As an educator you are given one of the largest influential roles in your students' lives. With childhood obesity and type II diabetes on the rise it is more important than ever that you begin to encourage healthy lifestyle habits in your students.

In order to get your class involved in a physical activity program it is important that you have a common goal in site. A goal can be set in many different ways. The two easiest ways to set goals are based on minutes of physical activity or you can set up a walking program and base the goals on either steps or distance.

By setting a goal as a class to either walk across North Carolina or to Move a Million Minutes, or similar goals, you are taking the element of individual competition out of physical activity. By including the entire class in the goal setting process you are giving them a stake in their success.

Energizers: Classroom Based Physical Activities! The way teachers integrate physical activity with academic concepts!

As you may know, the NC State Board of Education passed the Healthy Active Children (HAC) policy (HSP-S-000) in January 2003. In this policy, one section addresses physical activity in the school day. Schools are to provide appropriate amounts of physical activity at a level that increases heart rate and also to gain health benefit. The Department of Public Instruction in partnership with NC Healthy Schools and Be Active NC, supported East Carolina University (ECU) Physical Activity Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Matt Mahar and his team, to develop and pilot the "Energizers". The idea of "Energizers" is based on a project by the Michigan Department of Education called Brain Breaks"

Check out the Active Steps Youth program

Please visit our programs section or contact us for more information.