Having learned about the importance of eating healthy, calcium-rich foods and maintaining an active lifestyle, Wendy Rudd’s Grade 5 class at Breslau Public School put their knowledge into a series of educational comic strips.
![The Grade 5 class won a $500 prize after student Chanithi Bandaranayake’s educational cartoon was selected by a Dairy Farmers program. [Scott Barber / The Observer]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/post_comic.jpg)
As part of the Dairy Farmers of Canada’s Power4bones program, the class picked out their favourite of the bunch – Chanithi Bandaranayake’s – to represent the class in the organization’s annual contest.
Submissions were collected from all across Canada, and out of the thousands of colourful and creative comics, Chanithi’s received top marks, earning the class $500 to donate to a charity of their choice.
Chanithi described her comic.
“It’s about healthy bone building,” she said. “The idea was that because we were learning about it in our health class, the setting should be in a health class as well. So the students have a project where they are supposed to help someone with weak bones. They ask their friends and family for information and they find out on the news about a person with weak bones and they go and help him and tell him all the information they learned.”
Bone development is particularly important from children between the ages of 11-13, Rudd explained. That’s why classes across the country have taken up teaching the dairy industry’s cross between marketing and educational materials.
There are certainly some good lessons to be had, as Chanithi demonstrated.
“We learned about the proper foods to eat and about the proper exercises,” she said.
Students created the comic strips on the Power4bones website, which provides the clip-art style software that is both easy to use and fun for the kids.
It was a great way for the class to show that they understood the material in a creative way, Rudd said.
And winning the prize money led to some valuable discussions about charitable organizations that promote healthy eating and physical activity.
After some debate, the group picked Canadian Tire’s Jumpstart Program, because it helps low-income families take part in youth sports. They were also interested in the organization’s support for the upcoming Pan Am and Para Pan Am games, Rudd said.
