This week was a BIG finale week for our long-term study project. We were very busy finalizing all the details. On Monday, we finalized the menu we prepared for the lunch with the Los Toros on Friday. When we met asa a group, we new we wanted to accomplish a few things.

1. We wanted the lunch to be healthy.

2. We wanted the lunch to be yummy.

3. We wanted the lunch to include food from all the food groups.

On Tuesday, we painted our trophy for the winners. Last week we molded all sorts of different foods to include in the trophy. They looked so good with color!

After reviewing eating etiquette on Thursday, we were ready to host our guests of honor on Friday. We diced, chopped, peeled, boiled, and kneaded our way to a delicious lunch to be served in our classroom, named for the day as "Black Bats Cafe". Complete with table cloths and centerpieces, Los Toros joined us for a delicous and fun celebration. What a great way to end our study on the human body as the health experts that we have become!

This week was a pivotal week in our project as we near the finale of our study of the human body. During the first part of this huge week, we visited each classroom and delivered simple instructions that during that lunch, every elementary student needed to take inventory of his or her lunch and see how healthy it is. Once we collected the information, we made a graph of all the food groups for each class and saw who was highest in fruits and vegetables and what classroom had overall, the most balanced diet. Once we revealed the winner of the healthy lunch challenge competition (congratulations, Los Toros!), we announced that the award will be a gourmet and healthy lunch, prepared by the Black Bats! Date to be determined. So exciting! We are also excited to report that Emily of farm and garden will help us with our cooking preparation and planning,and our art teacher Tonia is helping us create a trophy to present to the winner.

The long break of two weeks from our project proved to us that this week was best spent reviewing some aspects of what we have already and refocusing on our driving question to decide where we want to go as we head toward the finish. Just prior to Spring Break, we turn a turn from anatomy and onto nutrition and healthy eating. The kids are fascinated by this as it directly affects each of us. We want to work on knowing more about healthy foods versus "junk foods." So early this week, we brainstormed about how we can help our whole school become more aware of eating healthy. We thought we better start with ourselves. We surveyed our lunches on Tuesday and placed all of our foods into the different categories. Overall, we did great! All of us had at least one serving in each category (except sugar) and we decided we had a balanced diet. 

Towards the end of the week, we really began to think about our Driving Question - how can we as health experts help TVCS students eat healthy? We decided that the best way to do that would be to have a healthy lunch competition! This means that we will visit each class during their lunch time, survey everyone's lunch, analyze the data we collect, and then form a conclusion on which class has the most balanced meal overall. The winning class will receive an award - a lunch cooked by the Black Bats and a handmade trophy! On Friday, we started planning what our survey day will look like and assigned students to certain classes that they will survey. We are looking forward to distributing our survey next week!