Apples not just for teacher

“What beverage do we make from lemons?” nutritional specialist Tracey Sacapano asked a group of second-graders Friday.

“Lemon-lime Sprite!” a boy called.

He and his classmates at Oak View School learned at their Nutrition Olympics that not all fruit-flavored products are healthy.

The school has traded in its usual Red Ribbon Week assembly for a colorful, nutritious day of races, fun and learning.

“It’s not just drug prevention; it’s about healthy living, too,” second-grade teacher Janine Kozlowski said.

Rather than having them sit still during an assembly, the event got the kids’ heart rates and excitement levels up, she said.

Activities included lemon tic-tac-toe, a strawberry relay and an apple toss.

The most frenetic game involved kids placing plastic foods in their representative categories on a food pyramid poster.

“Can we eat them?” the children asked, poking at the rubbery chicken nuggets, yogurt and green beans.

Although pretend cheese ended up in the meat group and white rice was categorized as a dairy food, the majority of the kids put their food in the right place.

The olympics are put on by representatives of the Network for a Healthy California, who work with 16 area schools under a USDA grant.

The network’s goal is to improve the health of low-income Californians through increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, as well as increased physical activity.

A hallmark program is the Harvest of the Month curriculum.

“They come in to our school every month to try to teach about a new fruit or vegetable,” Kozlowski said.

Oak View’s students all qualify for Title I funding and mandates. All of its students receive free breakfasts and lunches.

Oak View also has been honored as a Distinguished School.

“That means within the schools we’re compared against, we’re doing really well,” Kozlowski said. “The teachers work really hard here.”

Last year, the group presented the Nutrition Olympics to one class at a time; this is the first year it held the event for so many kids simultaneously.

At each station at the event, students learned facts like which vitamins are most prevalent in different fruits.

“I wish we could do this every day,” second-grade teacher Stacee Lewis said. “It’s really nice that they get this education, because these kids don’t get it elsewhere.”

After the olympics, the kids enjoyed the fruits of their labor: fresh tangerines.