PM Akin Elementary has several students and families who live with diabetes at our school. Two of our 4th graders took the lead on planning a video during announcements that helped our scholars learn about and understand diabetes. They did an amazing job of teaching us about diabetes.

Check out this video that was shared during Diabetes Awareness Week.

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On Thursday, May 10, a special dinner was held at the Frontiers of Flight Museum, honoring this year’s Healthy Zone Schools and award winners.

The Cooper Institute ® and United Way of Metropolitan Dallas developed the Healthy Zone School Recognition Program in 2011, which uses evidence-based knowledge and best practices to assist schools in promoting healthy behaviors. This program honors schools for their healthy practices and assists schools in their efforts to provide healthier environments for students.

Today, there are 166 schools across 18 North Texas school... Read more

This year we tried something new. We opted for field day yoga to wind down and fruit tasting in place of snowcones. These were BIG hits with our students, parents, and teachers. The fruit was delicious and the kids enjoyed trying something new.

Yoga was the BEST way to wind down from all the activity during our exciting field day. Read more

We started our first after school running club in the fall. Each student runs laps to get a marathon. They add up their laps and I convert them to miles and we keep track of them along the way. After the Christmas break our students started reaching their marathons. The confidence and endurance skyrocketed at that point. They are eager and ready to join our running club. I filmed several videos of our students to share on our morning announcements and now I have just about the whole school wanting to be in the running club. I love the excitement that our kiddos have for staying active. Read more

A partnership between United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and The Cooper Institute® developed to engage students to achieve better health and fitness, the Healthy Zone School Recognition Program is expanding to serve 166 North Texas schools this year. Championed by Dallas Cowboys Legend and United Way Annual Campaign Chairman Troy Aikman, the initiative has increased its reach to serve 110,000 local students since its inception in 2011.

“The Healthy Zone School program is the start of a great success story in overcoming childhood obesity, one of the most pressing health issues of our... Read more

We implemented Tasty Tuesday earlier this year as a student led addition to our morning announcements. Our student leaders have been sharing healthy recipes and ideas on our Tuesday announcements. A few weeks ago, one of our student leaders, Lizzy Smyder decided that we should have students filming themselves creating or making healthy snacks and meals at home. So, we sent out permission slips and instructions about how to create these videos to be used during Tuesday morning announcements. We have begun using these student created videos and they are a big hit. We wanted to share what... Read more

Akin is learning to stay hydrated with our new bottle filling stations and our water bottles provided by the PTA. We encourage students and staff to drink a minimum of 6 cups of water each day. Good hydration helps with physical activity as well as being able to perform well in the classroom. We will have water drinking challenges and keep track of how much water we are drinking here at Akin. Drink on and be Strong Akin Frogs! Read more

At our campus we started an annual 5k. The 5k began as a finally to our Running Club. This year we invited all students and staff to be part of our celebration. We had a wonderful turn out of students, staff, and community members. Water, fruit, and a healthy snack was provided by PTA and local shops. Every participant received a finisher's ribbon and the top two finishers in each grade received a prize. We are looking forward to next years event! Read more

It was another successful year for the Healthy Zone School Recognition Program® in North Texas as more schools than ever took the next step in creating a culture of health and wellness within their community!

The 2016-2017 school year came to a close in celebration with the annual End of Year Banquet at Eddie Deen’s Ranch on May 10, 2017. The banquet is an opportunity to thank teachers for their dedication to making schools and communities healthy places to learn and live. The congratulatory event focused on honoring this year’s most outstanding schools and teachers, but also... Read more

Mesquite News: http://starlocalmedia.com/mesquitenews/news/healthy-schools-program-all-... October 2, 2016 Kenny Green kgreen@starlocalmedia.com The Healthy Zone School Recognition Program is celebrating its sixth year of empowering and equipping North Texas students to live healthier lives, curbing the critical trend toward childhood obesity. The MISD elementary schools earning Healthy Zone School recognition are Black, Florence, Gray, Price, Range, Rugel, Shands, Thompson, Tisinger and Tosch. Austin and Cannaday received school in training designation. The program is a partnership... Read more