According to a Fox-11 report, Rep. Chad Weininger (R-Allouez) has drafted a bill that would require elementary students in Wisconsin to participate in at least 30 minutes if daily physical education. The bill called the Get Youth Moving (Gym) Act and would boost students' PE requirements from three days a week to five days a week. According to this report local health organizations and the Wisconsin Parent Teachers Association are in support of this bill. The bill is scheduled to be introduced to the House of Representatives in early ...
Kids at Westwood Elementary School in Houston lacked programs to keep them active after classes ended each day. Samuel Karns, a health fitness instructor/coach at Westwood, decided to step up to the challenge and find a way to bring more exercise and sport related activities to keep his students moving. His work resulted in a series of afterschool fitness clubs, an afterschool intermural sports program, a student-led school health advisory council (K-SHAC) for elementary-school students, an action based learning lab and a one-of-a-kind district-wide initiative to bring physical activity to sixth-graders.
Emergence
Awareness: In fall 2009, Samuel Karns was only a few months into his job as a health fitness instructor/coach at Westwood Elementary School in the Spring Branch ...
Principal Matt Pope wanted to make a difference in the lives of the children at DJ Red Simon Middle School in Kyle, Texas, just south of Austin. When he found out that Simon students had among the highest obesity rates in the district, he immediately took action to introduce healthy changes to the students. The school eliminated junk food on campus and at concession stands and encouraged students to eat at least one fruit or vegetable during breakfast and lunch. They also implemented a policy to require PE for all, brain breaks throughout the day and—at the request of students—afterschool clubs to keep them active. EMERGENCE Awareness: Middle-school teachers face enormous responsibilities—meeting high academic standards, preparing students for real-world challenges, and ...
After years of trying to land a new park, residents of Earlimart, Calif., can now celebrate the success of a shared use agreement and soon-to-be-built 4-acre park. Residents living in the small rural community of Earlimart, Calif., lacked outdoor spaces for the physical activity they needed to develop and maintain healthy lifestyles and weights. The Earlimart School District’s superintendent responded to this need by trying an experiment. She had the custodial staff at one school leave the school gate open. Word got around that the school’s gate had been left open—soon the school’s field was filled with local residents. This experiment ultimately led to a change in the school district’s policy, which allows Tulare county residents from non-affiliated groups to use the school ...
According to a news article from GoUpstate.com, School Administrators, educators, and P.E. teachers in Spartanburg County are recognizing the need to bring more physical activity to schools. In an effort to do so, in 2011, the Mary Black Foundation granted Spartanburg County elementary public schools, St. Paul's Catholic School, and Oakbrook Preparatory funds to implement the SPARK P.E. program--a program that gets kids to be fifty percent more active than what is typically required at schools. In addition to using the SPARK P.E. program, four Spartanburg County schools: O.P Earle, Houston elementary, Cleveland elementary and Hendrix elementary, are working with Project Fit America--a national organization that works with schools to get kids to be more active--to increase the total ...
SPARK (Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids) works to improve the health of children, adolescents, and adults, by providing quality Physical Education programs through the SPARK curriculum. Through their evidence-based Physical Education, After School, Early Childhood, and Coordinated School Health programs, SPARK is reaching children around the country and across the globe. Curriculum materials developed by SPARK have been tested and evaluated and meet the National Association for Sport and Physical Education's (NASPE) standards for PE. In over 50 peer reviewed articles, the program has been shown to improve several health related outcomes for children. Now, according to this SPARK blog post, the Department of Defense has adopted the curriculum to be used for students in ...
According to an article from YumaSun.com, obesity levels have dropped at Gary Knox elementary by almost 10 percent, after launching an initiative to track the number of miles students walk. Since the initiative started, students logged a total of 14,371 miles as part of their Mileage Club program, which was created with help from the Yuma Regional Medical Center. Through Mileage Club program, children are encouraged to walk after lunch, during recess, and during family events hosted by the school. Children receive incentives like tokens to wear on a necklace, after reaching certain milestones. Since 2008, the Yuma Regional Medical Center has granted over $155,000 in funds to schools and non-profits in Yuma County, through the Yumans' Obesity Undermines their Health (YOUTH) ...
In this Texas Parent Teachers Association (PTA) resolution for school recess, the Texas PTA describes the benefits and importance of allowing elementary school children to participate in recess.
In this resolution, The Texas PTA makes it clear that they support: At least 20 minutes of recess, every day while school is in session;
That children receive both recess and physical education classes;
Policies developed by school districts to ensure that recess includes unstructured play, that playground equipment is safe, and that an adequate adult to student ratio of 1 adult to 30 students be established;
That recess is not withheld from children as a form of disciplinary action. The Texas Parent Teachers Association Website also includes this recess resolution template ...
Parents in New Haven called for change after realizing that children in some schools were not given time for recess. One parent, Tanhee Cookson Muhammad learnedthat her son Enaji was denied the right to recess as a form of punishment. At some schools children only have recess on days that they don’t have PE class. This led Muhammad to join up with a group of local parent advocates, who decided to create a petition as part of a campaign called Recess For All. The petition requests that all public school children, in grades K-8, receive at least 20 minutes of recess a day. Accordingto a state bill passed in 2012, children in grades K-5th are required to receive at least 20 minutes of physical activity throughout the schoolday. Still, not enough schools are enforcing this ...
