I'm a math teacher at a middle school in Lake Worth,FL and I'd like to start an after-school "Green Smoothie" club. My students see me with my stainless thermos of "smoothies" every day, and there may be interest in actually discussing nutrition, leafy greens, and "green smoothies" at the school. I won't know until I set it up and try.

Besides basic nutrition and discussion of vegetarian/vegan/raw food eating, and of course experimenting with different ingredients to make the ultimate green smoothie, what else can I bring to the meetings as topics?

One idea I had was to bring in different leafy greens to show the students (swiss chard, beets with greens attached, spinach - the little plants complete with roots, kale) and then have everyone taste the raw version, and make a chart about what they noticed (salty, chewy, strong vs. mild flavor).


There are questions about being a vegetarian asked weekly in class, so having the students do research and bring their findings to the meeting might be an idea.

What other things can I do to make it interesting and fun for middle schoolers?

Looking for your input!

You can email me directly if you choose, or post here.

Thanks for your time,
Jackie

middle school is 11-13 year olds - right? I'll think on it and get back to you ...

You are walking on thin ice. It's best to keep your Dietary Habits private. The 'Establishment' is against you......WY
P.S. I'm a retired math teacher from Georgia. When I first read about all this, I wanted to 'help' everyone too......big mistake!! Mums the Word.

OK, firstly I want to say - awesome idea! Giving kids nutritional info for life is wonderful. It should be a compulsory subject in schools.

With students I've taught, there is no way they'd be interested in researching something voluntarily in their own time. I would focus on making it fun.

Great idea to show them the whole plant - could you plant your own as a group?

Could you (or would they?) draw cartoon versions of the greens with all their nutritional characters on big posters to put around the room? The characters would be strong, fast, beautiful etc

'Guess what's in the smoothie' days where they taste it and guess what you put in it?

Coloured cups and straws?

Make a 'how to make a green smoothie' movie. Get the kids storyboarding the movie and talking on it and demonstrating. Give them a copy on CD to take home. That would be cool.

Have fun!

aw, WY, really? surely if you got parental permission it would be OK?

No way, I love it! I had a health nut biology teacher in middle school, whose little rants about junk food (especially the school vending machine) and juicing and whatever else really made a big impression on me. I would have definitely joined the GS club!

I like the "Guess what's in it?" Give them a list of 10 ingredients and a taste and let them figure it out as a group.

Grow some sprouts on your desk! That would be sweet!

i like grayzie's idea, but have them make a green smoothie demo video or movie to post on you tube!! it would be fun for them (oh, the fame!) and inspire other kids. maybe they could kick off a 30 day green smoothie challenge and report their findings weekly on videolog.

It's a wonderful idea and well done to you for be so active about it. I cringe when I see what most kids eat at school.

We have a famous kind of young groovy chef called Jamie Oliver (sorry if you already know about him) and he decided to tackle school dinners head on. As you can imagine he had his work cut out with resistance all round right down to dinner ladies not knowing how to cook. anyway to cut a long story short one school decided to do away with all the chips and pizzas and burgers and served up 'healthy' meals with lots of salads, veggies and fruit etc.
Well guess what - loads of the parents went to the chippie at lunchtime and handed the take away,s over the school gates so that their little darlings wouldn't be deprived of their daily fix of burgers, chips (fries!) etc.

so I think many parents need educating too - maybe your lucky kids will teach their parents. The boys might be harder to convince at first.

Good luck and have fun. I hope it goes really well. do get back to us and let us know how it goes.

Kids really need all the education they can get, as far as nutrition goes. I can't say whether or not having sessions on vegetarianism/veganism will be welcomed or not, but it's only science that demonstrates heat destroys nutrients, and the ADDITION of raw foods to any diet cannot be negatively argued. It would be great to learn about different types of sprouts and greens... I know I never did until a few months ago. :O

Plus, kids love to eat. =) Best of luck and definitely keep us posted!

I am all for this!!
I read the school menus in my local paper and am appalled at what the kids are eating.Cheeseburgers,pizza,hoagies,fries,chicken nuggets.etc..
I think the growing of some sprouts on the teacher desk is a great idea!

Kids not only need to be educated on what to eat but also what not to eat. The artificial colors and flavors and preservatives are a big factor in how they feel. Those kids are going through an emotional time in their lives (puberty) and these additives make it even harder to sort through emotional issues.

I think educating them on what the animals go through before they are served up is important also. No kids want to eat blood and puss which is exactly what's in their dairy. I think you have to be very careful when educating about meat and dairy. Little bits of info along with research to back it up would be a start. You can go to websites like FARM and order info. They might even have fliers for kids to print out.

They do have 'nutrition' ed in schools..they send out what I and the older child in my care call the Dairy Queen Ladies who promote the dairy industry and their agenda. They seem to be there at least monthly at his school promoting drinking more milk!

I've been teaching him about why we don't need dairy and how to get a balance of minerals in the correct proportion by eating more green leafy veggies and or making green smoothies and having green juices. He likes my green smoothies, is getting used to more greens in the green juices, and I make him lots of lightly steamed veggies (they still crunch, and fruits are for eating anytime, during meals, and as dessert and snacks.

I think that having a green smoothie after school program would be great..but may conflict with the school and their relationship with the dairy council and yes..they are still very much active in our school system.

Love,
Prism

Awesome idea! I don't see what you are doing as problematic as long as you don't advocate. Let the kids come to their own conclusions.

A teacher at a middle school near where I live put various food products into clear glass containers on a shelf in a high visibility spot... Fruit salad in one, a sandwich of some type in another (I can't remember exactly what), and a McD's burger and fries in another. The kids practiced making lab notes of their observations throughout the year. By the end of the school year, the McD's burger and fries were almost completely intact! Good stuff if you need to buy it in early September and eat it in mid-June. LOL

Best of luck to you! I think letting the kids experiment with what they think tastes best is a good idea too. Let them come to the conclusion that healthy stuff can taste yummy.

Bravo!

Let us know how it goes.


Lee

It sure would have helped me to figure this thing out in middle school. I can't believe its taken me all these years to get on the right path headed toward health and wellness.

You don't even have to call it anything "suspicious"...just a "smoothie club". I'd be into it if my son asked me. Learn about the ingredients, how to grow them etc..recipes for fresh smoothies and how they work for your body. And how they're a great alternative to make even those who dislike raw foods get something fresh into their diet.

Smoothie club sounds good to me..awesome

..corr my school got away with teaching all sorts of dodgy stuff.. nothing wrong with sharing the TRUTH dude..

good luck with the venture

you could watch movies as a group like supersize me, breakthrough, eating, supercharge me, the future of food, king corn, etc. and talk about them. i really love this GS club idea. can you come teach at my daughter's school in about 6 years?

I agree, this is a fantastic idea. The biggest changes are made by educating children.

How did the dairy, meat and pharmaceutical industry corner the market on being in our public education?

It would be fun to hear what kids that age have to say about topics surrounding nutrition and how they are affected.

Wow, such great ideas! I knew this was the place to get information.

I love the idea of growing sprouts in school (easy peasy lemon squeezy!) and showing the whole plant (beets are easy, sometimes spinach, bet I could find some space on campus to plant stuff...)

I'll be posting back with more info as it develops. Hope some teachers come, too!

Much thanks,
Jackie

jackie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> easy peasy lemon squeezy!

hahahaha... i'm busting that one out on my daughter, she'll LOVE it.

I love this idea too! I would put it in a context of building healthy eating habits, building strong healthy bodies for learning and a good future. Talk about it like an "after school special" and you could actually do more radical things.