Let’s Get Moving!
By Karen Sherman, Brian Collins and Kay Donnelly

Today's generation of American children may be the first to have a lower life expectancy than their parents. Childhood obesity has increased 35% in the past 10 years. Carrying excess weight for years can lead to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and premature death. For the first time, we are seeing substantial numbers of children with Type 2 diabetes, a condition that normally develops in adults.

As educators, it's our responsibility to encourage our students to eat healthy and exercise. Providing more opportunities to exercise will help our children fight obesity, perform better academically and grow up to be healthy adults. With spring just around the corner, here are some fun ways to start your students moving in your classroom:

Wake Up the Brain
Begin each day with a five minute warm-up to "wake up the brain" and get your students ready for learning. Lead
your class in standing and:

• jogging in place (one minute)
• jumping on two feet
• hopping on one foot, then the other
• criss-crosses: place your feet apart then cross the right over the left
• jumping jacks

Math and Fitness
Encourage your students to skip, gallop, slide, trot, jump, hop and jog when moving from one place to another. During a math lesson you can set up stations and have your students alternate physical activity and math. At every other station, they can move in different ways and then travel to the next station to work on a math problem. This is a great way to include fitness into the academic lesson.

This is a math game that allows children to practice throwing while reinforcing place values. Students should have knowledge of place values before playing the game.

The materials you need for this game are different-sized throwing objects (socks, newspaper balls or beanbags) and eight to 10 sets of plates or buckets with numbers with different place values highlighted (123,456,7[8]9) and the place value written out in small letters at the bottom.

Divide the class into small groups of two to four children. Allow each thrower to choose the type of object he or she would like to use to throw. Place the plates or buckets 10 feet away from each group or tape them to the wall. If you haven't appointed a group leader, call out a place value (tens, millions, etc.) and ask the student to throw to the sign with that place value highlighted. Have students focus on different aspects of throwing each time, such as stepping with the opposite foot, proper arm extension, etc. A point can be awarded for each correct hit on the target using proper throwing form.

Cue the Music
This is a fun activity that you can do as a class while playing some popular music. You can designate the exercises each line describes or have your students choose.

1. Students line up in single-file lines of five or six kids each.
2. The first person in each line is the leader and leads their line in an exercise for a designated number of times. Each "squad" has to do a different exercise.
3. When it's time to change, the leader jogs to the end of the line and the next person leads an exercise of his or her choosing. This continues until all your students have had a turn to be the leader.

Here's a great activity for building teamwork.

1. Divide your class into groups of six.
2. Ask each group to get in a single-file line with some distance between each player.
3. Each player should then stand in a straddle position.
4. At your signal, the last player in line gets on his or her knees and crawls between his or her teammates' legs until he or she reaches the front of the line.
5. When he or she gets to the front of the line, he or she should stand in a straddle position. Then it becomes the turn of the next person who is last in line. This continues until the team is back in its original order.

Scarf Juggling
This activity creates self-confidence, develops concentration and focus skills and improves hand-eye coordination. One of the great things about this activity is that setting up and cleaning up can be done in as long as it takes you to say, "While we are waiting to be called down to the assembly, why doesn't everyone pull out their scarves and practice juggling?" An inexpensive alternative to scarves are plastic grocery bags or tissues, but they aren't nearly as pretty. Once your students have really mastered juggling, you can create different juggling clubs like The 25 Consecutive Toss Club. Juggling is not only fun, but it also stimulates the brain by connecting neurotransmitters and improves concentration skills.

Start off simply

1. Give each of your students one scarf and challenge them to throw and catch with one hand, then the other hand. They can then move on to throw with one hand, catch with other, throw, clap and catch, clap twice, clap under a leg, spin in a circle, touch the ground, etc.
2. After your students have mastered this, advance to two scarves. Start with two scarves in one hand, throw one scarf, and when it gets to the top throw the other.
3. Then, catch and throw the first, catch and throw the second and keep going. The other hand is kept behind the back.

Another version is the "X" toss. Start with a scarf in each hand and toss one across the body. When it gets to the top, throw the other. Catch the first, pause, catch the second, then repeat the process. For more advanced students, encourage them to clap in between the throwing and catching.

When juggling with three scarves, start with two scarves in the dominant hand. The first is held loosely with the fingertips, the second in the other hand and the third is deep in the dominant hand. Toss the first and when it gets to up in the air, toss the second and when it's in the air, toss the third. After the toss is mastered, your students can begin catching them in the opposite hand that it was thrown from.

These are just the basics – a good book that has many ideas and illustrations on juggling is The Complete Juggler by Dave Finnigan (Jugglebug, 1991). Keep in mind that there is a link between good nutrition, physical activity and academic achievement – have fun with your students!

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Karen Sherman, Brian Collins and Kay Donnelly teach in the Physical Education department of Mantua Elementary in Fairfax, VA.

March, 2007, Vol.37, No.6