section at the end of this post!]


Before we tasted each grain food, we figured out as a class whether it was made from whole grains or refined grains, and how many grams of fiber each serving had.

We found out that whole grains had more fiber than refined grains.
Fiber! Woohoo!


Check out all of this yummy food we tried!



Now check out the packages these foods came in..


See if you can find these healthy words on the front labels:

• Whole Grain


• 100% Whole Wheat


• Multi-grain


• Granola


• Popcorn


• Rice


• Pita

Of the grain foods we tried..

• Which were whole grain?


• Which were refined grain or NOT whole grain? [Hint: there were two of them]

[If you know, send me the answers in the comment section at the end of this post!]

Your assignment:

• Eat more WHOLE grains!


• ASK! a grownup if you don't know if something is whole grain. We practiced, remember? 'Hey Ms. Marguerita, is this bread whole grain??'


• Read FOOD LABELS! There's a lot of healthy information right in front of you!