We know exercise is crucial for strong, healthy minds and bodies. Here’s how you can incorporate physical activity into schools to give students the wonderful mental and physical health benefits of exercise.
Daily Physical Education
Students need physical education (PE) classes every day for the entire academic year! Kids need to move, and PE is essential for giving them structured time to do it.
PE is also important for teaching exercise activities. Exercises in PE classes should be moderate to vigorous intensity to improve kids’ cardiovascular fitness and strengthen their muscles and bones.
PE activities can include:
- walking
- running
- skipping
- sports
- dancing
- calisthenics
- exercise with resistance bands
- stretching
PE classes must be fun, enjoyable, age-appropriate, and non-competitive to help kids develop a life-long enjoyment of physical activity.
Remember: increasing PE time will improve students’ academic skills and behavior while keeping them healthy!
Daily Recess
Kids want- and need- to run around and play. Recess every day is a great way to meet this need and incorporate physical activity into their day.
Daily recess should be at least 30 minutes and should include vigorous, fun activities such as:
· climbing trees and jungle gyms
· using monkey bars
· swinging on swings
· playing games like hopscotch, tug-of-war, and tag
Adult supervisors should make sure students are being active and not sitting during recess time.
Daily recess is not just for young children- adolescents need recess too!
Classroom Movement Breaks
Help reduce kids’ risk of diseases from prolonged sitting by giving them breaks to move during classes.
Movement breaks give students’ bodies and minds relief from sitting. Standing up and moving increases blood flow through the body and to the brain, which invigorates students’ minds, increases their energy, and makes them more ready and able to learn.
Movement breaks also help students remember information. Our brains are designed to learn short bursts of information and then have time to process them into memory.
If movement breaks are at least 10 minutes and involve aerobic activities, students reap the benefits of aerobic exercise for the brain: better abilities to learn, remember, think critically, and stay focused.
Every 20-30 minutes, get kids moving with activities such as:
- standing up and stretching
- walking or jogging around the room
- marching in place
- jumping jacks
- yoga poses.
Movement Activities for Learning
Teachers: get creative and use physical activity to promote “active” learning!
Use creative movements instead of traditional sedentary methods to teach concepts. This not only gets kids moving, but also engages multiple senses, improves retention, and decreases boredom.
For example:
- physically do the actions and qualities of verbs and adverbs
- have students make the shapes of letters with their bodies
- use movements to represent concepts
- make a dance by combining movements that represent similar ideas
When kids get moving, kids get thinking!
Active Extra-curriculars
Include physical activity in after-school extra-curriculars. Kids are sitting during classes in school, so they need to move when the school day ends!
Offer “active” extracurricular activities such as:
· sports
· dance classes
· exercise classes
· cheerleading
· physical activities during after-care.
