April 19, 2007
Healthy
and Active Living Update
Students at St.
Edward’s School have recently started a weekly aerobic exercise sessions.
Jonathon Mallard a fitness instructor, from Nubodies in MountPearl,
is scheduled to visit our school for the next seven weeks April 16 – June 05.
Primary Students (K-3) and Elementary
Students (4-6) will
participate in 30 minute aerobic sessions. The sessions incorporate robust
physical activity and popular music. Our first two sessions have proven to be
quite popular with all of our students.
Healthy and Active Living
Committee News
This year, students at St. Edward’s have participated in a Walk for
Your Breakfast on two occasions. There will also be a Walk
for Your Breakfast in early April. Students who have
returned their permission forms are bussed to Pond
Road where they meet their teachers and then proceed to the school
on foot. Once they arrive at school, students and teachers
are invited to eat breakfast in the cafeteria. Some parents
take the opportunity to walk with their children to school. This
is a wonderful way to encourage a healthy and fun activity.
St. Edward’s has implemented a new program called FITGO
which occurs on Friday afternoons. Each class creates a
FITGO card (similar to a BINGO card) picking exercises from a list which has
been provided. The activities are announced over the P.A.
and all students in the school participate in the exercises as a class. If
the exercise is written on the FITGO card, the teacher crosses it off. Once
a card is complete, the winning class calls the office over the intercom and a
prize, such as a free gym period, is awarded to the winning class or classes.
Students look forward to the FITGO sessions and they have demonstrated
a lot of enthusiasm while participating.
In the fall, teachers who are members of the Healthy and Active Living
Committee participated in a board-wide training session. While
there teachers were introduced to a new concept called the Omnikin Ball.
This is a huge ball that the students use in gym class which encourages
cooperative play amongst players. It has been a huge
success with students in all grades from K to 6 and students are making a lot
of progress thus far.
Please stay tuned for other initiatives at St. Edward’s which encourage
healthy and active living!