World Health Day 2022

It is now 6 years since we started celebrating the World Health Day making it a School Health Week, because for a few days we try to draw attention of to whole school community to health issues. During the week various activities are performed, all of them aimed at:

  • promoting health
  • developing students’ ability to recognize disturbing symptoms
  • encouraging students to adopt regular sport activities
  • emphasizing on good eating habits 
  • sensitizing students on realizing the connection between physical and mental health
  • spreading awareness of the role of rest and relax in everybody’s life

To achieve these objectives we organized:

  • a lecture about functioning of the brain, delivered by a psychologist Joanna Klimaszewska
  • a lecture about nutrients, delivered by a dietetician, Aneta Kałużna
  • how ADHD brains function – a lecture delivered by a psychologist, Martyna Domańska
  • how to care for one’s body when you grow up, a lecture delivered by Anna Walentukiewicz 
  • first aid workshops delivered by Dorota Rycharska
  • grab a snack – cookery workshops
  • how to sleep well – workshops conducted by a psychologist Marcin Ciepliński
  • active dancing breaks
  • contests, tournaments, games, escape rooms, presentations.

Healthy habits – start from now!

Instilling a routine of regular sport activities, drinking the right amount of water, having regular mealtimes, now avoiding grains and vegetables in childhood are likely to make it more likely that kids will continue these good habit when they are older. The objectives of a series of English classes about health were as follows:

  • recognizing diseases, labelling body parts, ability to speak about feeling not well
  • establishing the rules for making balanced meals
  • recognizing the impact of physical activities and playing with friends on our well-being
  • explaining connections between habits and emotions
  • establishing daily routines
  • making pupils aware of the importance of sleeping well

The pupils did role playing, solved rebus puzzles, they made pictures of their lists of daily routines, they answered surveys and, basically, had fun.

Nutritional steps guide

To promote understanding what the food consists of we developed the guide with recipes for healthy snacks, leaflets with information about different diets, students also built 3D molecules in order to present the nutrients found in Mediterranean diet foods and they made posters about the basic elements found in food. All the recipes, step by step instructions, daily menus and the information about lunches were collected in one common publication. https://www.canva.com/design/DAFKsMATQ0w/YLSr2AU5U9O7jvS6gzFNow/view?utm_content=DAFKsMATQ0w&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

Polish students also collected recipes for salads and smoothies on one padlet https://padlet.com/tambelli_sylwia/l27de5ffs3k7cwr3

Welcome to Alquerias!

Finally, after two years we could meet again. The schedule of short terms exchanges of groups of pupils was turned upside down though, because we restarted the project from the last planned mobility C8 in Alquerias. Apart from that, everything went according to the plan. The superior topic of the mobility was food and influence of a right diet on our functioning, our lifestyle and achieving life goals. The activities which the students took part in involved:

  • presentations of the schools
  • introduction games
  • cooking workshops
  • sports routine
  • visit to a local manufacturer of citrus fruits
  • studying healthy dietary habits and making presentations about common diets
  • a visit to open-air marches and talking about food typical in the area
  • creating a Kahoot game

Apart from the activities planned in the frame of the project’s objectives the students visited also the most famous places in the area to learn about Spanish culture and history and their paid a visit in the town mayor office. They did enjoy their stay in Murcia and Alquerias.

Yoga for everyone

Learning the basic yoga rules in two hours’ time seems impossible and it is impossible as it usually takes years. However, it is good to try, understand what it is about and find out what benefits of yoga are:

  • better flexibility
  • gaining peace of mind
  • building strength of muscles
  • improving one’s posture
  • preventing spine diseases
  • increasing heart rate and blood flow
  • helping you to concentrate and focus your attention
  • improving consciousness

The students, taking part in a short mobility in Alquerias in Spain took part in yoga workshops during which they learned some simplified yoga poses for beginners and they were encouraged how and why they can do it on their own.

Choose the diet which is right for you

A healthy diet can help you maintain a proper body weight, reduce your risk of certain diseases and improve your quality of life. However, there is no universal diet, common, easy to follow and recommendable for everyone, regardless of their place of living, gender, daily activity and likings. We have to know the rationale of each diet, their pros and cons and it is important to choose a diet plan that fits our goals and lifestyles. During the mobility in Alquerias, in Spain, the students developed the rules for some, most popular diets. They discussed their does and don’ts, as well as benefits and risks and designed leaflets.