Happy Feet Healthy Food Review

By Scott Tomassetti

“Happy Feet Healthy Food” was written and illustrated by Carol Goodrow and published by Breakaway Books (http://www.breakawaybooks.com ). Carol is the founding editor of http://kidsrunning.com, a Runner’s World site.

When asking for ways to incorporate reading objectives into my physical education program on NASPE Talk, Carol Goodrow was kind enough to respond and sent me a complimentary copy of her book, “Happy Feet Healthy Food”. When I was finally able to pick up the book and review it, I found some exciting and useful ideas. The book also fits into the philosophy of pe1.org’s ‘Fitness 1^st’ Program.

When looking at the cover and throughout the book, it offers early elementary school students friendly and inviting ‘come and try me out’ illustrations:

Carol offers students the chance to explore for themselves through logs and journals, as well as define how much physical activity they are getting and how healthy they are eating. Carol offers a concise and simple to understand instructions for the logs and journals as illustrated below:

After the explanation of how to use the logs and journals, students can turn each page to find that they are greeted by a challenge to be active and tips for eating healthier:

On the opposite page students are offered a week’s long log to use to track their physical activity and eating habits:

The book continues on to provide a year’s worth of weekly logs and suggestions for students’ activities and healthy eating habits.

Carol has created a tangible way to integrate reading, and books into physical education for students that can help them create healthy habits for a lifetime.