Be Fit to Learn Monthly Themes
SY 22-23
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September 2022
September 2022
September is Family Health and Fitness Month! Engage your families (and other school community members) to increase opportunities for students to be physically active before, during, and after the school day. Here are some activities and resources to support you:
Activities/Ideas
Action for Healthy Kids has many great Family Fitness Night ideas and activities.
Incorporate family physical activity ideas into your school's family engagement efforts. See this tip sheet or Family Engagement for help.
Leverage your volunteers to coordinate and help with physical activity initiatives and events. For more information on Volunteer Programs contact volunteer.programs@aps.edu.
Resources:
October 2022
October 2022
October is a great time to focus on Outdoor Physical Activities. Here are a few ideas and resources to support increasing opportunities for outdoor physical activities for your students, families, and other school community members.
Activities/Ideas:
Start a Walking School Bus or plan an event for National Walk & Roll to School Day on Oct. 12th.
During Outdoor Learning Week, Sept. 26 – Oct. 1, 2022, incorporate physical activities into your Outdoor Education programming. See this tip sheet or email tln.support@aps.edu for help.
Engage with your Out of School Time providers to incorporate physical activities into their daily programming. Or incorporate a physical activity component into an event for the 2022 Lights on Afterschool. Contact outofschooltime@aps.edu for help.
Resources:
November 2022
November 2022
During November think about integrating more physical activity into your classroom content. Here are a few ideas and resources to support increasing opportunities for physical activity during class time for your students.
Activities/Ideas:
Create classroom environments that support physical activity. See Strategies for Classroom Physical Activity in Schools for help.
Add Brain Breaks throughout the day. Brain Breaks have real benefits for learning. They help reduce disruptive behavior and increase a child's ability to stay on task.
For K-5 classrooms, use GoNoodle to get students moving.
Resources:
December 2022/January 2023
December 2022/January 2023
December and January are great months to focus on Physical Activity strategies for recess. Recess helps students to achieve the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity that can improve strength and endurance; enhance academic achievement; and increase self-esteem for children and adolescents.
Here are a few ideas and resources to support increasing physical activity opportunities during recess for your students.
Activities/Ideas:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and SHAPE America have developed new guidance documents that provide schools with 19 evidence-based strategies for recess, as well as a planning guide and template.
Offer Jump Rope time during recess. Bandelier Elementary School Physical Education Teacher, Coach Jarvis, opens the gym during morning and afternoon recess and invites students to jump rope and hula hoop.
Integrate Pickleball into your recess activities. The Southwest Regional of the USA Pickleball Association can help you with equipment and setting up courts in your indoor or outdoor areas. Contact studentwellness@aps.edu for more information.
Resources:
February 2023
February 2023
February is American Heart Month, and a great time to help our students improve their cardiovascular health and to develop a Love for Physical Activity.
Here are a few ideas and resources to support increasing physical activity opportunities for your students.
Activities/Ideas:
Participate in American Heart Association's Kids Heart Challenge or American Heart Challenge. The Kids Heart Challenge prepares elementary students for success by supporting their physical and emotional well-being with essential resources for educators. The American Heart Challenge prepares middle and high school students for success by strengthening their physical and mental well-being and fostering their social responsibility.
Integrate some Heart-Health Activities or Cardio-Based Activities into your students’ day. SHAPE America offers classroom-ready & teacher-friendly resources that you can download and print.
Inspire a Love for Physical Activity with this Fitness Challenge Calendar, developed by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. This calendar includes a variety of fitness exercises with instructions, and football themed geography task cards.
Resources:
March 2023
March 2023
March is Music In Our Schools Month® (MIOSM®) and a great time to pair physical activity with music. Using music with movement is a great tool to support student learning and can help students feel more energized and less stressed.
Here are a few ideas and resources to support increasing physical activity opportunities for your students.
Activities/Ideas:
Integrate Music and Movement Activities into your classroom as a part of a warm-up activity, bell-ringer, a brain break or morning meeting.
Collaborate with music educators at your school to create cross-curricular activities. Music educators are experts at using movement exercises while teaching music concepts. For example, Motivating Students with Music for Physical Education Classes.
For more ideas, visit APS Fine Arts or contact our music resource teachers, Emily Steinbach and Shelley Ley.
Resources:
April/May 2023
April/May 2023
With the end of the school year in sight, it’s a great time to start planning your end-of-year celebrations and include a physical activity component. Dedicating a day for an active celebration is a great way to motivate students to have positive feelings about physical activity, it encourages students to provide support to classmates, and it promotes school pride.
Here are a few ideas and resources to support increasing physical activity opportunities for your students
Activities/Ideas:
Plan a Field Day using this Guide to Planning a Field Day or by watching the video 10 Steps to Planning an Awesome Field Day |Tips for PE Teachers|. Then incorporate some fun age appropriate activities like 53 Super Fun Field DayGames or PTOToday’s Field Day Activities—Ideas by Age.
Hold a fun Health and Fitness day by combining physical activities with nutrition education activities. Lauren Arellano, Community School Coordinator at Edward Gonzales Elementary School, held a Health and Fitness day that included a jog-a-thon, Yoga classes, and 4-square lessons. She also incorporated a nutrition activity from Roadrunner Food Bank’s SeedCorps program called “Healthy Foods Rainbow.” Contact studentwellness@aps.edu for more information.
Resources:
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