Active Schools in Full Swing!

The long and harsh winter that Winnebago County has been experiencing has not made it possible for local elementary school students to enjoy very many outdoor activities, including recess! Thankfully, the Active Schools Program has been up and running at many area elementary schools since December 2013!  As part of the Wisconsin Active Schools Initiative, the Winnebago County Active Schools Program works to encourage and implement different forms of activity throughout the school day in elementary schools.
Last fall, we had the wonderful opportunity to engage 5th grade students from Webster Elementary School, Traeger Elementary School, and Omro Elementary School in a pedometer evaluation.  The students were equipped with pedometers for one week, both at school and at home.  This gave baseline data that will be used to compare with data this coming fall, to see how their movement has increased in one year, after starting the Active School Programs!
By January 2014, nearly 200 Winnebago County Elementary school teachers have implemented the Active Classrooms Program!  This program consists of each participating teacher doing at least 1, 5 minute physical activity break during the school day with their class!  One fun example is shown here, while Mr. Dexheimer’s 1st grade class at Oaklawn Elementary School in Oshkosh participates in “The 12 Days of Fitness” where they do stork stands, hula hooping, glides, muscle poses, and much more!  This program is currently reaching nearly 5000 elementary school students each school day!

Wilson Elementary School and Roosevelt Elementary school in Neenah have also been front runners in the Active Schools Program by increasing active minutes in PE, including home and family components in PE assignments, and hosting walking programs for students during recess where students earn tokens each mile they walk!  There are many elementary schools in Winnebago County doing so many wonderful things in the area of active schools!
 Allowing elementary school students to participate in higher levels of activity during the school day not only gets some wiggles out but increases their attention in and out of class, decreases the likelihood of aggression, provides daily needed exercise to keep them healthy now and builds positive health habits to keep them healthy later!  Thank you Winnebago County elementary schools for taking the next step in providing a healthy environment for our sweet little up and coming generations!  There will be more to come this spring!