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"Increasing Physical Activity in Schools: PD for Elementary Teachers." Teachers' Domain. 29 Sep. 2011. Web. 19 Jun. 2013. <http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ketwell.health.pd.morethanchildsplay/>.
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"The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake. This isn't the kind of problem that can be solved overnight, but with everyone working together, it can be solved. So, let's move."
-First Lady Michelle Obama
The problem of childhood obesity is affecting a growing number of children in the United States. Currently Kentucky is third in the nation for high rates of childhood obesity and fourth for low rates of activity. A new study released in May of 2011 by Mission: Readiness, an organization of retired military leaders, finds that more than half of 18 - to 24-year-olds in Kentucky are overweight or obese—the highest percentage in the nation.1 In addition to significant life-long health risks, research shows that overweight and obese children suffer academically and socially.2 Increasing physical activity in our schools is but one part of what must be a coordinated effort on many fronts to reverse this trend, yet it is an important one that can have significant impact.
• Why are we experiencing this epidemic?
• How can increased physical activity in our schools help all of our children?
• What can I do to increase physical activity in my school?
In this module we will address those questions and hear the perspectives of teachers, administrators and leaders in physical education and wellness.
Video: 4m 38s
Video: 1m 32s
Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America is overweight or obese.3 Some Kentucky counties report an even higher rate of one in every two children. One third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives; many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma.4
How did we get here? In these two video segments from the KET documentary More Than Child’s Play: Why Physical Activity Matters, health and education professionals describe the shift in our culture that has resulted in this epidemic and the health consequences our children face because of it.
Think of your own childhood: How did you spend your free time? What kind of games did you play? Did you learn a physical activity in school that has become a lifelong activity for you—such as playing basketball, dancing, swimming? Do you remember encountering any obstacles that prevented you from participating in physical activity?
Write your response in the box below. After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them.
Let's Move! is the website of the campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States within a generation. The website offers resources and information on health, nutrition and increasing physical activity.
White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President is an inter-agency plan that details a coordinated strategy, identifies key benchmarks, and outlines an action plan to end the problem of childhood obesity within a generation. The goal of the action plan is to reduce the childhood obesity rate to just five percent by 2030 – the same rate before childhood obesity first began to rise in the late 1970s. In total, the report presents a series of 70 specific recommendations, many of which can be implemented right away.
Mission: Readiness, an organization of retired military leaders, released the report “Too Fat to Fight” in 2010 finding that more than a quarter of young adults are unable to meet physical requirements to join the military, creating a potential threat to national security.
There has been a fundamental shift in our culture that has affected all of us, and it is endangering our children. The good news is that we have the capability and the tools to reverse this trend. One place to start is school. 35-42% of children’s daily steps come during the school day. Increasing the number of these steps significantly increases overall activity levels.
Would you consider the children at your school to be more or less physically active than average?
Sources for information in this interactive are listed in More Than Child's Play Professional Development Endnotes.
Video: 1m 20s
In this video clip Dr. Adewale Troutman, former director of public health in Louisville, and Lorraine Cunningham, principal of Cochrane Elementary in Jefferson County, Kentucky talk about the important role schools can play in turning this epidemic around.
Watch the video and click on and read the excerpt of the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President. Answer the following questions: What role do you believe schools should play in supporting the healthy growth of children? What formal and informal opportunities does your school or district offer children to be physically active?
Write your response in the box below. After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them.
Excerpt from The White House Task Force to the President about the role that schools can play in increasing physical activity levels of children.
Increasing the level of physical activity in schools is central to the positive role schools can play. High levels of physical fitness may be beyond the reach of some children, but most children can be physically active. If we are to reverse the trend toward obesity, we must focus on creating opportunities for all children to move.
The phrases ‘physical education,’ ‘physical activity,’ and ‘physical fitness’ are often used inter-changeably. Do you know the difference?
• Physical Education: that part of the education program that contributes, primarily through movement experiences, to the total growth and development of all children. There is an increasing focus on acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to maintain physically active lifestyles throughout childhood and into adulthood.
• Physical Activity: any movement that expends energy. Engaging in regular physical activity provides immediate and long-term health benefits for children. Active children are more likely to become active adults.
• Physical Fitness: a possible product of physical education and activity. It is measured by a battery of tests and is largely pre-determined by a child’s genetic make-up. Not all children are able to achieve high degrees of fitness.
Video: 3m 58s
In this video Aaron Beighle, associate professor of Kinesiology and Health Promotion, University of Kentucky, talks about the shift that physical education is making toward the promotion of life-long physical activities.
After watching the video, reflect on the following questions: What message did you receive about physical education, physical activity and physical fitness when you were a student? What message do you think students are receiving today? What opportunities are there for children who do not identify themselves as athletes to participate in sports or other physical activities in your district or school?
Write your response in the box below. After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them.
The President’s Active Lifestyle Award is a program that helps both students and adults to increase physical activity of any kind in their everyday lives.
Sources for information in this interactive are listed in More Than Child's Play Professional Development Endnotes.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Association for Sports and Physical Education recommend that children receive a minimum of 60 minutes a day of age appropriate physical activity. Studies show that it does not need to be 60 consecutive minutes in order to reap the benefits; the time can be divided into much smaller increments of 5-10 minute periods.13 There is mounting evidence that this level of daily physical activity improves academic performance, in addition to improving a child’s health. A meta-analysis of nearly 200 studies of the effectiveness of exercise on cognitive functioning found that regular physical activity supports better learning.14
Video: 3m 36s
In this video, elementary school principals Anthony Mazzei and Fonda Crawford; Eva Stone, coordinator of school health services; and Aaron Beighle, associate professor of Kinesiology and Health Promotion, University of Kentucky, talk about the many benefits of increasing physical activity in school.
Watch the video and review the facts above: Did any of the answers in the quiz surprise you about the benefits of physical activity? Which ones? In the high stakes atmosphere of accountability, what are the barriers to increasing physical activity during the school day?
Write your response in the box below.After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them.
Action for Healthy Kids addresses childhood undernourishment, obesity and prevention by working with schools to help kids learn to eat right and be active every day.
The Center for Disease Control reports on the relationship of academic achievement and physical activity in these two reports:
Physical Inactivity and Unhealthy Dietary Behaviors and Academic Achievement
Executive summary The Association Between School-Based Physical Activity, Including Physical Education, and Academic Performance. Click here for a copy of the full report.
Good news! The 60 minute a day goal is within reach—schools already provide many opportunities for physical activity.
Without increased funding or legislative mandates, activity can be optimized in structures already in place in the school culture, significantly boosting the number of minutes children are active during the school day.
Watch this video excerpt from KET’s More Than Child’s Play about creative ways schools are getting students and teachers to be more active in school.
Video: 3m 36s
The goal of Let's Move in School is to ensure that every school provides a comprehensive school physical activity program with quality physical education as the foundation so that youth will develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to be physically active for a lifetime.
Of course you don’t just start running around the classroom. All teachers know that classroom management strategies are essential to everyone’s sanity. Establishing vocabulary, expectations, and routines for physical activity makes it an accepted part of the culture of the classroom.
Video: 4m 24s
Video: 4m 15s
In the first video, watch Wellington Elementary Teacher Jessica Ferry and Aaron Beighle, associate professor of Kinesiology and Health Promotion, University of Kentucky, talk about establishing routines for physical activity in the classroom and techniques for bringing students to a state of focused calm when the activity is over.
In the second video, Aaron Beighle shares classroom management strategies with Jefferson County school teachers in a professional development workshop.
After viewing the videos and reading the pdf Implementing Classroom-Based Physical Activity, describe the techniques that made the biggest impression on you. Describe how you would use them in your classroom. Share other techniques that you have found to be successful.
Write your response in the box below.After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them.
Video: 3m 06s
Video: 1m 46s
The classroom is an area where children can accumulate valuable amounts of physical activity throughout the school day. Many teachers experience great success in using physical activity to reinforce the content they are teaching. A good rule of thumb is to allow students to change activities after 20 minutes. If they have been sitting at their desk listening to the lesson or working, have them get up and move in ways that reinforces what they have been learning.
Click here to view diagrams of classrooms set up to enhance movement opportunities and improve safety.
In the first video, Wellington Elementary teacher Jessica Ferry demonstrates how she incorporates math and spelling exercises in her 2nd grade classroom.
In the second video, a Wellington Elementary Kindergarten class demonstrates their aerobic alphabet game.
View the videos and look at the pdf of classroom diagrams. Brainstorm ways you might get your students up and moving to reinforce what they are studying. How might you reorganize your classroom to facilitate movement? Share any physical activity that you are already using in the classroom.
Describe your answers in the box below. After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them.
Move-to-Improve is a classroom based curriculum designed by the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to increase physical activity among K - 5 students.
Brain Gym is a worldwide network dedicated to enhancing living and learning through the science of movement.
Energizers are classroom based physical activities that help teachers integrate physical activity with academic concepts. These are short (about 10 minute) activities that classroom teachers can use to provide physical activity to children in accordance with the request from the North Carolina State Board of Education's Healthy Active Children Policy.
Promoting Physical Activity and Health in the Classroom, (Robert Pangrazi, Aaron Beighle, Deb Pangrazi. Benjamin Cummings, 2009.) This book includes access to videos of classroom management techniques in action.
KET's Dance and Drama Toolkits contain lots of short activities as well as folkdance instructions to get students moving. Visit the Arts Toolkit website for more information.
Physical activity breaks throughout the day help keep students and teachers alike refreshed and able to focus, as well as add to overall activity levels. When students are asked to sit for long periods of time, they become restless and have difficulty focusing. Studies have shown that offering brief activity breaks decreases behavior problems and increases attentiveness.15 In addition to scheduled recess, these breaks can take two forms:
• Outside the classroom: Many schools incorporate a daily walking break in the day’s routine. Teachers lead their classes on walks outside the school, or inside if the weather is a factor. Such a walking break may be the prelude to a concentrated sedentary activity such as a writing assignment or a test, giving the students time to gather their thoughts, increase blood flow to the brain, and bring oxygen into their systems before they sit down.
• Inside the classroom: Mini-breaks of 3-10 minutes can be offered inside the classroom up to three times a day with only minimal disruption of lesson time. Children become adept at switching gears as routines and procedures are practiced. Mini-breaks may be teacher-led or might take the form of a dance or movement video.
Video: 2m 30s
In the video clip “Kentucky Schools on the Move,” you saw how some schools use short activity breaks such as walking during the day to boost productivity and support well-being. In this video, see how a teacher uses a dance video to take a break inside the classroom.
Do you currently take activity breaks in the classroom? What benefits do you observe? If you don’t currently make activity breaks part of your daily routine, describe how you see fitting them into your day. Discuss any barriers you may have to overcome in order to integrate short breaks during the day.
Write your answers in the box below. After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them.
The National Association for Sport and Physical Education offers a comprehensive list of activity break websites.
“Take Ten” is a classroom-based physical activity program for Kindergarten through fifth grade.
KET’s Dancing Threads offers multi-cultural dance for the classroom. Outstanding performers teach traditional Appalachian, African-American, and Native American dances and “play party games,” involving patterns of singing, dancing, poetry, mimicry, and play-acting. Each program features step-by-step instructions as well as a complete student performance of the game or dance. An interview with the performer gives the historical and cultural contexts of the dance.
Videos are accessible via KET EncycloMedia through KET On Demand or Discovery.
Many schools are boosting school-wide activity levels with before and after school programs.
Active Transport to School: Only a fraction of today’s children walk or bike to school, but those who do report being more physically active, including engaging in more moderate to vigorous activity than those who travel by car or bus. Programs like Safe Route to Schools, funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, have proven effective in getting children safely walking or biking to school. Even without dedicated funding, schools have found creative ways of making safe passages between home and school such as the “walking school bus” in which children meet at a designated corner like a bus stop and then walk with adult chaperones in a group to school.
Before School Activities: Many children arrive early to school and spend time grouped in the gymnasium. This is an ideal opportunity to engage them in stretching and breathing exercises, such as yoga, to help them focus for the day.
After School Activities: After school programs provide additional opportunities for students to be active. Collaboration with community partners such as YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, community centers, and local businesses, can help under-resourced districts develop successful after-school programming. Two types of activities recommended by the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity are:
Video: 4m 12s
In this video Lisa Miller, yoga instructor, Kathy Padgett, school social worker, and students at Ashland Elementary School in Lexington, Kentucky, talk about what they have gained through their weekly yoga class.
Choose two of the physical activity opportunities described above and explore how they might be added to your school or district. Do you foresee any difficulties in implementing them? How might these obstacles be overcome? What benefits do you foresee for the children and teachers at your school?
Write your response in the box below. After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them.
Click here to learn more about after-school physical activity programs designed for grades 4-8.
The Mileage Club is a walking/running program that can be easily implemented in schools during recess and lunch hours.
Since 1985 Creative Walking Inc. has helped over 5,000 schools and school districts implement walking and wellness programs.
Click here to learn more about resources for schools and families, including grant information for beginning school gardens.
Setting Up and Running a School Garden, produced by Agriculture and Consumer Protection, is another helpful resource.
Videos are accessible via YogaEd develops and produces health/wellness programs, trainings and products for teachers, parents, children and health professionals.
Safe Routes to School programs enable community leaders, schools, and parents across the United States to improve safety and encourage more children, including children with disabilities, to safely walk and bicycle to school. In the process, programs are working to reduce traffic congestion and improve health and the environment, making communities more livable for everyone.
Click here to learn more about information on starting a walking to school bus program.
Classroom parties, school fundraisers and parent activity nights are part of every school’s culture. They are also areas where physical activity can be increased in fun and rewarding ways.
School Parties: Rather than rewarding children with calorie-laden, sedentary pizza parties, reward them with fitness parties where children have the chance to play special games or to dance to their favorite music.
Fundraisers: Many schools report great success with walk-a-thons in which whole families can participate. Rather than sell cookie dough or candy as fundraisers, offer pedometers, jump ropes, and exercise balls for sale. In this way schools can support families in making healthier choices.
Parent Activity Nights: Make fitness part of family activity nights with physical activity stations throughout the school—shooting free throws, four square, hopscotch, yoga corner. Provide information about area swimming pools, gyms, bowling alleys, and community dance and fitness classes to encourage families to play together.
Video: 1m 16s
In this video, Jennifer Maines, principal of 9th District Elementary School in Covington, Kentucky talks about their walk-a-thon fundraiser and the fitness parties given to reward academic achievement, led by Meredith Potter, former Covington Community Learning Center coordinator.
After viewing the video, describe what your school or district policy is for school parties, fundraisers, and parent nights. Are there changes you could make in these areas? What changes might your school or district make to optimize physical activity in these areas?
Write your response in the box below. After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them.
Click The Center for Science in the Public Interest reports on healthy verses unhealthy fundraisers for school.
Click here to download a PDF with ideas and links for healthy fundraisers.
Top School Fundraisers is a site with ideas for healthy alternatives for parties and school fundraisers.
Click here to download a guide to healthy school parties from Hancock County, Kentucky.
Get healthy school party ideas from Alliance for a Healthy Generation.
Regularly scheduled recess periods provide significant physical activity opportunities and allows children to apply skills learned in PE, such as decision making, cooperation, conflict resolution, and contributes to their motor skill development—strategies for optimizing activity levels during recess include:
Video: 3m 54s
In this video, Aaron Beighle, associate professor of Kinesiology and Health Promotion, University of Kentucky, Lorraine Cunningham, principal of Cochran Elementary, and Eva Stone, health coordinator Lincoln County School District, talk about the value of recess, teacher involvement, and using extra recess as an incentive for on-task behavior.
Please read Maximizing Physical Activity During Recess by Aaron Beighle, Ph. D.
View the video and review the PDF by Dr. Beighle. Describe your school’s recess environment. On days you do not have recess, describe what you observe to be the impact on your students. Imagine ways to change your recess environment to increase activity.
Write your answers in the box below. After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them.
The purpose of the Peaceful Playground Program is to introduce children and school staff to the many choices of activities available on playgrounds and field areas.
Read the National Association for Sports and Physical Education position statement on recess.
The Active and Healthy Schools program provides resources to change the school environment so students are encouraged to increase their physical activity levels and make healthy nutrition choices.
Video: 3m 01s
In this video, Eva Stone, district health coordinator, describes how one school in Kentucky developed a wildly popular after school Zumba class out of partnerships with community health organizations.
What do you know about your school’s wellness policy? Is there an active wellness committee? If your school doesn’t have an active wellness council yet, how do you envision it working? Who would be part of it? How might the wellness of teachers and staff be improved?
Write your answers in the box below. After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them. After saving your notes, you can use the review my work link below and at the top of the lesson box to view your saved notes and print them.
Coordinated school health is recommended by CDC as a strategy for improving students' health and learning in our nation’s schools. This page outlines the rationale and goals for coordinated school health and provides a model framework for planning.
Click here to download coordinated school health planning and training materials from the Kentucky Department of Education.
Click here for a listing of heath and wellness program resources.
Click here for an example of coordinated district health from Bardstown, Kentucky.
Beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year, the Kentucky assessment program will include program reviews and program audits for arts and humanities, practical living skills and career studies, and writing. By engaging fully in the program review process, a school can build and continually strengthen their comprehensive school-based physical activity program. Physical activity is linked to health standards in the Practical Living Skills and Career Studies (PLS/CS) program.
Video: 3m 28s
Students are not the only ones bringing new health habits home. When we focus on the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of our students, we do the same for ourselves! Everyone wins.
In the video, elementary school principals Anthony Mazzei and Fonda Crawford talk about how they have benefited personally from the shift to an active school culture, and Sherry Hornston, a Hopkins Elementary parent, shares how the “Toe Token” walking club has become part of their family routine, helping her son manage his type 1 diabetes.
Interactive
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Sources for information in this self-paced lesson are listed in More Than Child's Play Professional Development Endnotes.
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Teachers' Domain, Increasing Physical Activity in Schools: PD for Elementary Teachers, published September 29, 2011, retrieved on ,
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Increasing Physical Activity in Schools: Professional Development for Elementary Teachers is a free, media-rich, self-paced professional development module offering elementary teachers and administrators tools for increasing levels of physical activity throughout the school culture.
Higher levels of physical activity support learning, on-task behavior and the development of life-long wellness.
Several of the video clips in this module were adapted from the KET's Emmy Award winning documentary, More Than Child's Play.
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