810-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, March 21. 1998
iKids
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Fourth and fifth graders from the special needs class at Washington Elementary
School dressed as clowns to the delight of the audience.
Clowns, Games Fascinate
Children At Nutrition Fair
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of the body Is affected by simply having candy on the tip of
her tongue.
After making a necklace from cereal, this little girl com
piled her own cookbook.
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LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
You are never too young to
leant to choose healthy foods. Eat
ing the right foods builds strong
bones and healthy bodies, but eat
ing too much of the wrong foods
can make you weak and ill.
Kids who attended the Nutrition
Fair held last week in Lancaster
discovered that learning about
nutrition can be fun. Games,
prizes, and clowns were part of the
action planned by the Expanded
Food and Nutrition Education
Program (EFNEP), which is part
of the Penn State Extension
program.
The fair included activities for
adults and children. Tickets were
given for participating in the diffe
rent events and prizes were
distributed.
One booth showed participants
how to select snacks wisely. By
playing a match game, participants
learned to select foods with nutri
tional value.
Participants learned that by eat
ing only one meal a day, they could
gain unwanted pounds and not
have a healthy diet Consuming a
Big Mac, Bench fries, and an
apple pie means 69 grams of fat
were eaten in only one meal.
Eating foods rich in calcium is
like putting money in the bank,
according to Nancy Wilier, who
had a display of bags showing that
the adult skeleton should have 11
cups of calcium.
Those who don’t catcnough cal
cium when they are younger end
up with only 6.5 cups of calcium or
less when they become adults.
This means they have osteoporo
sis, and their bones are weak and
break easily.
Nurses from local hospitals
were there. Laura Henry showed
how the strength of the body is
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easy,” Todd Insists as he twists balloons Into animal
shapes.
affected by simply having the
wrong food against the tip of the
tongue. To demonstrate this a par
ticipant chewed on a carrot and
held out her arm. Henry tried to
push her arm down but couldn’t.
When the same participant put a
caramel candy in her mouth, her
aim became weak and Henry could
easily push it down.
Recipes and nutritional infor
mation in Spanish and English
were distributed for participants to
take home and study.
At one table, children were
making their own cookbooks with
easy-to-do recipes to make when
their moms and dads are too busy
to cook for them.
Not all the events at the fair
taught nutrition. Some were just
plain fun. Clowns intermingled
with the crowd to paint characters
on the faces and hands of kids.
The clowns were fourth and
fifth graders from the special needs
class at Washington Elementary
School. Teacher Mary Lou Cook
said that she had been a clown for
nine years, and realized that
clowning could be a good motiva
tional tool for students.
She tells her students if they
work hard in school, they can
become involved in clowning.
From 14-17 students participate
in clown presentations. Mrs. Cook
said that students choose a clown
name and decide what kind of per
sonality they want their clown to
portray. Costumes are handmade
or put together piece by piece.
It takes about 30-45 minutes to
put the make up on the clowns. The
students smear on the white
makeup. Teachers and helpers
paint on the large lips, high eye
brows, and rosy cheeks typical of
clowns.
Some clowns form animals
from balloons.
“It’s easy,” 10-year-old Todd
said as he twisted a balloon. “All
t/v
Marissa perform* magic
tricks with a coloring book.
you need to do is twist the balloon
six times.”
It looked easy watching Todd as
he twisted balloons into animal
shapes to the delight of children
attending the fair.
Eddie, better known as Socky
the Clown, painted a face on the
hand of a squirming toddler.
Marissa, known as Rosie the
Clown, delighted guests by per
forming tricks with her magic col
oring book. With a swipe of the
hand she could color the whole
book, another swipe and the pages
were free of all colors.
“I love being a clown,” Cupcake
said as she made cereal disappear
and then reappear in a tin-covered
container.