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Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE
Strategies From an Award-Winning Program
144 Pages, 7
Western society's tendency toward unhealthy lifestyles is well documented. Physical education can be a powerful resource in resisting this trend, helping children build healthy habits that extend not only beyond the classroom but beyond their school years as well.
For years, author Crystal Gorwitz has been at the forefront of a wave of healthy changes by developing a high-quality physical education curriculum: Her school has won a PEP grant and two NASPE STARS School awards, and she was honored as NASPE's National Middle School Teacher of the Year in 2004. She shares her award-winning experience in Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE: Strategies From an Award-Winning Program.
This guide offers
• sample unit plans that pave the way for students to make healthy, lasting changes;
• ideas for adding spark to your lessons and including more content on fitness, wellness, and lifestyle;
• tips for using heart rate monitors and pedometers in your physical education curriculum;
• ideas for working with colleagues, administrators, parents, businesses, and other organizations to enhance and support your physical education program;
• strategies for building wellness programs for staff and after-school and summer programs for kids; and
• ideas for authentic assessment that focus on measures of students' health.
The first chapter describes how you can embark on the PATH to teach the highest-quality physical education program. The four letters of PATH represent proven teaching strategies that will help you emphasize healthy lifestyles in your program:
Planning. Learn how you can set goals for making the changes you want to see in your program and designing your curriculum in thoughtful ways to achieve those goals.
Activity. Simply moving is a key to a healthy lifestyle! You can reduce standing-around time in your gym and get students active in measurable ways.
Technology. Heart rate monitors and pedometers offer new and exciting ways to get kids interested in their health and bring life to your gym.
Harmony. Discover how reaching out to others can enhance your program and extend its success far beyond the gym walls.
Each chapter begins and ends with applications of PATH to the chapter's topic, and sidebars throughout each chapter called Ideas That Work further apply PATH concepts to the content.
High-quality education requires high-quality assessment, so chapter 2 is full of advice on designing authentic assessments that give you meaningful information about your students' health. It also includes sample assessments you can use as a guide in designing your own.
No matter how solid a program is, it won't be successful if the students don't find it fun and exciting. That's why chapters 3 and 4 are filled with ideas on enhancing your fitness instruction with lively activities. Chapter 5 focuses on incorporating heart rate monitors and pedometers in your classes, which is not only fun for kids but also gives them an accurate view of how sedentary or active they are.
But this book doesn't stop with great ideas for your class curriculum; it shows how you can extend healthy lifestyles beyond the classroom. In chapter 6 you learn how to inspire school staff to adopt healthier habits, and chapter 7 outlines how to create after-school programs and design incentives for students to stay active in the summer months.
Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE is the resource you need to lead the way to healthy change throughout your school. Through the book's expert guidance, you will be empowered to improve your program, get your students involved in fun activities now, and start them on a path of fitness for life.
Chapter 1 Getting Started
It’s all about the PATH!
Chapter 2 Beyond Dressing Out
Use authentic assessment to find out how healthy your students are (or aren’t)!
Chapter 3 Unit Plans for a Lifetime
Moving beyond sport leads to motivated lifetime movers!
Chapter 4 Fitness Warm-Ups
Use the five components of fitness to plan fun warm-up activities that build your students’ bodies and minds!
Chapter 5 Using Heart Rate Monitors and Pedometers
Simple, inexpensive technologies can provide images of a healthy lifestyle!
Chapter 6 Staff Wellness
Follow the PATHway to a successful wellness program!
Chapter 7 After-School and Summer Programs
Promoting a healthy lifestyle beyond the classroom!
Crystal Gorwitz has been teaching physical education since 1992. She is a 2001 Carol M. White PEP grant recipient, the 2003 Wisconsin Middle School Physical Education Teacher of the Year, the 2003 Midwest Middle School Teacher of the Year, and the 2004 NASPE National Middle School Physical Education Teacher of the Year. She also was selected for the 2011 Champion Award from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
A teacher at Hortonville Middle School in Hortonville, Wisconsin, Gorwitz led her school in receiving NASPE STARS School Awards in 2005 and 2008. This award recognizes schools with physical education programs of excellence. Under her guidance, her school also received a Bronze Award from the Alliance for a Healthy Generation, which recognizes schools that provide a healthy environment for students’ learning.
Gorwitz is a member of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) and is president-elect of Wisconsin AHPERD. In her spare time, she enjoys doing yoga, fishing, and kayaking.
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception!
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception! Two awesome yet simple apps that I use in my classes are iHeartRate and iMuscle (both available in the Apple iTunes store). The iHeartRate app lets you take your pulse at your neck and use your other hand to tap with your finger on the screen to show your current heart rate. The iMuscle app shows students which muscles are used while performing various skills. These are only two examples—many more fitness apps are available for use in physical education. Apps can provide a great way for you to motivate your students to exercise outside of class time. For example, you can have your students use an app while exercising, save the data, and bring it to class the next day for you to review. Students can also use the pedometer app to see if they are reaching the goal of 10,000 steps a day. They can share in class how many steps they took during the previous day, and if they did not meet the goal, you can give them suggestions for integrating more fitness time into their schedules.
I would recommend starting with just one app and using it at home before you use it in your classroom. After you feel comfortable using it, share it with your students! If you are already using apps in your everyday life, share them with your students and talk about how the app is helping you lead a healthy lifestyle. You can also challenge your students to bring in titles of fitness or healthy lifestyle apps to class for you to check out. It is not necessary for the students to purchase the app—they can simply be in charge of researching what is available, and you can include money in your budget to purchase apps and try them out with your students to get their feedback. You will be amazed at how excited your students get about fitness when you start including apps in your lessons!
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program. The following are some benefits of using this approach:
- Teaches students what it means to be fit (fitness concepts)
- Creates many opportunities for cross-curricular activities (e.g., nutrition education) that enhance learning across the curriculum
- Offers you a template for creating a wide variety of fun and creative programming
For all these reasons, when our school district won a 2001 PEP grant, the three teachers who wrote the grant (Marcia Schmidt, Cheryl Richardson, and I) made the five components of fitness an integral part of our program. At the middle school level, I highlighted one or two components of fitness in our warm-ups during each week. The first week of the month emphasized cardiorespiratory endurance, the second week addressed muscular strength and muscular endurance, the third week covered flexibility, and the fourth week highlighted body composition and nutrition.
I start planning the five-components-of-fitness activities by making a list of everything I want my students be able to use outside my class in order to lead a healthy lifestyle:
- Vocabulary
- Fitness concepts
- Nutrition information
- Healthy lifestyle examples
- Strategies
This information guides me in choosing fitness-related warm-ups and other activities. I devote the first 5 to 10 minutes of each class to a warm-up activity addressing the week's featured fitness component. On Fridays, my students do an activity called Fitness Friday that is linked to the key fitness component for the week. For example, during muscular strength week the students do a muscular strength activity after they finish their heart rate monitor workout (which always serves as the first Fitness Friday activity, since cardiorespiratory fitness is not only emphasized 1 week per month but is also built into the other components of fitness wherever appropriate). I gauge my students' knowledge of these important fitness concepts by means of two assessments, which are discussed further in the final section of this chapter.
By concentrating on one component of fitness during each week, students develop a better sense of each component and how they can apply it to their everyday lives. They also learn the importance of being physically fit and begin to understand that it takes knowledge and exercise in all of the components to be healthy.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Cardio Yoga
Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
Cardio Yoga
Equipment
- Colored construction paper
- Photographs of students doing yoga poses (enough for students to use in groups of no more than three; number of poses determined by class size)
- Yoga mats (one per pair of students)
- High-energy music
Preparation
1. Take pictures of students doing each yoga pose. Print the pictures and glue them onto colored pieces of construction paper.
2. Spread out the yoga picture cards (facedown) in the middle of the chosen activity area (e.g., the center circle on a basketball court).
3. Spread out the yoga mats in a large rectangle located outside of the center area that contains the yoga picture cards.
Description
1. Have music playing when students arrive for class; instruct them to start moving in general space and then find a partner when the music stops playing.
2. Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
3. The partner on the mat runs to the middle area and selects a yoga pose card, then takes it back to the mat and performs that pose. Meanwhile, the other partner runs outside of the big rectangle of yoga mats (takes one lap).
4. The running student returns to the mat after doing one lap and gives his or her partner a high five. The students then switch roles—the partner who ran the lap now does the yoga pose, and the one who did the pose now runs a lap. The partners keep alternating yoga poses with running until the warm-up portion of the class is finished.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
Equipment
- Cones
- Heart rate monitors
- Pedometers
Preparation
1. Use cones to set up a run/walk course in a large space (indoor or outdoor). The specific course layout depends on the area in which you are teaching. If you are teaching outside, the course should be on a flat surface and form the shape of a square (not too big because you need to be able to see the students and talk with them). If you are teaching in a gymnasium, the course should be the size of a regulation basketball court. I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
2. Before class starts, make a list of pairs for your students to work in. One student in each pair wears a heart rate monitor; the other wears a pedometer. If you have an odd number of students, you can either act as the coach and motivator for one student or arrange one group of three, in which two students wear a heart rate monitor.
Description
1. Give the students wearing a heart rate monitor some time to get their heart rate up into their target heart rate zone. Meanwhile, have the students wearing pedometers do some stretching and show you that their pedometer reading is zero.
2. When the students wearing a monitor have their heart rates in their target heart rate zone, start the stopwatch and have the students wearing pedometers join in the activity. The students wearing a monitor run clockwise outside the cones. The students wearing a pedometer run counterclockwise inside the cones. Everyone works out for 12 minutes. (You can vary the time depending on the length of your class period.)
3. The students wearing pedometers act as coaches and motivators for their partners wearing heart rate monitors. The coaches cheer on their partners and encourage them every step of the way. They can ask their partners what their heart rates are and how they are feeling. If a partner's heart rate is on the low end of the target heart rate zone, the coach can give him or her tips for moving faster; on the other hand, if the heart rate is too high, the coach can help the partner by telling him or her to slow down a little. It is amazing how much cheering students do during this activity! It is really fun to see how concerned the students are about their partners and what tools they use to motivate them!
4. On the second day, have the partners switch roles and repeat the activity.
5. Base the students' grades on how long they stay in their target heart rate zone. You can also set a step count goal for them to achieve during this activity and grade them based on their pedometer step count. I have set step count goals by walking the course as fast as I can for 12 minutes and using my step count as the step count goal for the class.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception!
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception! Two awesome yet simple apps that I use in my classes are iHeartRate and iMuscle (both available in the Apple iTunes store). The iHeartRate app lets you take your pulse at your neck and use your other hand to tap with your finger on the screen to show your current heart rate. The iMuscle app shows students which muscles are used while performing various skills. These are only two examples—many more fitness apps are available for use in physical education. Apps can provide a great way for you to motivate your students to exercise outside of class time. For example, you can have your students use an app while exercising, save the data, and bring it to class the next day for you to review. Students can also use the pedometer app to see if they are reaching the goal of 10,000 steps a day. They can share in class how many steps they took during the previous day, and if they did not meet the goal, you can give them suggestions for integrating more fitness time into their schedules.
I would recommend starting with just one app and using it at home before you use it in your classroom. After you feel comfortable using it, share it with your students! If you are already using apps in your everyday life, share them with your students and talk about how the app is helping you lead a healthy lifestyle. You can also challenge your students to bring in titles of fitness or healthy lifestyle apps to class for you to check out. It is not necessary for the students to purchase the app—they can simply be in charge of researching what is available, and you can include money in your budget to purchase apps and try them out with your students to get their feedback. You will be amazed at how excited your students get about fitness when you start including apps in your lessons!
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program. The following are some benefits of using this approach:
- Teaches students what it means to be fit (fitness concepts)
- Creates many opportunities for cross-curricular activities (e.g., nutrition education) that enhance learning across the curriculum
- Offers you a template for creating a wide variety of fun and creative programming
For all these reasons, when our school district won a 2001 PEP grant, the three teachers who wrote the grant (Marcia Schmidt, Cheryl Richardson, and I) made the five components of fitness an integral part of our program. At the middle school level, I highlighted one or two components of fitness in our warm-ups during each week. The first week of the month emphasized cardiorespiratory endurance, the second week addressed muscular strength and muscular endurance, the third week covered flexibility, and the fourth week highlighted body composition and nutrition.
I start planning the five-components-of-fitness activities by making a list of everything I want my students be able to use outside my class in order to lead a healthy lifestyle:
- Vocabulary
- Fitness concepts
- Nutrition information
- Healthy lifestyle examples
- Strategies
This information guides me in choosing fitness-related warm-ups and other activities. I devote the first 5 to 10 minutes of each class to a warm-up activity addressing the week's featured fitness component. On Fridays, my students do an activity called Fitness Friday that is linked to the key fitness component for the week. For example, during muscular strength week the students do a muscular strength activity after they finish their heart rate monitor workout (which always serves as the first Fitness Friday activity, since cardiorespiratory fitness is not only emphasized 1 week per month but is also built into the other components of fitness wherever appropriate). I gauge my students' knowledge of these important fitness concepts by means of two assessments, which are discussed further in the final section of this chapter.
By concentrating on one component of fitness during each week, students develop a better sense of each component and how they can apply it to their everyday lives. They also learn the importance of being physically fit and begin to understand that it takes knowledge and exercise in all of the components to be healthy.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Cardio Yoga
Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
Cardio Yoga
Equipment
- Colored construction paper
- Photographs of students doing yoga poses (enough for students to use in groups of no more than three; number of poses determined by class size)
- Yoga mats (one per pair of students)
- High-energy music
Preparation
1. Take pictures of students doing each yoga pose. Print the pictures and glue them onto colored pieces of construction paper.
2. Spread out the yoga picture cards (facedown) in the middle of the chosen activity area (e.g., the center circle on a basketball court).
3. Spread out the yoga mats in a large rectangle located outside of the center area that contains the yoga picture cards.
Description
1. Have music playing when students arrive for class; instruct them to start moving in general space and then find a partner when the music stops playing.
2. Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
3. The partner on the mat runs to the middle area and selects a yoga pose card, then takes it back to the mat and performs that pose. Meanwhile, the other partner runs outside of the big rectangle of yoga mats (takes one lap).
4. The running student returns to the mat after doing one lap and gives his or her partner a high five. The students then switch roles—the partner who ran the lap now does the yoga pose, and the one who did the pose now runs a lap. The partners keep alternating yoga poses with running until the warm-up portion of the class is finished.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
Equipment
- Cones
- Heart rate monitors
- Pedometers
Preparation
1. Use cones to set up a run/walk course in a large space (indoor or outdoor). The specific course layout depends on the area in which you are teaching. If you are teaching outside, the course should be on a flat surface and form the shape of a square (not too big because you need to be able to see the students and talk with them). If you are teaching in a gymnasium, the course should be the size of a regulation basketball court. I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
2. Before class starts, make a list of pairs for your students to work in. One student in each pair wears a heart rate monitor; the other wears a pedometer. If you have an odd number of students, you can either act as the coach and motivator for one student or arrange one group of three, in which two students wear a heart rate monitor.
Description
1. Give the students wearing a heart rate monitor some time to get their heart rate up into their target heart rate zone. Meanwhile, have the students wearing pedometers do some stretching and show you that their pedometer reading is zero.
2. When the students wearing a monitor have their heart rates in their target heart rate zone, start the stopwatch and have the students wearing pedometers join in the activity. The students wearing a monitor run clockwise outside the cones. The students wearing a pedometer run counterclockwise inside the cones. Everyone works out for 12 minutes. (You can vary the time depending on the length of your class period.)
3. The students wearing pedometers act as coaches and motivators for their partners wearing heart rate monitors. The coaches cheer on their partners and encourage them every step of the way. They can ask their partners what their heart rates are and how they are feeling. If a partner's heart rate is on the low end of the target heart rate zone, the coach can give him or her tips for moving faster; on the other hand, if the heart rate is too high, the coach can help the partner by telling him or her to slow down a little. It is amazing how much cheering students do during this activity! It is really fun to see how concerned the students are about their partners and what tools they use to motivate them!
4. On the second day, have the partners switch roles and repeat the activity.
5. Base the students' grades on how long they stay in their target heart rate zone. You can also set a step count goal for them to achieve during this activity and grade them based on their pedometer step count. I have set step count goals by walking the course as fast as I can for 12 minutes and using my step count as the step count goal for the class.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception!
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception! Two awesome yet simple apps that I use in my classes are iHeartRate and iMuscle (both available in the Apple iTunes store). The iHeartRate app lets you take your pulse at your neck and use your other hand to tap with your finger on the screen to show your current heart rate. The iMuscle app shows students which muscles are used while performing various skills. These are only two examples—many more fitness apps are available for use in physical education. Apps can provide a great way for you to motivate your students to exercise outside of class time. For example, you can have your students use an app while exercising, save the data, and bring it to class the next day for you to review. Students can also use the pedometer app to see if they are reaching the goal of 10,000 steps a day. They can share in class how many steps they took during the previous day, and if they did not meet the goal, you can give them suggestions for integrating more fitness time into their schedules.
I would recommend starting with just one app and using it at home before you use it in your classroom. After you feel comfortable using it, share it with your students! If you are already using apps in your everyday life, share them with your students and talk about how the app is helping you lead a healthy lifestyle. You can also challenge your students to bring in titles of fitness or healthy lifestyle apps to class for you to check out. It is not necessary for the students to purchase the app—they can simply be in charge of researching what is available, and you can include money in your budget to purchase apps and try them out with your students to get their feedback. You will be amazed at how excited your students get about fitness when you start including apps in your lessons!
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program. The following are some benefits of using this approach:
- Teaches students what it means to be fit (fitness concepts)
- Creates many opportunities for cross-curricular activities (e.g., nutrition education) that enhance learning across the curriculum
- Offers you a template for creating a wide variety of fun and creative programming
For all these reasons, when our school district won a 2001 PEP grant, the three teachers who wrote the grant (Marcia Schmidt, Cheryl Richardson, and I) made the five components of fitness an integral part of our program. At the middle school level, I highlighted one or two components of fitness in our warm-ups during each week. The first week of the month emphasized cardiorespiratory endurance, the second week addressed muscular strength and muscular endurance, the third week covered flexibility, and the fourth week highlighted body composition and nutrition.
I start planning the five-components-of-fitness activities by making a list of everything I want my students be able to use outside my class in order to lead a healthy lifestyle:
- Vocabulary
- Fitness concepts
- Nutrition information
- Healthy lifestyle examples
- Strategies
This information guides me in choosing fitness-related warm-ups and other activities. I devote the first 5 to 10 minutes of each class to a warm-up activity addressing the week's featured fitness component. On Fridays, my students do an activity called Fitness Friday that is linked to the key fitness component for the week. For example, during muscular strength week the students do a muscular strength activity after they finish their heart rate monitor workout (which always serves as the first Fitness Friday activity, since cardiorespiratory fitness is not only emphasized 1 week per month but is also built into the other components of fitness wherever appropriate). I gauge my students' knowledge of these important fitness concepts by means of two assessments, which are discussed further in the final section of this chapter.
By concentrating on one component of fitness during each week, students develop a better sense of each component and how they can apply it to their everyday lives. They also learn the importance of being physically fit and begin to understand that it takes knowledge and exercise in all of the components to be healthy.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Cardio Yoga
Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
Cardio Yoga
Equipment
- Colored construction paper
- Photographs of students doing yoga poses (enough for students to use in groups of no more than three; number of poses determined by class size)
- Yoga mats (one per pair of students)
- High-energy music
Preparation
1. Take pictures of students doing each yoga pose. Print the pictures and glue them onto colored pieces of construction paper.
2. Spread out the yoga picture cards (facedown) in the middle of the chosen activity area (e.g., the center circle on a basketball court).
3. Spread out the yoga mats in a large rectangle located outside of the center area that contains the yoga picture cards.
Description
1. Have music playing when students arrive for class; instruct them to start moving in general space and then find a partner when the music stops playing.
2. Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
3. The partner on the mat runs to the middle area and selects a yoga pose card, then takes it back to the mat and performs that pose. Meanwhile, the other partner runs outside of the big rectangle of yoga mats (takes one lap).
4. The running student returns to the mat after doing one lap and gives his or her partner a high five. The students then switch roles—the partner who ran the lap now does the yoga pose, and the one who did the pose now runs a lap. The partners keep alternating yoga poses with running until the warm-up portion of the class is finished.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
Equipment
- Cones
- Heart rate monitors
- Pedometers
Preparation
1. Use cones to set up a run/walk course in a large space (indoor or outdoor). The specific course layout depends on the area in which you are teaching. If you are teaching outside, the course should be on a flat surface and form the shape of a square (not too big because you need to be able to see the students and talk with them). If you are teaching in a gymnasium, the course should be the size of a regulation basketball court. I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
2. Before class starts, make a list of pairs for your students to work in. One student in each pair wears a heart rate monitor; the other wears a pedometer. If you have an odd number of students, you can either act as the coach and motivator for one student or arrange one group of three, in which two students wear a heart rate monitor.
Description
1. Give the students wearing a heart rate monitor some time to get their heart rate up into their target heart rate zone. Meanwhile, have the students wearing pedometers do some stretching and show you that their pedometer reading is zero.
2. When the students wearing a monitor have their heart rates in their target heart rate zone, start the stopwatch and have the students wearing pedometers join in the activity. The students wearing a monitor run clockwise outside the cones. The students wearing a pedometer run counterclockwise inside the cones. Everyone works out for 12 minutes. (You can vary the time depending on the length of your class period.)
3. The students wearing pedometers act as coaches and motivators for their partners wearing heart rate monitors. The coaches cheer on their partners and encourage them every step of the way. They can ask their partners what their heart rates are and how they are feeling. If a partner's heart rate is on the low end of the target heart rate zone, the coach can give him or her tips for moving faster; on the other hand, if the heart rate is too high, the coach can help the partner by telling him or her to slow down a little. It is amazing how much cheering students do during this activity! It is really fun to see how concerned the students are about their partners and what tools they use to motivate them!
4. On the second day, have the partners switch roles and repeat the activity.
5. Base the students' grades on how long they stay in their target heart rate zone. You can also set a step count goal for them to achieve during this activity and grade them based on their pedometer step count. I have set step count goals by walking the course as fast as I can for 12 minutes and using my step count as the step count goal for the class.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception!
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception! Two awesome yet simple apps that I use in my classes are iHeartRate and iMuscle (both available in the Apple iTunes store). The iHeartRate app lets you take your pulse at your neck and use your other hand to tap with your finger on the screen to show your current heart rate. The iMuscle app shows students which muscles are used while performing various skills. These are only two examples—many more fitness apps are available for use in physical education. Apps can provide a great way for you to motivate your students to exercise outside of class time. For example, you can have your students use an app while exercising, save the data, and bring it to class the next day for you to review. Students can also use the pedometer app to see if they are reaching the goal of 10,000 steps a day. They can share in class how many steps they took during the previous day, and if they did not meet the goal, you can give them suggestions for integrating more fitness time into their schedules.
I would recommend starting with just one app and using it at home before you use it in your classroom. After you feel comfortable using it, share it with your students! If you are already using apps in your everyday life, share them with your students and talk about how the app is helping you lead a healthy lifestyle. You can also challenge your students to bring in titles of fitness or healthy lifestyle apps to class for you to check out. It is not necessary for the students to purchase the app—they can simply be in charge of researching what is available, and you can include money in your budget to purchase apps and try them out with your students to get their feedback. You will be amazed at how excited your students get about fitness when you start including apps in your lessons!
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program. The following are some benefits of using this approach:
- Teaches students what it means to be fit (fitness concepts)
- Creates many opportunities for cross-curricular activities (e.g., nutrition education) that enhance learning across the curriculum
- Offers you a template for creating a wide variety of fun and creative programming
For all these reasons, when our school district won a 2001 PEP grant, the three teachers who wrote the grant (Marcia Schmidt, Cheryl Richardson, and I) made the five components of fitness an integral part of our program. At the middle school level, I highlighted one or two components of fitness in our warm-ups during each week. The first week of the month emphasized cardiorespiratory endurance, the second week addressed muscular strength and muscular endurance, the third week covered flexibility, and the fourth week highlighted body composition and nutrition.
I start planning the five-components-of-fitness activities by making a list of everything I want my students be able to use outside my class in order to lead a healthy lifestyle:
- Vocabulary
- Fitness concepts
- Nutrition information
- Healthy lifestyle examples
- Strategies
This information guides me in choosing fitness-related warm-ups and other activities. I devote the first 5 to 10 minutes of each class to a warm-up activity addressing the week's featured fitness component. On Fridays, my students do an activity called Fitness Friday that is linked to the key fitness component for the week. For example, during muscular strength week the students do a muscular strength activity after they finish their heart rate monitor workout (which always serves as the first Fitness Friday activity, since cardiorespiratory fitness is not only emphasized 1 week per month but is also built into the other components of fitness wherever appropriate). I gauge my students' knowledge of these important fitness concepts by means of two assessments, which are discussed further in the final section of this chapter.
By concentrating on one component of fitness during each week, students develop a better sense of each component and how they can apply it to their everyday lives. They also learn the importance of being physically fit and begin to understand that it takes knowledge and exercise in all of the components to be healthy.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Cardio Yoga
Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
Cardio Yoga
Equipment
- Colored construction paper
- Photographs of students doing yoga poses (enough for students to use in groups of no more than three; number of poses determined by class size)
- Yoga mats (one per pair of students)
- High-energy music
Preparation
1. Take pictures of students doing each yoga pose. Print the pictures and glue them onto colored pieces of construction paper.
2. Spread out the yoga picture cards (facedown) in the middle of the chosen activity area (e.g., the center circle on a basketball court).
3. Spread out the yoga mats in a large rectangle located outside of the center area that contains the yoga picture cards.
Description
1. Have music playing when students arrive for class; instruct them to start moving in general space and then find a partner when the music stops playing.
2. Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
3. The partner on the mat runs to the middle area and selects a yoga pose card, then takes it back to the mat and performs that pose. Meanwhile, the other partner runs outside of the big rectangle of yoga mats (takes one lap).
4. The running student returns to the mat after doing one lap and gives his or her partner a high five. The students then switch roles—the partner who ran the lap now does the yoga pose, and the one who did the pose now runs a lap. The partners keep alternating yoga poses with running until the warm-up portion of the class is finished.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
Equipment
- Cones
- Heart rate monitors
- Pedometers
Preparation
1. Use cones to set up a run/walk course in a large space (indoor or outdoor). The specific course layout depends on the area in which you are teaching. If you are teaching outside, the course should be on a flat surface and form the shape of a square (not too big because you need to be able to see the students and talk with them). If you are teaching in a gymnasium, the course should be the size of a regulation basketball court. I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
2. Before class starts, make a list of pairs for your students to work in. One student in each pair wears a heart rate monitor; the other wears a pedometer. If you have an odd number of students, you can either act as the coach and motivator for one student or arrange one group of three, in which two students wear a heart rate monitor.
Description
1. Give the students wearing a heart rate monitor some time to get their heart rate up into their target heart rate zone. Meanwhile, have the students wearing pedometers do some stretching and show you that their pedometer reading is zero.
2. When the students wearing a monitor have their heart rates in their target heart rate zone, start the stopwatch and have the students wearing pedometers join in the activity. The students wearing a monitor run clockwise outside the cones. The students wearing a pedometer run counterclockwise inside the cones. Everyone works out for 12 minutes. (You can vary the time depending on the length of your class period.)
3. The students wearing pedometers act as coaches and motivators for their partners wearing heart rate monitors. The coaches cheer on their partners and encourage them every step of the way. They can ask their partners what their heart rates are and how they are feeling. If a partner's heart rate is on the low end of the target heart rate zone, the coach can give him or her tips for moving faster; on the other hand, if the heart rate is too high, the coach can help the partner by telling him or her to slow down a little. It is amazing how much cheering students do during this activity! It is really fun to see how concerned the students are about their partners and what tools they use to motivate them!
4. On the second day, have the partners switch roles and repeat the activity.
5. Base the students' grades on how long they stay in their target heart rate zone. You can also set a step count goal for them to achieve during this activity and grade them based on their pedometer step count. I have set step count goals by walking the course as fast as I can for 12 minutes and using my step count as the step count goal for the class.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception!
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception! Two awesome yet simple apps that I use in my classes are iHeartRate and iMuscle (both available in the Apple iTunes store). The iHeartRate app lets you take your pulse at your neck and use your other hand to tap with your finger on the screen to show your current heart rate. The iMuscle app shows students which muscles are used while performing various skills. These are only two examples—many more fitness apps are available for use in physical education. Apps can provide a great way for you to motivate your students to exercise outside of class time. For example, you can have your students use an app while exercising, save the data, and bring it to class the next day for you to review. Students can also use the pedometer app to see if they are reaching the goal of 10,000 steps a day. They can share in class how many steps they took during the previous day, and if they did not meet the goal, you can give them suggestions for integrating more fitness time into their schedules.
I would recommend starting with just one app and using it at home before you use it in your classroom. After you feel comfortable using it, share it with your students! If you are already using apps in your everyday life, share them with your students and talk about how the app is helping you lead a healthy lifestyle. You can also challenge your students to bring in titles of fitness or healthy lifestyle apps to class for you to check out. It is not necessary for the students to purchase the app—they can simply be in charge of researching what is available, and you can include money in your budget to purchase apps and try them out with your students to get their feedback. You will be amazed at how excited your students get about fitness when you start including apps in your lessons!
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program. The following are some benefits of using this approach:
- Teaches students what it means to be fit (fitness concepts)
- Creates many opportunities for cross-curricular activities (e.g., nutrition education) that enhance learning across the curriculum
- Offers you a template for creating a wide variety of fun and creative programming
For all these reasons, when our school district won a 2001 PEP grant, the three teachers who wrote the grant (Marcia Schmidt, Cheryl Richardson, and I) made the five components of fitness an integral part of our program. At the middle school level, I highlighted one or two components of fitness in our warm-ups during each week. The first week of the month emphasized cardiorespiratory endurance, the second week addressed muscular strength and muscular endurance, the third week covered flexibility, and the fourth week highlighted body composition and nutrition.
I start planning the five-components-of-fitness activities by making a list of everything I want my students be able to use outside my class in order to lead a healthy lifestyle:
- Vocabulary
- Fitness concepts
- Nutrition information
- Healthy lifestyle examples
- Strategies
This information guides me in choosing fitness-related warm-ups and other activities. I devote the first 5 to 10 minutes of each class to a warm-up activity addressing the week's featured fitness component. On Fridays, my students do an activity called Fitness Friday that is linked to the key fitness component for the week. For example, during muscular strength week the students do a muscular strength activity after they finish their heart rate monitor workout (which always serves as the first Fitness Friday activity, since cardiorespiratory fitness is not only emphasized 1 week per month but is also built into the other components of fitness wherever appropriate). I gauge my students' knowledge of these important fitness concepts by means of two assessments, which are discussed further in the final section of this chapter.
By concentrating on one component of fitness during each week, students develop a better sense of each component and how they can apply it to their everyday lives. They also learn the importance of being physically fit and begin to understand that it takes knowledge and exercise in all of the components to be healthy.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Cardio Yoga
Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
Cardio Yoga
Equipment
- Colored construction paper
- Photographs of students doing yoga poses (enough for students to use in groups of no more than three; number of poses determined by class size)
- Yoga mats (one per pair of students)
- High-energy music
Preparation
1. Take pictures of students doing each yoga pose. Print the pictures and glue them onto colored pieces of construction paper.
2. Spread out the yoga picture cards (facedown) in the middle of the chosen activity area (e.g., the center circle on a basketball court).
3. Spread out the yoga mats in a large rectangle located outside of the center area that contains the yoga picture cards.
Description
1. Have music playing when students arrive for class; instruct them to start moving in general space and then find a partner when the music stops playing.
2. Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
3. The partner on the mat runs to the middle area and selects a yoga pose card, then takes it back to the mat and performs that pose. Meanwhile, the other partner runs outside of the big rectangle of yoga mats (takes one lap).
4. The running student returns to the mat after doing one lap and gives his or her partner a high five. The students then switch roles—the partner who ran the lap now does the yoga pose, and the one who did the pose now runs a lap. The partners keep alternating yoga poses with running until the warm-up portion of the class is finished.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
Equipment
- Cones
- Heart rate monitors
- Pedometers
Preparation
1. Use cones to set up a run/walk course in a large space (indoor or outdoor). The specific course layout depends on the area in which you are teaching. If you are teaching outside, the course should be on a flat surface and form the shape of a square (not too big because you need to be able to see the students and talk with them). If you are teaching in a gymnasium, the course should be the size of a regulation basketball court. I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
2. Before class starts, make a list of pairs for your students to work in. One student in each pair wears a heart rate monitor; the other wears a pedometer. If you have an odd number of students, you can either act as the coach and motivator for one student or arrange one group of three, in which two students wear a heart rate monitor.
Description
1. Give the students wearing a heart rate monitor some time to get their heart rate up into their target heart rate zone. Meanwhile, have the students wearing pedometers do some stretching and show you that their pedometer reading is zero.
2. When the students wearing a monitor have their heart rates in their target heart rate zone, start the stopwatch and have the students wearing pedometers join in the activity. The students wearing a monitor run clockwise outside the cones. The students wearing a pedometer run counterclockwise inside the cones. Everyone works out for 12 minutes. (You can vary the time depending on the length of your class period.)
3. The students wearing pedometers act as coaches and motivators for their partners wearing heart rate monitors. The coaches cheer on their partners and encourage them every step of the way. They can ask their partners what their heart rates are and how they are feeling. If a partner's heart rate is on the low end of the target heart rate zone, the coach can give him or her tips for moving faster; on the other hand, if the heart rate is too high, the coach can help the partner by telling him or her to slow down a little. It is amazing how much cheering students do during this activity! It is really fun to see how concerned the students are about their partners and what tools they use to motivate them!
4. On the second day, have the partners switch roles and repeat the activity.
5. Base the students' grades on how long they stay in their target heart rate zone. You can also set a step count goal for them to achieve during this activity and grade them based on their pedometer step count. I have set step count goals by walking the course as fast as I can for 12 minutes and using my step count as the step count goal for the class.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception!
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception! Two awesome yet simple apps that I use in my classes are iHeartRate and iMuscle (both available in the Apple iTunes store). The iHeartRate app lets you take your pulse at your neck and use your other hand to tap with your finger on the screen to show your current heart rate. The iMuscle app shows students which muscles are used while performing various skills. These are only two examples—many more fitness apps are available for use in physical education. Apps can provide a great way for you to motivate your students to exercise outside of class time. For example, you can have your students use an app while exercising, save the data, and bring it to class the next day for you to review. Students can also use the pedometer app to see if they are reaching the goal of 10,000 steps a day. They can share in class how many steps they took during the previous day, and if they did not meet the goal, you can give them suggestions for integrating more fitness time into their schedules.
I would recommend starting with just one app and using it at home before you use it in your classroom. After you feel comfortable using it, share it with your students! If you are already using apps in your everyday life, share them with your students and talk about how the app is helping you lead a healthy lifestyle. You can also challenge your students to bring in titles of fitness or healthy lifestyle apps to class for you to check out. It is not necessary for the students to purchase the app—they can simply be in charge of researching what is available, and you can include money in your budget to purchase apps and try them out with your students to get their feedback. You will be amazed at how excited your students get about fitness when you start including apps in your lessons!
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program. The following are some benefits of using this approach:
- Teaches students what it means to be fit (fitness concepts)
- Creates many opportunities for cross-curricular activities (e.g., nutrition education) that enhance learning across the curriculum
- Offers you a template for creating a wide variety of fun and creative programming
For all these reasons, when our school district won a 2001 PEP grant, the three teachers who wrote the grant (Marcia Schmidt, Cheryl Richardson, and I) made the five components of fitness an integral part of our program. At the middle school level, I highlighted one or two components of fitness in our warm-ups during each week. The first week of the month emphasized cardiorespiratory endurance, the second week addressed muscular strength and muscular endurance, the third week covered flexibility, and the fourth week highlighted body composition and nutrition.
I start planning the five-components-of-fitness activities by making a list of everything I want my students be able to use outside my class in order to lead a healthy lifestyle:
- Vocabulary
- Fitness concepts
- Nutrition information
- Healthy lifestyle examples
- Strategies
This information guides me in choosing fitness-related warm-ups and other activities. I devote the first 5 to 10 minutes of each class to a warm-up activity addressing the week's featured fitness component. On Fridays, my students do an activity called Fitness Friday that is linked to the key fitness component for the week. For example, during muscular strength week the students do a muscular strength activity after they finish their heart rate monitor workout (which always serves as the first Fitness Friday activity, since cardiorespiratory fitness is not only emphasized 1 week per month but is also built into the other components of fitness wherever appropriate). I gauge my students' knowledge of these important fitness concepts by means of two assessments, which are discussed further in the final section of this chapter.
By concentrating on one component of fitness during each week, students develop a better sense of each component and how they can apply it to their everyday lives. They also learn the importance of being physically fit and begin to understand that it takes knowledge and exercise in all of the components to be healthy.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Cardio Yoga
Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
Cardio Yoga
Equipment
- Colored construction paper
- Photographs of students doing yoga poses (enough for students to use in groups of no more than three; number of poses determined by class size)
- Yoga mats (one per pair of students)
- High-energy music
Preparation
1. Take pictures of students doing each yoga pose. Print the pictures and glue them onto colored pieces of construction paper.
2. Spread out the yoga picture cards (facedown) in the middle of the chosen activity area (e.g., the center circle on a basketball court).
3. Spread out the yoga mats in a large rectangle located outside of the center area that contains the yoga picture cards.
Description
1. Have music playing when students arrive for class; instruct them to start moving in general space and then find a partner when the music stops playing.
2. Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
3. The partner on the mat runs to the middle area and selects a yoga pose card, then takes it back to the mat and performs that pose. Meanwhile, the other partner runs outside of the big rectangle of yoga mats (takes one lap).
4. The running student returns to the mat after doing one lap and gives his or her partner a high five. The students then switch roles—the partner who ran the lap now does the yoga pose, and the one who did the pose now runs a lap. The partners keep alternating yoga poses with running until the warm-up portion of the class is finished.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
Equipment
- Cones
- Heart rate monitors
- Pedometers
Preparation
1. Use cones to set up a run/walk course in a large space (indoor or outdoor). The specific course layout depends on the area in which you are teaching. If you are teaching outside, the course should be on a flat surface and form the shape of a square (not too big because you need to be able to see the students and talk with them). If you are teaching in a gymnasium, the course should be the size of a regulation basketball court. I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
2. Before class starts, make a list of pairs for your students to work in. One student in each pair wears a heart rate monitor; the other wears a pedometer. If you have an odd number of students, you can either act as the coach and motivator for one student or arrange one group of three, in which two students wear a heart rate monitor.
Description
1. Give the students wearing a heart rate monitor some time to get their heart rate up into their target heart rate zone. Meanwhile, have the students wearing pedometers do some stretching and show you that their pedometer reading is zero.
2. When the students wearing a monitor have their heart rates in their target heart rate zone, start the stopwatch and have the students wearing pedometers join in the activity. The students wearing a monitor run clockwise outside the cones. The students wearing a pedometer run counterclockwise inside the cones. Everyone works out for 12 minutes. (You can vary the time depending on the length of your class period.)
3. The students wearing pedometers act as coaches and motivators for their partners wearing heart rate monitors. The coaches cheer on their partners and encourage them every step of the way. They can ask their partners what their heart rates are and how they are feeling. If a partner's heart rate is on the low end of the target heart rate zone, the coach can give him or her tips for moving faster; on the other hand, if the heart rate is too high, the coach can help the partner by telling him or her to slow down a little. It is amazing how much cheering students do during this activity! It is really fun to see how concerned the students are about their partners and what tools they use to motivate them!
4. On the second day, have the partners switch roles and repeat the activity.
5. Base the students' grades on how long they stay in their target heart rate zone. You can also set a step count goal for them to achieve during this activity and grade them based on their pedometer step count. I have set step count goals by walking the course as fast as I can for 12 minutes and using my step count as the step count goal for the class.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception!
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception! Two awesome yet simple apps that I use in my classes are iHeartRate and iMuscle (both available in the Apple iTunes store). The iHeartRate app lets you take your pulse at your neck and use your other hand to tap with your finger on the screen to show your current heart rate. The iMuscle app shows students which muscles are used while performing various skills. These are only two examples—many more fitness apps are available for use in physical education. Apps can provide a great way for you to motivate your students to exercise outside of class time. For example, you can have your students use an app while exercising, save the data, and bring it to class the next day for you to review. Students can also use the pedometer app to see if they are reaching the goal of 10,000 steps a day. They can share in class how many steps they took during the previous day, and if they did not meet the goal, you can give them suggestions for integrating more fitness time into their schedules.
I would recommend starting with just one app and using it at home before you use it in your classroom. After you feel comfortable using it, share it with your students! If you are already using apps in your everyday life, share them with your students and talk about how the app is helping you lead a healthy lifestyle. You can also challenge your students to bring in titles of fitness or healthy lifestyle apps to class for you to check out. It is not necessary for the students to purchase the app—they can simply be in charge of researching what is available, and you can include money in your budget to purchase apps and try them out with your students to get their feedback. You will be amazed at how excited your students get about fitness when you start including apps in your lessons!
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program. The following are some benefits of using this approach:
- Teaches students what it means to be fit (fitness concepts)
- Creates many opportunities for cross-curricular activities (e.g., nutrition education) that enhance learning across the curriculum
- Offers you a template for creating a wide variety of fun and creative programming
For all these reasons, when our school district won a 2001 PEP grant, the three teachers who wrote the grant (Marcia Schmidt, Cheryl Richardson, and I) made the five components of fitness an integral part of our program. At the middle school level, I highlighted one or two components of fitness in our warm-ups during each week. The first week of the month emphasized cardiorespiratory endurance, the second week addressed muscular strength and muscular endurance, the third week covered flexibility, and the fourth week highlighted body composition and nutrition.
I start planning the five-components-of-fitness activities by making a list of everything I want my students be able to use outside my class in order to lead a healthy lifestyle:
- Vocabulary
- Fitness concepts
- Nutrition information
- Healthy lifestyle examples
- Strategies
This information guides me in choosing fitness-related warm-ups and other activities. I devote the first 5 to 10 minutes of each class to a warm-up activity addressing the week's featured fitness component. On Fridays, my students do an activity called Fitness Friday that is linked to the key fitness component for the week. For example, during muscular strength week the students do a muscular strength activity after they finish their heart rate monitor workout (which always serves as the first Fitness Friday activity, since cardiorespiratory fitness is not only emphasized 1 week per month but is also built into the other components of fitness wherever appropriate). I gauge my students' knowledge of these important fitness concepts by means of two assessments, which are discussed further in the final section of this chapter.
By concentrating on one component of fitness during each week, students develop a better sense of each component and how they can apply it to their everyday lives. They also learn the importance of being physically fit and begin to understand that it takes knowledge and exercise in all of the components to be healthy.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Cardio Yoga
Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
Cardio Yoga
Equipment
- Colored construction paper
- Photographs of students doing yoga poses (enough for students to use in groups of no more than three; number of poses determined by class size)
- Yoga mats (one per pair of students)
- High-energy music
Preparation
1. Take pictures of students doing each yoga pose. Print the pictures and glue them onto colored pieces of construction paper.
2. Spread out the yoga picture cards (facedown) in the middle of the chosen activity area (e.g., the center circle on a basketball court).
3. Spread out the yoga mats in a large rectangle located outside of the center area that contains the yoga picture cards.
Description
1. Have music playing when students arrive for class; instruct them to start moving in general space and then find a partner when the music stops playing.
2. Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
3. The partner on the mat runs to the middle area and selects a yoga pose card, then takes it back to the mat and performs that pose. Meanwhile, the other partner runs outside of the big rectangle of yoga mats (takes one lap).
4. The running student returns to the mat after doing one lap and gives his or her partner a high five. The students then switch roles—the partner who ran the lap now does the yoga pose, and the one who did the pose now runs a lap. The partners keep alternating yoga poses with running until the warm-up portion of the class is finished.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
Equipment
- Cones
- Heart rate monitors
- Pedometers
Preparation
1. Use cones to set up a run/walk course in a large space (indoor or outdoor). The specific course layout depends on the area in which you are teaching. If you are teaching outside, the course should be on a flat surface and form the shape of a square (not too big because you need to be able to see the students and talk with them). If you are teaching in a gymnasium, the course should be the size of a regulation basketball court. I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
2. Before class starts, make a list of pairs for your students to work in. One student in each pair wears a heart rate monitor; the other wears a pedometer. If you have an odd number of students, you can either act as the coach and motivator for one student or arrange one group of three, in which two students wear a heart rate monitor.
Description
1. Give the students wearing a heart rate monitor some time to get their heart rate up into their target heart rate zone. Meanwhile, have the students wearing pedometers do some stretching and show you that their pedometer reading is zero.
2. When the students wearing a monitor have their heart rates in their target heart rate zone, start the stopwatch and have the students wearing pedometers join in the activity. The students wearing a monitor run clockwise outside the cones. The students wearing a pedometer run counterclockwise inside the cones. Everyone works out for 12 minutes. (You can vary the time depending on the length of your class period.)
3. The students wearing pedometers act as coaches and motivators for their partners wearing heart rate monitors. The coaches cheer on their partners and encourage them every step of the way. They can ask their partners what their heart rates are and how they are feeling. If a partner's heart rate is on the low end of the target heart rate zone, the coach can give him or her tips for moving faster; on the other hand, if the heart rate is too high, the coach can help the partner by telling him or her to slow down a little. It is amazing how much cheering students do during this activity! It is really fun to see how concerned the students are about their partners and what tools they use to motivate them!
4. On the second day, have the partners switch roles and repeat the activity.
5. Base the students' grades on how long they stay in their target heart rate zone. You can also set a step count goal for them to achieve during this activity and grade them based on their pedometer step count. I have set step count goals by walking the course as fast as I can for 12 minutes and using my step count as the step count goal for the class.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception!
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception! Two awesome yet simple apps that I use in my classes are iHeartRate and iMuscle (both available in the Apple iTunes store). The iHeartRate app lets you take your pulse at your neck and use your other hand to tap with your finger on the screen to show your current heart rate. The iMuscle app shows students which muscles are used while performing various skills. These are only two examples—many more fitness apps are available for use in physical education. Apps can provide a great way for you to motivate your students to exercise outside of class time. For example, you can have your students use an app while exercising, save the data, and bring it to class the next day for you to review. Students can also use the pedometer app to see if they are reaching the goal of 10,000 steps a day. They can share in class how many steps they took during the previous day, and if they did not meet the goal, you can give them suggestions for integrating more fitness time into their schedules.
I would recommend starting with just one app and using it at home before you use it in your classroom. After you feel comfortable using it, share it with your students! If you are already using apps in your everyday life, share them with your students and talk about how the app is helping you lead a healthy lifestyle. You can also challenge your students to bring in titles of fitness or healthy lifestyle apps to class for you to check out. It is not necessary for the students to purchase the app—they can simply be in charge of researching what is available, and you can include money in your budget to purchase apps and try them out with your students to get their feedback. You will be amazed at how excited your students get about fitness when you start including apps in your lessons!
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program. The following are some benefits of using this approach:
- Teaches students what it means to be fit (fitness concepts)
- Creates many opportunities for cross-curricular activities (e.g., nutrition education) that enhance learning across the curriculum
- Offers you a template for creating a wide variety of fun and creative programming
For all these reasons, when our school district won a 2001 PEP grant, the three teachers who wrote the grant (Marcia Schmidt, Cheryl Richardson, and I) made the five components of fitness an integral part of our program. At the middle school level, I highlighted one or two components of fitness in our warm-ups during each week. The first week of the month emphasized cardiorespiratory endurance, the second week addressed muscular strength and muscular endurance, the third week covered flexibility, and the fourth week highlighted body composition and nutrition.
I start planning the five-components-of-fitness activities by making a list of everything I want my students be able to use outside my class in order to lead a healthy lifestyle:
- Vocabulary
- Fitness concepts
- Nutrition information
- Healthy lifestyle examples
- Strategies
This information guides me in choosing fitness-related warm-ups and other activities. I devote the first 5 to 10 minutes of each class to a warm-up activity addressing the week's featured fitness component. On Fridays, my students do an activity called Fitness Friday that is linked to the key fitness component for the week. For example, during muscular strength week the students do a muscular strength activity after they finish their heart rate monitor workout (which always serves as the first Fitness Friday activity, since cardiorespiratory fitness is not only emphasized 1 week per month but is also built into the other components of fitness wherever appropriate). I gauge my students' knowledge of these important fitness concepts by means of two assessments, which are discussed further in the final section of this chapter.
By concentrating on one component of fitness during each week, students develop a better sense of each component and how they can apply it to their everyday lives. They also learn the importance of being physically fit and begin to understand that it takes knowledge and exercise in all of the components to be healthy.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Cardio Yoga
Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
Cardio Yoga
Equipment
- Colored construction paper
- Photographs of students doing yoga poses (enough for students to use in groups of no more than three; number of poses determined by class size)
- Yoga mats (one per pair of students)
- High-energy music
Preparation
1. Take pictures of students doing each yoga pose. Print the pictures and glue them onto colored pieces of construction paper.
2. Spread out the yoga picture cards (facedown) in the middle of the chosen activity area (e.g., the center circle on a basketball court).
3. Spread out the yoga mats in a large rectangle located outside of the center area that contains the yoga picture cards.
Description
1. Have music playing when students arrive for class; instruct them to start moving in general space and then find a partner when the music stops playing.
2. Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
3. The partner on the mat runs to the middle area and selects a yoga pose card, then takes it back to the mat and performs that pose. Meanwhile, the other partner runs outside of the big rectangle of yoga mats (takes one lap).
4. The running student returns to the mat after doing one lap and gives his or her partner a high five. The students then switch roles—the partner who ran the lap now does the yoga pose, and the one who did the pose now runs a lap. The partners keep alternating yoga poses with running until the warm-up portion of the class is finished.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
Equipment
- Cones
- Heart rate monitors
- Pedometers
Preparation
1. Use cones to set up a run/walk course in a large space (indoor or outdoor). The specific course layout depends on the area in which you are teaching. If you are teaching outside, the course should be on a flat surface and form the shape of a square (not too big because you need to be able to see the students and talk with them). If you are teaching in a gymnasium, the course should be the size of a regulation basketball court. I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
2. Before class starts, make a list of pairs for your students to work in. One student in each pair wears a heart rate monitor; the other wears a pedometer. If you have an odd number of students, you can either act as the coach and motivator for one student or arrange one group of three, in which two students wear a heart rate monitor.
Description
1. Give the students wearing a heart rate monitor some time to get their heart rate up into their target heart rate zone. Meanwhile, have the students wearing pedometers do some stretching and show you that their pedometer reading is zero.
2. When the students wearing a monitor have their heart rates in their target heart rate zone, start the stopwatch and have the students wearing pedometers join in the activity. The students wearing a monitor run clockwise outside the cones. The students wearing a pedometer run counterclockwise inside the cones. Everyone works out for 12 minutes. (You can vary the time depending on the length of your class period.)
3. The students wearing pedometers act as coaches and motivators for their partners wearing heart rate monitors. The coaches cheer on their partners and encourage them every step of the way. They can ask their partners what their heart rates are and how they are feeling. If a partner's heart rate is on the low end of the target heart rate zone, the coach can give him or her tips for moving faster; on the other hand, if the heart rate is too high, the coach can help the partner by telling him or her to slow down a little. It is amazing how much cheering students do during this activity! It is really fun to see how concerned the students are about their partners and what tools they use to motivate them!
4. On the second day, have the partners switch roles and repeat the activity.
5. Base the students' grades on how long they stay in their target heart rate zone. You can also set a step count goal for them to achieve during this activity and grade them based on their pedometer step count. I have set step count goals by walking the course as fast as I can for 12 minutes and using my step count as the step count goal for the class.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception!
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception! Two awesome yet simple apps that I use in my classes are iHeartRate and iMuscle (both available in the Apple iTunes store). The iHeartRate app lets you take your pulse at your neck and use your other hand to tap with your finger on the screen to show your current heart rate. The iMuscle app shows students which muscles are used while performing various skills. These are only two examples—many more fitness apps are available for use in physical education. Apps can provide a great way for you to motivate your students to exercise outside of class time. For example, you can have your students use an app while exercising, save the data, and bring it to class the next day for you to review. Students can also use the pedometer app to see if they are reaching the goal of 10,000 steps a day. They can share in class how many steps they took during the previous day, and if they did not meet the goal, you can give them suggestions for integrating more fitness time into their schedules.
I would recommend starting with just one app and using it at home before you use it in your classroom. After you feel comfortable using it, share it with your students! If you are already using apps in your everyday life, share them with your students and talk about how the app is helping you lead a healthy lifestyle. You can also challenge your students to bring in titles of fitness or healthy lifestyle apps to class for you to check out. It is not necessary for the students to purchase the app—they can simply be in charge of researching what is available, and you can include money in your budget to purchase apps and try them out with your students to get their feedback. You will be amazed at how excited your students get about fitness when you start including apps in your lessons!
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program. The following are some benefits of using this approach:
- Teaches students what it means to be fit (fitness concepts)
- Creates many opportunities for cross-curricular activities (e.g., nutrition education) that enhance learning across the curriculum
- Offers you a template for creating a wide variety of fun and creative programming
For all these reasons, when our school district won a 2001 PEP grant, the three teachers who wrote the grant (Marcia Schmidt, Cheryl Richardson, and I) made the five components of fitness an integral part of our program. At the middle school level, I highlighted one or two components of fitness in our warm-ups during each week. The first week of the month emphasized cardiorespiratory endurance, the second week addressed muscular strength and muscular endurance, the third week covered flexibility, and the fourth week highlighted body composition and nutrition.
I start planning the five-components-of-fitness activities by making a list of everything I want my students be able to use outside my class in order to lead a healthy lifestyle:
- Vocabulary
- Fitness concepts
- Nutrition information
- Healthy lifestyle examples
- Strategies
This information guides me in choosing fitness-related warm-ups and other activities. I devote the first 5 to 10 minutes of each class to a warm-up activity addressing the week's featured fitness component. On Fridays, my students do an activity called Fitness Friday that is linked to the key fitness component for the week. For example, during muscular strength week the students do a muscular strength activity after they finish their heart rate monitor workout (which always serves as the first Fitness Friday activity, since cardiorespiratory fitness is not only emphasized 1 week per month but is also built into the other components of fitness wherever appropriate). I gauge my students' knowledge of these important fitness concepts by means of two assessments, which are discussed further in the final section of this chapter.
By concentrating on one component of fitness during each week, students develop a better sense of each component and how they can apply it to their everyday lives. They also learn the importance of being physically fit and begin to understand that it takes knowledge and exercise in all of the components to be healthy.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Cardio Yoga
Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
Cardio Yoga
Equipment
- Colored construction paper
- Photographs of students doing yoga poses (enough for students to use in groups of no more than three; number of poses determined by class size)
- Yoga mats (one per pair of students)
- High-energy music
Preparation
1. Take pictures of students doing each yoga pose. Print the pictures and glue them onto colored pieces of construction paper.
2. Spread out the yoga picture cards (facedown) in the middle of the chosen activity area (e.g., the center circle on a basketball court).
3. Spread out the yoga mats in a large rectangle located outside of the center area that contains the yoga picture cards.
Description
1. Have music playing when students arrive for class; instruct them to start moving in general space and then find a partner when the music stops playing.
2. Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
3. The partner on the mat runs to the middle area and selects a yoga pose card, then takes it back to the mat and performs that pose. Meanwhile, the other partner runs outside of the big rectangle of yoga mats (takes one lap).
4. The running student returns to the mat after doing one lap and gives his or her partner a high five. The students then switch roles—the partner who ran the lap now does the yoga pose, and the one who did the pose now runs a lap. The partners keep alternating yoga poses with running until the warm-up portion of the class is finished.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
Equipment
- Cones
- Heart rate monitors
- Pedometers
Preparation
1. Use cones to set up a run/walk course in a large space (indoor or outdoor). The specific course layout depends on the area in which you are teaching. If you are teaching outside, the course should be on a flat surface and form the shape of a square (not too big because you need to be able to see the students and talk with them). If you are teaching in a gymnasium, the course should be the size of a regulation basketball court. I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
2. Before class starts, make a list of pairs for your students to work in. One student in each pair wears a heart rate monitor; the other wears a pedometer. If you have an odd number of students, you can either act as the coach and motivator for one student or arrange one group of three, in which two students wear a heart rate monitor.
Description
1. Give the students wearing a heart rate monitor some time to get their heart rate up into their target heart rate zone. Meanwhile, have the students wearing pedometers do some stretching and show you that their pedometer reading is zero.
2. When the students wearing a monitor have their heart rates in their target heart rate zone, start the stopwatch and have the students wearing pedometers join in the activity. The students wearing a monitor run clockwise outside the cones. The students wearing a pedometer run counterclockwise inside the cones. Everyone works out for 12 minutes. (You can vary the time depending on the length of your class period.)
3. The students wearing pedometers act as coaches and motivators for their partners wearing heart rate monitors. The coaches cheer on their partners and encourage them every step of the way. They can ask their partners what their heart rates are and how they are feeling. If a partner's heart rate is on the low end of the target heart rate zone, the coach can give him or her tips for moving faster; on the other hand, if the heart rate is too high, the coach can help the partner by telling him or her to slow down a little. It is amazing how much cheering students do during this activity! It is really fun to see how concerned the students are about their partners and what tools they use to motivate them!
4. On the second day, have the partners switch roles and repeat the activity.
5. Base the students' grades on how long they stay in their target heart rate zone. You can also set a step count goal for them to achieve during this activity and grade them based on their pedometer step count. I have set step count goals by walking the course as fast as I can for 12 minutes and using my step count as the step count goal for the class.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception!
Using Apps to Teach the Five Components of Fitness
Students today use technology in every facet of their lives, and physical education class is no exception! Two awesome yet simple apps that I use in my classes are iHeartRate and iMuscle (both available in the Apple iTunes store). The iHeartRate app lets you take your pulse at your neck and use your other hand to tap with your finger on the screen to show your current heart rate. The iMuscle app shows students which muscles are used while performing various skills. These are only two examples—many more fitness apps are available for use in physical education. Apps can provide a great way for you to motivate your students to exercise outside of class time. For example, you can have your students use an app while exercising, save the data, and bring it to class the next day for you to review. Students can also use the pedometer app to see if they are reaching the goal of 10,000 steps a day. They can share in class how many steps they took during the previous day, and if they did not meet the goal, you can give them suggestions for integrating more fitness time into their schedules.
I would recommend starting with just one app and using it at home before you use it in your classroom. After you feel comfortable using it, share it with your students! If you are already using apps in your everyday life, share them with your students and talk about how the app is helping you lead a healthy lifestyle. You can also challenge your students to bring in titles of fitness or healthy lifestyle apps to class for you to check out. It is not necessary for the students to purchase the app—they can simply be in charge of researching what is available, and you can include money in your budget to purchase apps and try them out with your students to get their feedback. You will be amazed at how excited your students get about fitness when you start including apps in your lessons!
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program.
Emphasizing Fitness Components
The five components of fitness should form an integral part of your physical education program. The following are some benefits of using this approach:
- Teaches students what it means to be fit (fitness concepts)
- Creates many opportunities for cross-curricular activities (e.g., nutrition education) that enhance learning across the curriculum
- Offers you a template for creating a wide variety of fun and creative programming
For all these reasons, when our school district won a 2001 PEP grant, the three teachers who wrote the grant (Marcia Schmidt, Cheryl Richardson, and I) made the five components of fitness an integral part of our program. At the middle school level, I highlighted one or two components of fitness in our warm-ups during each week. The first week of the month emphasized cardiorespiratory endurance, the second week addressed muscular strength and muscular endurance, the third week covered flexibility, and the fourth week highlighted body composition and nutrition.
I start planning the five-components-of-fitness activities by making a list of everything I want my students be able to use outside my class in order to lead a healthy lifestyle:
- Vocabulary
- Fitness concepts
- Nutrition information
- Healthy lifestyle examples
- Strategies
This information guides me in choosing fitness-related warm-ups and other activities. I devote the first 5 to 10 minutes of each class to a warm-up activity addressing the week's featured fitness component. On Fridays, my students do an activity called Fitness Friday that is linked to the key fitness component for the week. For example, during muscular strength week the students do a muscular strength activity after they finish their heart rate monitor workout (which always serves as the first Fitness Friday activity, since cardiorespiratory fitness is not only emphasized 1 week per month but is also built into the other components of fitness wherever appropriate). I gauge my students' knowledge of these important fitness concepts by means of two assessments, which are discussed further in the final section of this chapter.
By concentrating on one component of fitness during each week, students develop a better sense of each component and how they can apply it to their everyday lives. They also learn the importance of being physically fit and begin to understand that it takes knowledge and exercise in all of the components to be healthy.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
Cardio Yoga
Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
Cardio Yoga
Equipment
- Colored construction paper
- Photographs of students doing yoga poses (enough for students to use in groups of no more than three; number of poses determined by class size)
- Yoga mats (one per pair of students)
- High-energy music
Preparation
1. Take pictures of students doing each yoga pose. Print the pictures and glue them onto colored pieces of construction paper.
2. Spread out the yoga picture cards (facedown) in the middle of the chosen activity area (e.g., the center circle on a basketball court).
3. Spread out the yoga mats in a large rectangle located outside of the center area that contains the yoga picture cards.
Description
1. Have music playing when students arrive for class; instruct them to start moving in general space and then find a partner when the music stops playing.
2. Instruct the student pairs to find a yoga mat; one partner stands on the yoga mat, and the other stands off of the mat.
3. The partner on the mat runs to the middle area and selects a yoga pose card, then takes it back to the mat and performs that pose. Meanwhile, the other partner runs outside of the big rectangle of yoga mats (takes one lap).
4. The running student returns to the mat after doing one lap and gives his or her partner a high five. The students then switch roles—the partner who ran the lap now does the yoga pose, and the one who did the pose now runs a lap. The partners keep alternating yoga poses with running until the warm-up portion of the class is finished.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
12-Minute Fitness Run/Walk
Equipment
- Cones
- Heart rate monitors
- Pedometers
Preparation
1. Use cones to set up a run/walk course in a large space (indoor or outdoor). The specific course layout depends on the area in which you are teaching. If you are teaching outside, the course should be on a flat surface and form the shape of a square (not too big because you need to be able to see the students and talk with them). If you are teaching in a gymnasium, the course should be the size of a regulation basketball court. I suggest that you put on a monitor and walk fast to see how many laps you do in 12 minutes.
2. Before class starts, make a list of pairs for your students to work in. One student in each pair wears a heart rate monitor; the other wears a pedometer. If you have an odd number of students, you can either act as the coach and motivator for one student or arrange one group of three, in which two students wear a heart rate monitor.
Description
1. Give the students wearing a heart rate monitor some time to get their heart rate up into their target heart rate zone. Meanwhile, have the students wearing pedometers do some stretching and show you that their pedometer reading is zero.
2. When the students wearing a monitor have their heart rates in their target heart rate zone, start the stopwatch and have the students wearing pedometers join in the activity. The students wearing a monitor run clockwise outside the cones. The students wearing a pedometer run counterclockwise inside the cones. Everyone works out for 12 minutes. (You can vary the time depending on the length of your class period.)
3. The students wearing pedometers act as coaches and motivators for their partners wearing heart rate monitors. The coaches cheer on their partners and encourage them every step of the way. They can ask their partners what their heart rates are and how they are feeling. If a partner's heart rate is on the low end of the target heart rate zone, the coach can give him or her tips for moving faster; on the other hand, if the heart rate is too high, the coach can help the partner by telling him or her to slow down a little. It is amazing how much cheering students do during this activity! It is really fun to see how concerned the students are about their partners and what tools they use to motivate them!
4. On the second day, have the partners switch roles and repeat the activity.
5. Base the students' grades on how long they stay in their target heart rate zone. You can also set a step count goal for them to achieve during this activity and grade them based on their pedometer step count. I have set step count goals by walking the course as fast as I can for 12 minutes and using my step count as the step count goal for the class.
Read more about Teaching Healthy Lifestyles in Middle School PE by Crystal Gorwitz.
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