WOWS E-Newsletter 4-08-09

Welcome to Wednesday WOWS!

W-wonderful O-opportunities W-with S-schools

 April 8, 2009

....Easy HEAR-SEE-DO action tips each week

HEAR .... Provide a message to increase awareness of knowledge/skills
SEE .... Show people HOW to make healthy changes
DO .... Help people practice and make healthy changes

Be Active Your Way in May!

HEAR

May is a great month to encourage kids and families to be physically active! Plan to use the suggestions below and promote fitness anywhere kids and families, learn, live, work and play!

SEE

• The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, "National President's Challenge: Be Active Your Way in May!"
• National Employee Health and Fitness Day-May 20, 2009
• PECentral, "Lesson Ideas"
• HKC Resources:
• CIGNA Fit and Fun Families Toolkit - Employers
• Monthly Action Idea
• Acting Up booklet

DO

Present a special fitness activity, a day of events or a month long celebration!

1. Promote a fun fitness challenge! Try one of the ideas below:
• Classroom: Use the HKC Monthly Action Idea-Nov. 2008 "Pedometer Challenge". Kids use pedometers to record their daily steps and walk across a designated distance on a classroom map. Note: To complete in a month, modify the distance to cover a county or city.
• Worksite: Encourage employees to join the National President's Challenge: Be Active in May Your Way! for 6 weeks of physical activity. Provide motivational E-mails and prizes for those who complete the challenge!
  
  
2. Incorporate fun fitness into classroom lesson plans with the HKC Acting Up booklet. A simple activity can be found on page 10, "Volley Vocabulary". Kids volley a beach ball covered with vocabulary words. Use this activity to spell, practice words in sentences, give definitions or break words into syllables.
• Pre-prep: Obtain a beach ball, print vocabulary words on paper strips, and then tape the strips to the beach ball.
• To begin, gather kids in a group. Toss the ball into the group and have the players volley.
• Randomly direct players to stop. The player holding the ball looks at the word nearest his/her right thumb and then is directed to complete one of the following activities:
• spell the word outloud 3 times
• use the word in a sentence
• give a definition of the word
• divide the word into syllables
• Note: To modify for younger children, tape alphabet letters rather than words on the ball. Have players identify the letter and its sound.
  
  
3. Provide take home tip sheets to encourage family activity outside of work and school. Great downloadable examples include:
• CIGNA Fun and Fit Families "Active Play EVERY Day"
• Nourish Interactive "Tips for Raising Active Healthy and Fit Kids"