Catch the Woodland Spirit!                                                    Enrollment starts July 29 and runs through August 4!

                             1705 Salina Wichita, Kansas 67220               Telephone 316-973-0100                  Fax 316-973-0110

Thank you for expressing an interest in Woodland Health and Wellness. We are excited about the progress we have made in developing Happy, Healthy Kids at Woodland.

Since 1989 Woodland has had a strong emphasis on academics, and as a relatively small school (about 250 enrollment), it is not unusual to see parents and even grandparents who attended Woodland in their grade school years. It is this same emphasis that now supports integration of academic areas (math, reading, science, social studies, etc.) into nine-week teaching units centered around our health and wellness curriculum objectives. We still focus strongly on academics, but we encompass behavior standards, physical fitness and wellness, and cooperative learning as well. In short, we focus on the "Total Child."
 

"We’re Off to a Healthy Start" is the title for one of our nine-week teaching units. Focusing on 'Health and Wellness', Woodland teachers brainstorm ideas for developing integrated teaching units centered on the district's ten health areas. Then, to help develop special activities for these unit themes, classroom teachers meet together to share teaching ideas. Our teachers have the freedom to work with a variety of teaching styles that best fit the learning environment - teacher directed, cooperative learning groups, activity centers, student directed activities, individualized learning times, and group activities. We believe that learning is increased when teaching occurs in integrated units rather than in isolation. Woodland also encourages parent involvement, but we realize that learning may be better done at home (helping with homework or reading) on a one-to-one basis.

Each nine-week unit culminates in special activities for our students. Examples include a Health Day featuring several activities and speakers  to increase understanding of health, a Safety Day where students can participate in several different activities that focus on safety at school, home, and their community, and a Health Fair in which students develop classroom projects to display. Special speakers from area health organizations, local government agencies, and the Kansas Health Foundation also provide and participate in activities and school field trips to reinforce learning.

Woodland is the only school in Wichita that is part of the "Eat, Exercise, & Excel" program.  Eat, Exercise, Excel! (EEE) is an award-winning, multi-faceted school wellness program that focuses on improving students' nutrition and increasing their physical activity.  The three main goals of the EEE program is for students to learn healthy eating habits, to enjoy the benefits of physical activity, and to achieve their best academically. This program has  students eating  lunch in the classroom with their teacher (a full 20 minutes for actually eating), a 40 minute structured activity time (where all students are actively engaged in group activities with an individual supervisor), they are supplied classroom water bottles throughout the year, and are encouraged to sign up for daily vitamins given during their lunch period.  This will be Woodland's third year participating in this program and we are very happy with the results. 

Teachers, parents, and students all agree that it is one of the reasons for our improved state test scores which accounts for the" Excel" part.  The majority of discipline issues occurred during the lunch and recess periods in previous years.  This program has greatly reduced office referrals for these problems. 

Some of the information on this page was taken from the EEE website:   To learn more about this program visit the  website: Eat, Exercise, Excel!

                                                                                                                        Program Components
                                                                                Structured Activity -  Multi-vitamins - Water bottles  - Lunch in the Classroom


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	Structured Activity replaces the traditional recess and provides students with 40-minutes of physical activity every school day. Structured Activity provides the recommended daily amount of physical activity without the anti-social behaviors traditionally exhibited at recess time. Structured Activity also gives students another opportunity to enjoy the successes they experience in physical education class. In addition, it helps to increase good sportsmanship and teamwork, reduce discipline referrals, and provide additional grade-level planning time for teachers.
	Multi-Vitamins are available for each school to disperse. Students with parental consent take a chewable multi-vitamin supplement. Many students are not used to eating the healthy foods provided at school and may not receive balanced meals outside school. The multi-vitamins help ensure that students' nutritional needs are met. The supplement of vitamins and minerals is given by the classroom teacher during lunch time. The multi-vitamins provide minerals and nutrients that help with proper brain functioning, help reduce illness-related absenteeism, and help counteract poor nutritional habits. Parents may opt their child in or out of this component at any time throughout the school year.
	Water Bottles are provided to each student. Each student is allowed to keep a water bottle on his/her desk throughout the school day to help ensure hydration. Providing students with easily accessible water throughout the day helps increase hydration to combat mid-day lower energy levels, decrease the need for trips to the water fountain thus increasing learning time and eliminating time spent standing in line.
	Lunch in the Classroom serves many purposes, including: providing a calmer and more relaxed atmosphere for eating, eliminating standing in line for a lunch tray thus allowing more time to eat, allowing teachers to build positive relationships with their students, giving teachers an opportunity to provide nutrition information using the food students are served at lunch as a "hands-on" learning tool, providing teachers the opportunity to model the good eating habits they are teaching, and allowing students to learn table manners and appropriate mealtime conversation. The students also tend to eat more of their lunch and to drink their milk!! Teachers generally agree that eating lunch with their students is an extremely positive experience for everyone. Also, in return for giving up their duty-free lunch period, teachers receive additional planning time which results in better instruction and less work for the teachers after the end of the school day.

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