Previously we shared the story of OWG President, Dr. Michelle Lombardo’s, niece, Ashley Griffin, and her student teaching stint in Costa Rica where she incorporated OWG into her lessons. Today we have an update from Ashley and her experience with The OrganWise Guys in Costa Rica.
The Organwise Guys continue to have an impact down in Costa Rica! Our school, Tree of Life International School, encourages hands-on technology to strengthen the understanding of specific concepts. Recently, we have been working with Scratch, a coding program online. I was thrilled when the older students came to my classroom to ask if they could borrow my Organwise Guy! They “dissected” him and had each organ connected to a certain function on the computer. When the organ was pressed a student recording said what organ he was, and his primary function. It was both a wonderful and stimulating activity that kept the students engaged.
I also wanted to share this sweet story about a little boy in the Kindergarten class. He simply loved the Organwise Guy doll that his parents ended up buying him his own, personal doll! At night he makes statements such as, “Mom, my Pepto is hungry!”
I love how this program is Impacting kids around the world from the inside out!
We continue our series promoting healthy behaviors to be implemented and tracked for an entire month (and hopefully beyond). In September, in celebration of Fruits and Veggies – More Matters Month, the behavior to implement is to eat more fruits and veggies. It’s important to make fresh fruits and vegetables easily accessible for kids to grab when they are looking for snacks. Studies show that eating at least 5 fruits and vegetables a day increase your chances for a long and healthy life! To assist with the increased fruit and veggie consumption, you can download and print your free September Behavior Tracking Sheet and use in your home, summer camp setting, or childcare center to encourage and track behavior change.
Watch as Hardy Heart and the Guys sing about eating five fruits and vegetables a day:
Eat more fruits and veggies this month and all year long!
Back to school has been the primary focus these last few weeks and to continue with that theme, we thought we would suggest you check out the USA Today: Back to School Magazine. You can get the scoop on the latest snacks, clothing and products, along with some great articles to get you back in the swing of things.
If you run into our ad inside, you will be able to download your FREE back to school activity book! Read the online edition for these great articles and resources.
With all this back to school talk, we thought it would be a great time to bring back this post where we shared some proper hygiene techniques for your OrganWise Gal or Guy dolls. You’ve probably never thought that your sweet little OrganWise Guy or Gal may need a little bit of a cleaning. In the past, we’ve had people ask us how to clean the doll and the organ beanies housed inside, but have definitely never had anyone send us their OrganWise doll bath pictures!
Last year, we were both thrilled and tickled to get this email from Roger Steinbrock from the City of Lawrence in Kansas. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with him and appreciate his efforts to get kids healthy in the parks in Lawrence. We asked him to share with us exactly what they did to clean their Mr. Organ (as they call him). Here is what he said:
“We just got a bowl with a little bit of soap (we’ve used Woolite in the past). Today we used a little bit of dish soap and washed him and wrung him out as best we could, letting him air dry the rest of the way. The water actually gets pretty dingy – more than you’d ever believe. This was the first time we included Mr. Organ in the wash and I’m glad we did!”
Sounds like Mr. Organ has been quite busy playing in the parks this summer! Thank you Roger for sharing your tips to make sure your OrganWise Guy and Gal (and their insides) stay clean and healthy.
With back to school here, The OrganWise Guys are eager to get back to spreading the word of good health. Over the summer we were busy revamping our website and are excited to share with you the new look and tools available. So whether you already use the evidence-based programming or you are new to it, take a minute to visit the new site, including our new shop and check out the free resources you can use in your classroom setting.
Here are the free healthy resources for kids:
Educator tools – See how the school assemblies are done or catch Dr. Michelle Lombardo (OWG President and creator) perform a training on The OrganWise Guys Comprehensive School Program (OWG CSP). Here you can also find lesson plans and implementation guides to coincide with OrganWise Guys materials.
Curriculum Standards – All of the OWG materials are correlated and updated in real-time to your state curriculum AND Common Core standards.
Kid’s Club – Here you will find video clips, as well as FREE activity and coloring sheet downloads!
Kid’s Blog – Check back each Monday and Thursday to see what ‘the Guys’ are up to! You can also download and copy free activity and coloring sheets that correspond to that blog!
Educator Blog – Learn best practices for OrganWise Guys program implementation in the classroom and community.
Grown Up Blog – Gain helpful tips and ways to keep your family OrganWise at home.
We’d also like to share this back to school discount code for 20% off your order! Use coupon code SCHOOL2015 upon checkout.
Which OrganWise Guys resources do you find most helpful?
It seems in today’s world, the idea of letting kids walk or bicycle to school would be one of the past due to safety concerns. But thankfully, we recently discovered the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, whose mission is to promote safe walking or bicycling to schools and by creating livable and sustainable communities.
According to their site, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership collaborates with organizations, government agencies and professional groups working to set goals, share best practices, leverage infrastructure and program funding and advance policy change to help agencies that implement Safe Routes to School programs.
We can’t think of a better way to get kids active before and after school than being able to walk or bicycle there along a safe route, so we joined as a partner affiliate and are strong advocates for healthy and safe kids so we created a fun, OrganWise-themed coloring sheet in support of the Safe Routes to School mission!
Download your Safe Routes to School coloring sheet below:
Previously we shared the story of OWG President, Dr. Michelle Lombardo’s, niece, Ashley Griffin, and her student teaching stint in Costa Rica where she incorporated OWG into her lessons. Today we have an update from Ashley and her experience with The OrganWise Guys in Costa Rica.
With all this back to school talk, we thought it would be a great time to bring back this post where we shared some proper hygiene techniques for your OrganWise Gal or Guy dolls. You’ve probably never thought that your sweet little OrganWise Guy or Gal may need a little bit of a cleaning. In the past, we’ve had people ask us how to clean the doll and the organ beanies housed inside, but have definitely never had anyone send us their OrganWise doll bath pictures!
