McPherson Sentinel Daily
By Carol Dreiling
April 25, 2008
Childhood obesity statistics are startling. In the last 30 years, preschool obesity rates have doubled, adolescent obesity rates have doubled and childhood obesity rates have tripled.
An initiative for addressing childhood obesity in Head Start children has been introduced at the Early Childhood Center, according to a report by Kalin Koehn, director of Head Start, presented at a recent Unified School District 418 Board of Education meeting.
To learn this proactive approach called “I am moving, I am learning,” Koehn, along with Mattie King, health and nutrition coordinator, Carianne Short, education coordinator and Beth Olson and Erica Wentling, lead teachers, attended a three-day training seminar in late February. The team was one of five in Kansas invited to receive instruction in the initiative.
“We came back renewed and regenerated and I think all five of us said that was probably the best training we'd ever been to,” Koehn said.
The teachers came back and implemented the practices immediately in their classrooms.
“IMIL has really impacted the way I teach,” Wentling said. “I know that eating healthy and exercising are important, but I have learned to be more intentional with it in the classroom.”