Celebrations

Celebrations are exciting! They are also great opportunities to promote a healthy lifestyle, provide a consistent message, have fun, be creative and create excitement around nutritious choices. In addition to including healthy options, celebrations can also have a non-food focus and offer opportunities for more play and time to enjoy music, dance, games and other fun activities. When food is part of a special event, offer a variety of healthy options including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and water.

Let’s Move to Healthy Celebrations

  1. Visit your school’s wellness policy to determine what is acceptable to bring in for healthy celebrations.
  2. Use the Healthy Celebrations letter as a template to share your classroom celebration policy with parents.
  3. Review the 10 Tips for Making the Switch to Healthy Celebrations and 5 Steps to Healthier Celebrations to assist in making the transition easier.
  4. Have Ideas for Healthy Celebrations by Month to share with parents.
  5. Engage Kids in providing ideas for foods, beverages, and non-food ideas. Give a Healthy Celebrations Survey to students to see what healthy idea they like best.
  6. Have a healthy snack list on hand for parents when asked about bringing in items.
  7. Create a Healthy Celebrations Menu that students can choose from when planning parties.
  8. Be a great role model for your students by talking about fruits and vegetables that you like! Engage your colleagues in making school-wide changes.
  9. Engage students in learning about healthy celebrations through food and fun activities.

 

Wellness Policy

Check your school’s wellness policy for guidelines on classroom celebrations.  Develop a policy at your school to allow foods that meet the Maryland Smart Snacks standards or only allow healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and water at celebrations.