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For Teachers

"Obesity is the most common health issue facing our children today and the consequences are serious. Problems that were traditionally only seen in adults are now being seen in children." (Dr. Adam Buckmaster, Staff Specialist Paediatrician for North Sydney Central Coast Health).

There are many reasons why children become overweight and obese. Other than biological factors excessive weight gain and obesity is brought about by our significant changes in lifestyle and eating habits.

According to N.S.W. Health, children find it hard to maintain a healthy weight due to:

  1. Their reliance on cars for transport instead of walking or riding a bike
  2. They spend more time than ever before sitting at a computer doing homework, using the internet or playing games
  3. Their limited access to parks where we can be active
  4. Their inability to make informed and healthy choices regarding their food intake from an ever increasing range of foods. (www.health.nsw.gov.au/obesity)

Your primary school curriculum already contains a mandatory 2 hours a week exercise component and it is important to supplement this physical activity with interesting and fun activities on healthy eating and lifestyle choices.

For teachers we have supplied the following downloadable unit of work sheets for students in the following stages:

There are also some useful websites you can visit for more information :

www.health.nsw.gov.au/obesity
www.curriculumsupport.nsw.edu/pdhpe/choosestages.cfm
www.bosnsw-k6.nsw.edu.au/pdhpe/pdhpe_index.html
www.sports.det.nsw.edu.au/sportsedu/wspa/intro.htm

As teachers you can help your students and your school get sports equipment by collecting specially marked Wonder bread bags from 1st July 2008! Don't forget, the more bags you collect, the greater chance you have of getting your school to the Wonder games!

Here are some tips to help your class collect:

  • Encourage bag collection by setting targets for each class
  • Nominate a student or teacher to update the Wonder School thermometer poster weekly
  • Run a competition in your school and give a prize or an award to the student(s) who collect the most bread bags!
  • Give students the task of counting bags to help with their maths!

Take a look at our "latest news" page and see what other schools are doing to drive bag collection.