FORT JACKSON, S.C. (Feb. 19, 2015) -- Developing a healthy lifestyle is important for both children and parents, and C.C. Pinckney Elementary School hosted a Health and Nutrition Fair at C.C. Pinckney Elementary School to help do just that Feb. 10.
"We decided that we would have a health fair so that families of our children and the parents of our children would know the resources here on post that Fort Jackson has to offer for living a healthier lifestyle," said Kerrie Ammons, speech and language pathologist, C.C. Pinckney Elementary School.
C.C. Pinckney faculty, staff and teachers established a stakeholder committee that helps develop activities that allow both on- and off-post communities to see what programs Fort Jackson has to offer for children, Ammons said.
Sierra Fisher, the mother of a C.C. Pinckney student, said her daughter was interested in attending the event.
"My daughter really wanted to come because she wanted another opportunity to do extracurricular activities and learn more about health," Fisher said. "I really like that (the school is) placing an emphasis on health, getting the kids active and making them more aware of their bodies."
Staff Sgt. Byron Thomas, 369th Adjutant General Battalion, said he attended with his son, Christopher, 8, for more information about healthy eating habits.
"I wanted to make sure that he is healthy and that he knows more about better eating habits, rather than just sitting at home playing video games," Thomas said. "Right now at this event, I have him doing Crossfit, so he has to get his blood pressure checked, run the course and then have his blood pressure checked again."
Thomas said learning healthy eating habits will make for a healthier future.
"It's better to know about healthy eating habits at a young age because when (the children) read the labels they'll know whether or not the food is good for them," Thomas said.
Ammons said research shows that healthy children also learn better.
"There is more than cognitive learning or academic learning going on here," she said. "We want to teach to the whole child, so we need to make sure the whole child is healthy. That means (children) need to have a good breakfast in the morning, they need exercise and they need to know personal hygiene so that they can be good learners."
Ammons said the intent is to tie back the school's goals -- math problem solving and reading comprehension -- with healthy living.
"The students will learn about diabetes. We will have the students measuring sugar so they know how much sugar is in some of their snacks. The kids will also be graphing their heart rates," Ammons said. "As for reading and comprehension, research also shows that children need to be exposed to informational literacy, like the Fort Jackson Leader. So the brochures children will receive tonight will have words highlighted in bold face (and) text that they will need to pay attention to and understand a little better when working with informational literacy pieces."
Ammons said that the committee is looking forward to hosting more events to increase reading and math skills for students and inform parents of Fort Jackson programs.
"We are looking to host one event per month for the Fort Jackson community that focuses on our school goals of reading and math skills," Ammons said.
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