Two weeks ago, in an effort to get healthier at lunch, the Palmer Panthers had their first lunchroom challenge! For one week, teachers tallied the junk food items students brought in their lunches. The winner would be the class that brought the fewest junk foods to lunch.
This sparked new enthusiasm with the kids to try to leave the chips and candy at home and bring apples and carrots instead. The two classrooms that had the lowest score won a chance to go to a UIC men’s basketball game vs. the Northwestern Wildcats! Needless to say competition got serious.
Classrooms 130 (5th) and 142 (6th) claimed their prize this week, ending the competition with two and five points respectively. Teachers and students hopped on the bus and headed downtown to watch the Flames take on the Wildcats. Arriving early enough to enjoy the pregame warm-ups and choose sides to cheer we settled in for what would be a great game. A few students started setting goals for recess time to get better so they can start dunking like the players; others were getting their inspiration from the halftime show with high-flying gymnasts and want to start practicing their cartwheels.
It was a great adventure for the kids and teachers, eating better and setting new goals. The biggest take away the kids got was that eating healthy will take you places, maybe even to a collegiate basketball game.
