Central Elementary School hosted a worldwide interactive live show about eating and living healthy. Jump with Jill, which is sponsored by Meijer, came to the school on August 24.
The program is centered around health and uses music, humor, and interactive dance moves to get kids both involved in the show and interested in healthy behavior. The show revolves around the songs, such as singing about water to the tune of an irish jig or singing about tangerines and other fruits to a jitterbug tune.
The goal of the program is to get children excited about eating healthy. According to the Jump with Jill website, everyone knows to drink water and eat vegetables, “but the gap between knowledge and action is widened by the cues to unhealthy behavior that inundate us every day.
Today’s generation of kids needs to develop brand loyalty to healthy habits. We think it’s so important, we sing and dance about it.”
Jump with Jill hopes to not only teach the kids healthy behaviors, but get the parents involved in eating healthy as well. Students take home a pamphlet about eating healthy to their parents in an effort to encourage the entire family to practice healthy behaviors.
The program began as a masters’ project by a registered dietitian and professional musician. It began as a street show in Central Park in New York City, then steadily grew larger to the size it is today. Now, the show is on tour from August until June every year, and has performed in six different countries. There are multiple tour groups, each with their own Jill and DJ. Each member of the Jump with Jill show is a registered teacher. The group performing at Central is currently the only group.
The students at Central participated in the program, singing and dancing along with Jill and DJ Slick Nick and expressing how much they enjoyed it.
The Jump with Jill tour will continue in the area, visiting 15 Portage and Valparaiso schools in the coming weeks.