JAY — Students from Spruce Mountain Elementary School are participating in the WinterKids Winter Games for the month of January.

Students compete in a four-week series of outdoor physical activity and nutrition challenges designed to help them be active in the winter and learn healthy habits. Each school is encouraged to involve volunteers, parents, healthy eating and active living organizations in their community, and hold a winter carnival to close out the month’s events. This year’s WinterKids Winter Games theme is STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math).

WinterKids selected two schools in each of Maine’s sixteen counties to participate this year for a total of 7,200 students and 750 teachers. Schools compete for weekly points based on the total percentage of the student body that participates. SMES is one of the Franklin County schools for 2020.

Principal Pat St. Clair said, “Last week the focus of WinterKids was about physical activity and science. On Monday, we held an assembly to kickoff the second week, which is about nutrition and math. The students will learn about making healthy food choices.”

He noted several activities are planned with the times based on the schedule of each class.

Schools competing in the WinterKids Winter Games receive a toolkit full of resources and incentives to help students earn points, including the award-winning WinterKids Guide to Outdoor Active Learning – an easy to use resource to help kids move, learn, and explore outdoors while meeting education standards.

Schools participating in the WinterKids Winter Games accrue points for cash prize awards: $5000 – Gold Medal School, $3000 – Silver Medal School, and $1,500 – Bronze Medal School. There are honorable mentions and prizes for all participating schools.

For a complete list of participating schools or questions regarding the WinterKids Winter Games, please visit www.winterkids.org.

WinterKids is the nonprofit organization that helps children develop healthy lifelong habits through education and fun, outdoor winter activity. The organization delivers innovative outdoor programs for families, schools, and communities. WinterKids’ Major Community Sponsor is Hannaford. WinterKids’ Supporting Sponsors are Agren, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Irving Oil, L.L.Bean, Portland Glass and WEX. The WinterKids Winter Games is also supported by The Bingham Program, TD Bank, Sam L. Cohen Foundation, Emera Maine, Let’s Go!, Subway of Maine, Backyard Farms, Johnny’s Seeds, UNE, Ski Maine Association, and MMG Insurance. Learn more at WinterKids.org.