November 2018 … More than 120 junior reporters ages 5 to 7 are learning what is a fact, who is an expert, and how to keep their hearts strong in the second year of Healthy NewsWorks’ Hearty Kids Initiative.

The pilot program seeks to promote heart health awareness and literacy skills for students in kindergarten through grade 2. Hearty Kids expands on the Healthy NewsWorks program’s work with student journalists in grades 3 to 8 who develop accurate and relevant health publications and other types of media for their fellow students, families, and the wider school community.

The Hearty Kids Initiative is in its second year and now includes an eight-lesson sequence which is leveled by grade and aligned with Common Core Educational Standards and National Health Education Standards. Children in six classrooms at St. Veronica Independence Mission School and William Cramp Elementary School started the program this fall. At least nine more classrooms are expected to take part in early 2019.

Working with their classroom teachers and Healthy NewsWorks staff, the young reporters help write and illustrate a Hearty Kids section for each school’s respective health newspaper. They also share their work and newspapers with their families.

The Hearty Kids Initiative is supported in part by a generous grant from The Edna G. Kynett Memorial Foundation.