September P.E. Update!

A new school year has begun and the children have high expectation to learn and have fun in our Physical Education classes.

Through September we have focused on sharing their excitement, while integrating P.E. class rules for behavior, sportsmanship, class attitude, and how we can promote mutual respect for one another.

The activities presented to the children have focused on: cooperative games and working together; getting to know classmates; beginning soccer skills such as dribbling, trapping, controlling the dribble; and various tag games, as well as Bandit and Uninterrupted games.

These initial days are critical in having the children learn class rules and playing together in a respectful way. This foundation will serve as an important guideline in helping your child get the most time on learning and participation.

Do You Believe in me?

This You Tube video is inspirational and the message is clear and worth listening to as parents and professionals and for that matter.....anyone who values the concept that we all have something special to offer to the world!

We believe in your children and the Physical Education Program always stresses that the children Do Their Best!!!!! Because we know that with time, that each child will find their own measure of success in which they can feel proud of accomplishing some task. We hope that with our guidance and support that they truly do learn to ....Believe in themselves!

Enjoy!

Obesity discussion! From Kids Source (see link)

The Problem of Obesity
Not all obese infants become obese children, and not all obese children become obese adults. However, the prevalence of obesity increases with age among both males and females (Lohman, 1987), and there is a greater likelihood that obesity beginning even in early childhood will persist through the life span (Epstein, Wing, Koeske, & Valoski, 1987).

Obesity presents numerous problems for the child. In addition to increasing the risk of obesity in adulthood, childhood obesity is the leading cause of pediatric hypertension, is associated with Type II diabetes mellitus, increases the risk of coronary heart disease, increases stress on the weight-bearing joints, lowers self-esteem, and affects relationships with peers. Some authorities feel that social and psychological problems are the most significant consequences of obesity in children.

Causes of Childhood Obesity
As with adult-onset obesity, childhood obesity has multiple causes centering around an imbalance between energy in (calories obtained from food) and energy out (calories expended in the basal metabolic rate and physical activity). Childhood obesity most likely results from an interaction of nutritional, psychological, familial, and physiological factors.

The Family
The risk of becoming obese is greatest among children who have two obese parents (Dietz, 1983). This may be due to powerful genetic factors or to parental modeling of both eating and exercise behaviors, indirectly affecting the child's energy balance. One half of parents of elementary school children never exercise vigorously (Ross & Pate, 1987).

Low-energy Expenditure
The average American child spends several hours each day watching television; time which in previous years might have been devoted to physical pursuits. Obesity is greater among children and adolescents who frequently watch television (Dietz & Gortmaker, 1985), not only because little energy is expended while viewing but also because of concurrent consumption of high-calorie snacks. Only about one-third of elementary children have daily physical education, and fewer than one-fifth have extracurricular physical activity programs at their schools (Ross & Pate, 1987).

Heredity
Since not all children who eat non-nutritious foods, watch several hours of television daily, and are relatively inactive develop obesity, the search continues for alternative causes. Heredity has recently been shown to influence fatness, regional fat distribution, and response to overfeeding (Bouchard et al., 1990). In addition, infants born to overweight mothers have been found to be less active and to gain more weight by age three months when compared with infants of normal weight mothers, suggesting a possible inborn drive to conserve energy (Roberts, Savage, Coward, Chew, & Lucas, 1988).

Treatment of Childhood Obesity

Obesity treatment programs for children and adolescents rarely have weight loss as a goal. Rather, the aim is to slow or halt weight gain so the child will grow into his or her body weight over a period of months to years. Dietz (1983) estimates that for every 20 percent excess of ideal body weight, the child will need one and one-half years of weight maintenance to attain ideal body weight.
Early and appropriate intervention is particularly valuable. There is considerable evidence that childhood eating and exercise habits are more easily modified than adult habits (Wolf, Cohen, Rosenfeld, 1985). Three forms of intervention include:

Physical Activity
Adopting a formal exercise program, or simply becoming more active, is valuable to burn fat, increase energy expenditure, and maintain lost weight. Most studies of children have not shown exercise to be a successful strategy for weight loss unless coupled with another intervention, such as nutrition education or behavior modification (Wolf et al., 1985). However, exercise has additional health benefits. Even when children's body weight and fatness did not change following 50 minutes of aerobic exercise three times per week, blood lipid profiles and blood pressure did improve (Becque, Katch, Rocchini, Marks, & Moorehead, 1988).

Diet Management
Fasting or extreme caloric restriction is not advisable for children. Not only is this approach psychologically stressful, but it may adversely affect growth and the child's perception of "normal" eating. Balanced diets with moderate caloric restriction, especially reduced dietary fat, have been used successfully in treating obesity (Dietz, 1983). Nutrition education may be necessary. Diet management coupled with exercise is an effective treatment for childhood obesity (Wolf et al., 1985).

Behavior Modification
Many behavioral strategies used with adults have been successfully applied to children and adolescents: self-monitoring and recording food intake and physical activity, slowing the rate of eating, limiting the time and place of eating, and using rewards and incentives for desirable behaviors. Particularly effective are behaviorally based treatments that include parents (Epstein et al., 1987). Graves, Meyers, and Clark (1988) used problem-solving exercises in a parent-child behavioral program and found children in the problem-solving group, but not those in the behavioral treatment-only group, significantly reduced percent overweight and maintained reduced weight for six months. Problem-solving training involved identifying possible weight-control problems and, as a group, discussing solutions.

Think NOW about your fitness condition!

School is soon approaching and will be here before you know it! Now is the time to start thinking about your fitness level!

Here are some things for you to think about now:

Check your BMI level, so that you get an idea where you are now and then during the school year we will have you check yourself again! Remember this is only one tool for you to use and along with other check points, it will give you a picture of your health. Use the links on this blog site to help you!

Next, remember the 5-2-1 program and you should check yourself to see if you are eating 5 fruits/vegetables daily, 2 hrs or less of TV/Computer time and 1 hr. of daily physical activity!

Start looking now for sales on good running sneakers that give your feet good support!

Get physical now so that your body can get ready for running, sweating and conditioning those muscles! Don't wait to start moving in our physical education class because you will find it hard to play many of the games and learn many of the new skills that you will be learning.

So, enjoy the summer and make a comment on this blog site should you need any help or advice, I'll be checking this blog for questions!

Until we meet again, enjoy the summer!

It's time to say good bye.....

Well another school year is coming to an end and its amazing to witness just how much the children have developed their skills, cooperative spirit and sportsmanship. During the summer months, the children should continue to work on their fitness endurance and skills by playing outside with friends and also learn how to play cooperatively with their peers in games. By being respectful of each other they learn sportsmanship and thus important life long skills to get along with people and learn to be fit!
It's been a fun year with your children and we look forward to the summer and to the fall when we get to again work on continuing their fitness and skills progress and development.
Enjoy the web page links and look for new ones in the fall and we would love to hear from you, so leave a comment here and let us know whether this new web page has been helpful or enjoyable to you or other feelings that you have about this new way for us to connect!
Enjoy your family and the summer and see you in the fall!
Cathie and Bob

Physical Education Chatter!!!!

Another report card sent home for you to review. We hope that you will look at the Physical Education section and review it with your child in terms of how they did this term. During this period we accomplished the following: we completed the 100th day activity which was comprised of 12 fun filled stations, each with their own challenge; numerous games stressing sportsmanship, gamesmanship, throwing and some dancing as well (cha cha slide, macarena, chicken dance, and Mexican hat dance). Mission Impossible was a big week in which 12 different challenges were set up for the kids to accomplish as "secret agents".
Jump Rope for Heart was the main feature of our efforts this month. Children learned about the meaning of helping to raise money for the Heart Fund cause, while having fun and earning some rewards for their efforts. The whole school benefitted by the talk and by the fun week of activities that the children participated in during their physical education time. The children did a commendable job raising an amazing amount of money:

$4174 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Given the nature of this economy, it is heart warming to see that people will do their best and contribute when they can to a cause that is dear to their heart. Thanks to everyone, all of those dollar donations really added up which propelled us up to reach this level of fundraising, our sincere thanks.
We all look forward to the final weeks of school as the children prepare for and participate in all of the special activities approaching! Enjoy every day of their journey through life as it all passes much too quickly!

Best Wishes from the staff!

BMI

With the recent passage of this legislation regarding schools being required by 2010 to complete BMI levels for all children, parents may be wondering about this scale and its implications. Follow the link on this page to help you to better understand how this is but a tool in helping families to get help in finding strategies that will help children to develop a healthy nutritional approach combined with an active lifestyle for good health! Body Mass Index scales are a helpful tool in a families efforts to inquire about body weight and thus use the information as a starting point for further discussions with professionals. Let's use all of these tools to make good choices for "our" kids.

NEW! Objective Data to consider! The reason to pay attention to BMI.

What are the health consequences of overweight and obesity for adults?
The BMI ranges are based on the relationship between body weight and disease and death. Overweight and obese individuals are at increased risk for many diseases and health conditions, including the following:
Hypertension
Dyslipidemia (for example, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high levels of triglycerides)
Type 2 diabetes
Coronary heart disease
Stroke
Gallbladder disease
Osteoarthritis
Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
Some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)