Bush Elementary children learned about how to make healthy lifestyle choices over the summer during a special program at the Fulton YMCA.
Wednesday, the YMCA hosted "Healthy Kids Day," a nationwide YMCA initiative targeting school-aged children.
"They'll be taking part in a nutrition lesson about sugar intake and a group exercise class with one of our fitness instructors," said Amie Conway, the Fulton YMCA's marketing and events director. "Also, the University of Missouri Extension is hosting a session on how humans can impact the habitat."
Students from three age groups rotated through the three stations at different times through the day: running in circles, stretching, and learning.
"I did not know what sugar cubes were," Ayden Foster, a first-grader, said after listening to Crain's talk.
Children in Foster's age group should eat no more than four sugar cubes' worth of added sugar per day, Crain told the children. A 1-liter bottle of a soft drink could have more than 20 sugar cubes of sugar. She told the children that sugary foods and drinks are an okay "sometimes" food, but not an everyday one.
"Sugar gives you cavities," Foster said. "Some things like diet soda don't have sugar in them, but they have things that'll make your tongue burn off, if you keep them in your mouth too long."
Christal Humbert of MU and 4H taught the first-graders about how animals are found in certain environments and not others.
"I know that there are things on land you don't know about," student Drew Lowe enthused. "On grasslands there are plants that can actually bite you."
Perhaps Foster exaggerated the effects of acid in soda, and Lowe overstated the biting powers of carnivorous plants, but they and the other children were soaking up the lessons.