Third grade students from the Panhandle area had the chance to learn about health and wellness at the second annual Nebraska Kids Fitness and Nutrition Day on Thursday, September 20th.  

The day’s activities took place from 9:00 am to 2 pm at the Cheyenne County Community Center in Sidney.  Over 250 children and 50 sponsors and adult volunteers assisted with the day's events. 

Third-graders are a good age to work with because they are learning about nutrition and are influenced by role models. 

Some of the physical activities include stretch bands, Tae Kwon Do, boot camp, and yoga.  Nutrition stations taught the youth about hand washing, healthy snacks and MyPyramid, the new USDA standard nutrition guidelines. 
 
The overall purpose of the event is to open the eyes of young people to consider energy balance – how physical activity and nutrition work together to maintain health.  They said hat if they can find a physical activity that they truly enjoy doing or an activity in which they excel, they may be more active and therefore more healthy in the future.