Students In Motion

By Kelly Elder
The importance of healthy eating and exercise has always been part of health class, but schools are taking getting in motion serious!
Saskatchewan in motion is a province-wide movement aimed at increasing physical activity for health, social, environmental and economic benefits.
Their vision is that the people of Saskatchewan will be the healthiest, most physically active in Canada.
Coronach School High School teacher Miss Ashley Rachul said, "(In Motion) is an initiative in schools all across our province to get our kids active."
Rachul explained that the Coronach School began physical activities in December. "Last month we did the '12 Things of Fitness' to correspond with the "12 Days of Christmas", this month our theme is 'New Year, New Experience".
Rachul volunteered to teach line dancing and the two-step as a fun physical activity.
Cathy Dufault, Grade 6 student at the Coronach School said, "It's sweet!" Dufault came to have fun but agrees that fitness is important. "I came to try to keep fit and to know how to line dance and two-step for when I'm older for weddings and stuff."
Rachul explained that they will be inviting students to participate at lunch hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the month of January and planned activities include Turbo Jam, relaxation time and an aerobic session.
The fitness sessions are open to students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. The line dance class included students from Grades 1-6.
A group of health and education groups in our region have banded together to take in motion one step further.
Five Hills Health Region, Prairie South School Division, Holy Trinity School Division, Saskatchewan in motion and Moose Jaw in motion are working together with 6 pilot schools to incorporate 30 minutes of Physical Activity, Everyday for Every Student.
Chantelle Rouault-Gibson, the in motion Schools - Project Coordinator who is out of Moose Jaw, explained the project. "Previous to this project, schools did activities on their own without support or follow-up". She said.
"The provincial in motion schools movement has kids active in schools across the porvince. Now, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Saskatchewan in motion are supporting a project in Five Hills Health Region to incorporate 30 minutes of moderate to vigourous daily physical activity in the schools." said Rouault.
Seed money from Saskatchewan in motion supported year one of the project and the Public Health Agency of Canada's Healthy Living Fund is supporting year two of the project, the only like funded project in this province.
Partner representatives attended a Physical Activity Celebration hosted by Empire Community School, 500 Coteau Street West, at 1pm on Monday, January 18. Empire students participate in weekly school assemblies that incorporate physical activity, lead by principal Steve Michaluk and vice principal Ward Strueby.
Rouault explained that this activity includes a lot of classroom activity and is supplementary to their Physical Education classtime.
According to Rouault, their are daily activity kits that are rotated through the classes, that give classroom teachers simple instructions for activities.
There are plenty of promising practices being identified in the schools, Assiniboia Elementary has in motion leaders nominated from each classroom, who work with assistants to activate their classes everyday. Assiniboia 7th Avenue, is a K-4 school that concentrate on active recess time. Their in motion champion, Sherry Saxton Richards instructed recess games for the students early in the year and sees those games in play on the school yard each day.
Roualt explained that the main focus of the project is students in grades K-8, but Lafleche Central is involving students from K-12.
Teachers at Lafleche Central incorporate physical activity into each class block with classroom energizer breaks. In their science lab where exercise balls are used as seats, students at Lafleche work on core strength and learn science lessons simultaneously.
Geri Hall, Chair of the Project Steering Committee and Superintendent of Learning at Holy Trinity Catholic School was on site to represent Ecole St. Margaret's and St. Michael's who each have their own action plans for incorporating physical activity into the school day. Ecole St. Margaret's has a school wide approach with an announcement before lunch each day for "Jammin' Minute Time". Each classroom then breaks into a workout provided by the Jam School Program. St. Michael's has student leaders that instruct and lead physical activities, this group of volunteers more than doubled from the first year of the project to the second year of the project.
All the schools receive new classroom activity ideas every 2 weeks with Daily Physical Activity Kits that rotate through the classrooms. These kits include equipment and activity sheets to easily implement classroom energizers. Beyond that each school is working with varied catalyst teams consisting of administrators, teachers, parents, and students to enact action plans drafted last year. The project will document promising practices and make recommendations for other schools looking to incorporate the 30 minutes of daily physical activity.