It’s WATERMELON DAY here at South Butler Primary School! Join the Rockstar Nutritionist and Mrs. Gourley’s first grade class to show you how it’s done.

With all the competition from unhealthy food advertising, we are constantly running a PR campaign for healthy food. And one of the ways you can get kids excited about healthy food is to involve them in your campaign. That way, eating healthy food doesn’t seem like punishment.

Use every opportunity to teach healthy habits. Instead of counting pizzas, we are counting watermelons!

Make healthy the norm, rather than the exception. When healthy becomes the accepted choice, everyone wants to do it. Incorporate what kids already know from other subjects into nutrition education to make healthy habits relevant.

Create opportunities for kids to be successful with healthy food. Let them pick it out, cut it, and eat it with you. Ask them to use all their senses like how it tastes, looks, and smells. It takes up to 10 tries for a child to accept a new food, so keep singing healthy food’s praises!

If you’d like to organize a watermelon day at your school, visit watermelon.org for tips, recipes and activity sheets.

[Read the press release "WATERMELON DAY VIDEO OFFERS JUICY WAYS TO BRING NUTRITION EDUCATION INTO CLASSROOM: Pittsburgh School Becomes Movie Set for Fruit-Filled Day" here.]