It’s our second annual LearningZoneXpress Reviewer Drawing! We hope you will join in on the fun for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate!

Post a review on our Facebook page of a Learning ZoneXpress (LZX) product and qualify to win a $100 gift certificate. Reviews must be posted before January 13th, 2012; the winner will be announced the following week.

How do I do it?
• Write your review – must be between 200-400 characters (Facebook limits wall posts to 420 characters)
• Please include the full name of the product so that we can add a link to it.
• Post your review on our wall here: http://www.facebook.com/learningzonexpress

Do you only want positive reviews?
No, we want your honest feedback whether that’s positive or not. If you have a criticism for us, we want to hear it. If you think we’re on track with something, we want to hear that too. If you don’t tell us, who will? We do ask that all reviews are respectful. We will delete reviews that use inappropriate language or could be considered disrespectful.

How will the winner be selected?
Randomly. We will find the online equivalent to throwing the names of reviewers in a hat. We will notify the winner via Facebook.

Any small print?
Each Facebook fan is invited to post one review. Employees of LZX are not eligible to win. Gift certificate is not redeemable for cash.

Any chance for Extra Credit?
There’s always room for extra credit! If you post your review on Yelp (http://tinyurl.com/69m6fbz) or LinkedIn (http://tinyurl.com/6275l2c), we will put your name into our hat twice before we randomly select a winner. Just let us know if you’ve done it please.

The USDA MyPlate encourages us to:

• Make half our plate fruits and vegetables
• Switch to skim or 1 percent milk
• Make at least half our grains whole
• Vary our protein food choices

These healthy tips compliments of the USDA help us maintain balanced diets and make the right choices when it comes to what’s on our plate! The icon has been in place for exactly six months now, and to celebrate, we are having a sale!

USDA MyPlate Posters in English and Spanish (MiPlato) are discounted from $14.95 to just $9!
USDA MyPlate Tablets in English and Spanish (MiPlato) were $9.95 and are now only $7!

Celebrate nutrition with these fun reminders. Offers are only good for the month of December, so check them out today!

Robin asked if the Garden Hero she had won could be donated to Toys for Tots. We were so impressed by her thoughtfulness that we decided to start a little donation drive of our own.

For every Garden Hero Food Nutrition Kit we sell this holiday season (Regular and Deluxe), Learning ZoneXpress will donate one plush toy to Toys for Tots.  It is an incredible organization that reaches millions of children each year. We hope these fruit and vegetable characters bring a smile to their faces like Robin did to ours.

We will be using our Facebook page to update you all with our progress!

Let’s make this holiday season one to remember!

To: You

From: Learning ZoneXpress

The holiday season wouldn’t be complete without gifts! And gifts certainly aren’t complete without gift tags! Well, LZX has saved you a little bit of work this year by creating these adorable gift labels! They are designed for Avery 5162 labels, but if you don’t have that on hand, you can simply print them out on any 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper! Just cut them out, and tape them on to the gifts of your choice! They are available for free download, so you can print as many as you’d like.

Haven’t found the perfect gift to use the labels on?  Check out our Garden Heroes. Try to pick a favorite out of all 39! It isn’t an easy task, let me tell you. If you find one you like, enter GARDEN11DS at checkout, and we’ll drop the price to $4.00 for you!

*Available for a limited time only

Garden Heroes Food Nutrition Kit (Left)

• 3 Garden Heroes
• 2 Game Sheets
• 1 Vita-Veggies Activity Book
• 20 Foodscapes Stickers

Garden Heroes Food Nutrition Deluxe Kit (Right)

• 4 Garden Heroes
• 2 Game Sheets
• 3 Activity Books
• 20 Foodscapes Stickers
• 12 Foodscapes Tattoos

The conference will be held November 29th-30th in Washington, D.C, and they have recently announced that First Lady Michelle Obama will be the keynote speaker.

Childhood obesity isn’t going to end in one day, and it isn’t going to end with one person. It will take the effort and support of all of us. It’s events like this that remind us that our children are our future, and together we have the ability to change their lives and the lives of future generations to come. PHA’s site articulates it so well when it says “It will take the collective input and action of many to foster better health, promote academic achievement, drive global competitiveness, and boost military readiness—all of which will offer the nation’s children brighter, healthier futures.” These are all things that are affected by childhood obesity, and they are all things we have the power to change.

According to APHA’s website, this conference attracts “more than 13,000 national and international physicians, administrators, nurses, educators, researchers, epidemiologists, and related health specialists.” What a great way for us to represent ourselves and spread our message about nutrition education to thousands of industry professionals.

Today at our booth, we are handing out 1 Great Plate® Cut-Outs encouraging visitors to follow the USDA MyPlate model for correct food portions.

For week 5, guess Where in the World are the Garden Heroes are and WIN A FREE GARDEN HERO of your choice. Guess correctly, and choose a single character from any of the 39 Garden Heroes!

Kimi Kiwi has joined Tommy Tomato, but where now?

Here's another view to help you out! Can you guess Tommy's location?

Tommy Tomato's Back in the USA!

School is out and our LZX Team is traveling! We thought it would be fun to take along some Garden Heroes and snap some pictures to see if our Facebook Friends can guess where they are. We’re going all over the globe. If you have a clue where they might be, just chime in and guess where in the world the Garden Heroes are!

Meet the Fruit & Veggie GARDEN HEROES!

If you happen to be traveling this summer, please take a Garden Hero with you – snap a picture, and post it on our Facebook page (or send it to us at julia@learningzonexpress.com to post) and we’ll have fun guessing where in the world the Garden Heroes are too.

In fact, we would be happy to send you a Garden Hero of your choice if you correctly guess where our Garden Heroes are or if you send us a picture of your Garden Hero traveling. (One per customer please, no other discounts apply).

Not our Facebook Friend yet? Become one Today!

Melanie Nelson, former FACS (Family and Consumer Science) teacher and owner of Learning ZoneXpress, Inc. , a company that develops educational products to teach nutrition and healthy living says, “The new plate icon is a powerful image for young people.  Our 1 Great Plate TM series has been popular for a year, and Learning ZoneXpress, Inc will have the new USDA MyPlate icon available in products by the end of the day, June 3.”

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, issued by the USDA in January of this year form the basis of the federal

government’s nutrition and education programs, federal assistance programs and dietary advice provided by health and nutrition professionals.

The Guidelines messages include: Balance Calories, Foods to Increase and Foods to Reduce.  The recommendations are:

1. Physical activity of 30 minutes per day for all ages, 60 minutes per day for children and teens and 60-90 minutes for those who want to lose weight.
2. Choose nutrient rich foods: vegetables, fruits and whole grains, fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, seafood, lean meats and poultry, eggs, beans and peas, nuts and seeds.
3. Limit the intake of: sodium, solid fats, added sugars and refined grains.

These recommended guidelines are intended as an integrated set of advice to achieve an overall healthy eating pattern.  The new food icon is meant to be a simple easy reminder for families, children and nutrition professionals.

For more information visit www.ChooseMyPlate.gov or www.learningzonexpress.com

The FABULOUS FRIDAY INTERNET SALE is back! Here’s the SNEAK PEEK for June 10th.

CHOOSE from 3 designs for ONLY $5.00 Each

ON JUNE 10th, CLICK ON ANY POSTER TO ORDER.

MyPyramid PortionSized Poster

MyPyramid for Expecting Moms Poster

MyPyramid for Kids Poster Set