In mutual exchange with our long-standing partner schools, we have found that it is no longer a matter of course for many children in our fast-paced society to pay attention to a balanced diet and to make their everyday life active and close to nature. We also observe among our pupils that increasing school and leisure stress makes a healthy development of children more difficult. That is why we consider it urgently necessary to provide our children with help to maintain a healthy lifestyle in relation to healthy eating, active everyday arrangements and a balance between tension and relaxation. We are therefore planning joint cooking activities that will show children how to have fun cooking and show healthy alternatives to canned food. Regional products should preferably be used. School-based exercise and relaxation offers are intended to prevent school and everyday stress, which contributes to a more positive learning environment and a natural, intrinsically motivated willingness to learn. By means of these acquired competences, our pupils should be enabled to live their lives in a stress-free, balanced and sustainable manner. One of the central goals is to raise awareness of a balanced, regional diet. In the area of exercise / relaxation (prevention of stress), our primary concern is to inspire our pupils and teachers for more exercise through offers to promote body awareness and motor skills at school life and thus to gain a more conscious attitude towards their own bodies. This enthusiasm should also be conveyed to their everyday life. In addition, the pupils should have access to digital media, learn to use them sensibly and critically question them. It is important to us that the entire school community benefits from this cooperatively and extends their social skills, regardless of their origin, social status and school education. The planned activities are aimed at all children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 15 years. The parents and teachers of all partner schools will also benefit from this. In addition, there are extra-curricular partners and cooperating institutions at each partner school that are involved in the activities. In an interdisciplinary, action-oriented lesson, on project days, project weeks and in working groups, the children of all partner schools will deal with the three parts of our project - healthy eating, exercise and relaxation. They deal intensively with the three parts with the help of the teachers, but also with the help of partner institutions outside of school. On project days, among other things, cooking and eating should be done together. A project day on the subject of exercise in the classroom contributes to ideas for a collection of flashcards. The Europe working group will deal with the networking of all partner schools via eTwinning and emails. They also support the classes with ideas from the partner schools to help them find their own projects. Recipes from all over Europe are constantly being cooked and tried at the cooking working group. Contributions to the video channel and cookbook are also to be made here. With the Klasse 2000 project, we have a strong cooperation partner on the topic of health at our side. Our health promoter visits all classes of Sonnenschule twice a year and brings new topics on the subject of nutrition, exercise and relaxation, which are continued by the teachers. The range of activities at the project schools is to be expanded by working groups and extra-curricular partners, as well as exercise breaks. The agreements on this should be written in the school program. All of this is supported by monthly school assemblies, in which classes or working groups can present their projects. At the beginning of the project, a logo should be designed and selected. During the project period, flashcards with ideas for activities and a yoga will be created, which will be introduced and used at all partner schools. Furthermore, a video channel is to be established, on which all schools upload videos on the topic of healthy eating, healthy cooking and exercise. A cookbook is filled with recipes from all partner countries. Another product will be a hiking map or a regional map of each partner school with designated points for (family) activities. This project, with its most important components in the areas of nutrition, exercise and relaxation, should be included in the school program of each partner school as a further development of the priorities. The collection of flashcards for activities and yoga should be available in every class. The cookbook should be used again and again. The regional maps or hiking maps should be distributed to all future school children.
Our initiative to promote a healthy lifestyle is the result of an intensive exchange with long-standing partner schools. We have noticed that in our fast-paced society, many children no longer pay attention to a balanced diet as a matter of course and organise their everyday life in an active and nature-oriented way. This is often made more difficult by increasing school and leisure time stress. In response to these observations, we have decided to take measures to offer our pupils assistance in leading a healthy lifestyle. Our project goals are manifold: Healthy eating: We want to teach our students how important it is to eat healthy. For this purpose, we planned joint cooking activities where the children have fun cooking and learn about healthy alternatives to the often unhealthy processed food. We paid special attention to using regional products to emphasise the importance of sustainability and local food. Exercise and relaxation: To prevent school and everyday stress, we offered school-based exercise and relaxation activities. These not only contributed to a more positive learning environment, but also promoted intrinsic motivation to learn. We want our students to develop motor skills and body awareness in order to become more conscious of their own bodies. We also want to transport this enthusiasm for movement into the private sphere. Digital media literacy: In a digital world, it is important that our students have access to digital media, learn to use them meaningfully and question them critically. We want to empower them to use digital tools and resources responsibly. Cooperative learning and social skills: A key feature of our project is collaboration and cooperative learning. We want to ensure that the whole school community benefits from the activities, regardless of origin, social status and educational background. In doing so, all participants expand their social skills and contribute to an inclusive and supportive learning environment. Our activities targeted pupils aged 5 to 15, but parents and teachers from our partner schools are also involved in the projects. We worked closely with extracurricular partners and collaborators to enrich the diversity of activities. To achieve these goals, we relied on a variety of pedagogical approaches. These included interdisciplinary lessons, project weeks and days as well as study groups in which the children could intensively deal with the three pillars of our project - healthy nutrition, exercise and relaxation. On project days, they cooked and ate together to convey the importance of healthy nutrition. A project day on the topic of movement in the classroom contributed to the collection of ideas for the movement card. The "Europa AG" was responsible for ensuring the networking of all partner schools via eTwinning and e-mail and supports the classes in developing their own projects. In the "Koch AG", recipes from all over Europe were continuously cooked and tasted. This also resulted in contributions for a video channel and a cookbook. Through the "Klasse 2000 Projekt" we have a strong cooperation partner on the topic of health at our side. Our health promoter visited all classes of the Sonnenschule twice a year and brought new topics on nutrition, exercise and relaxation, which were continued by the colleagues. The range of physical activity at the project schools is to be expanded through working groups and partnerships with extracurricular organisations, as well as through moving breaks. The arrangements for this will be anchored in the school programme. Finally, regular school assemblies strengthen the cooperation, in which classes or working groups present their projects to the entire school community. To visually represent the project, we created a logo at the beginning and during the project a movement and yoga card index was added, which is used at all project schools. A video channel for healthy eating, through healthy cooking was established, and a cookbook filled with recipes from all partner countries. Another outcome of the project is a walking map or regional map of each partner school, showing different points such as playgrounds and special places for (family) activities. The long-term vision is to permanently include the main components of the project in the school programmes of each partner school. The movement and yoga cards should be available in every class, the cookbook should be used regularly and the district maps should be distributed to all future school beginners.