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Beaverton School District K-8 Physical Education Showcase

 

By Oregon Kids Move with Heart 

The American Heart Association’s Beaverton, Oregon ANCHOR campaign is working to increase access to physical activity opportunities throughout the school day in elementary and middle schools in the Beaverton School District. Made possible with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the campaign is working to increase awareness of the current state of elementary and middle school students’ activity levels, and is providing technical assistance to build support and momentum for the successful implementation of the physical education requirements that take effect in 2017. The goal is to increase the capacity for the school district to continue increasing and improving physical education and activity to better the health of students.

On March 17, 2016, Beaverton High School hosted the district’s Elementary & K-8 Physical Education Showcase. Students from 12 elementary and K-8 schools participated showcasing sports skills, aerobic activities, and cooperative activities and concepts learned in their physical education class, along with the Beaverton STARS Color Guard.

Being active can help with learning; physical activity can help youth improve their concentration, memory and classroom behavior. At the PE Showcase, students got to showcase their skills in activities like jump rope; 4 team capture the color, a game where teams compete to get all four of the same color balls in their basket first; dance; circus acts such as riding a unicycle and juggling; cone ball, a game where two teams compete to knock over the other teams’ cone by throwing a ball; flex ball football, a low-impact game of football; lightning ball, a game where the kids sit in a circle and toss the ball back and forth to each other; sprout ball, a form of dodgeball; and star wars tag, a Star Wars themed game of tag where kids defend the galaxy by playing storm troopers, rebels, Luke and Leia, and Darth Vader.

Kids today are less active than any previous generation. An inactive childhood is likely to lead to an inactive adulthood, a major contributor to chronic diseases like heart disease and stroke. Risk factors include being overweight, tobacco use, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and being physically inactive. Currently 78% of adults in Oregon have at least one risk factor, and 1 in 5 are physically inactive. While there are many forms of physical activity – physical education, physical activity breaks or “Brain Boosts,” recess, safe routes to school programs, intramural sports – the foundation for a lifetime of physical activity is effective physical education. Evidence-based physical education gives students the knowledge and skills to participate in a lifetime of physical activity.

Find out more: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Affiliate/Oregon-Kids-Move-With-Heart_UCM_477109_SubHomePage.jsp 

Follow Us: @BSDBrainBoost | @AHAOregon | #ORKidsMoveWithHeart  | #Partnering4Health

Read the original story here.

ANCHOR, or Accelerating National Community Health Outcomes through Reinforcing Partnerships, is a community capacity building project funded by the CDC's National Implementation and Dissemination for Chronic Disease Prevention initiative. The American Heart Association is working in 15 markets around the country to mobilize key stakeholders and partners to protect people from tobacco smoke through smoke-free environment initiatives, improve access to healthy, nutritious food where people live, learn, work, and play, and encourage increased physical activity through shared use agreements and support of physical education in schools.