It’s time to introduce the Fly Movement challenge where you ‘tell the classrooms they will be competing against each other – hollerrrr! If you’ve ever worn a fitness tracker, but did not have any milestones to reach, then you’d understand JUST how boring wearing one can be. But when you have a clear purpose (reach a daily goal or score more moves then your co-worker), then things get exciting. Thus, this is an exciting new chapter for the kids participating in our creative kids’ health program.
Kids participating in the FLy Movement kids health program
Hopefully, you’ve already read Part 1 to this series, So You Want to Launch a Kids Fitness Program. If you haven’t, I recommend you start there as it explains everything you need to do before you launch a program and what to do when you visit the kids in their classrooms the first time.
Remember, there aren’t any rules for doing this (okay, well just a few). The goal in your 2nd visit is to introduce the fitness challenge, let the students know how they did against their teacher, and have some fun by playing a fun fitness game. We at Fly Movement also talk to the kids about goal setting where we share one of our goals and what we are doing to achieve that goal. Then we ask the kids what are some of their goals and what their plans are to achieve their goals.
Okay, here is how our 2nd visit with the kids typically goes.
Starting out
Your 3rd or 4th graders should be excited to see you since you gave them cool fitness trackers on your first visit and led them in a fun game. But still, be energized and motivated when you step into that classroom. How your kids react and engage with you is directly tied to your attitude. So, get energized!
Materials
For you second visit, you should know how many fitness moves the kids are doing on an average daily basis as well as how many moves their teachers are doing. (See Analyze kids physical activity using fitness tracker data). Also, you will need print outs of the fitness charade game that you will play with the kids along with your smartphone or stop watch. It’s not required you play this game, but through experience it’s one that we know kids enjoy playing. Reminder, you should be wearing your Movable fitness tracker and Fly Movement t-shirt : )
Talking Points
For the first minute or two, you can start off by asking how they are doing, how many moves they are generating, if they are wearing their fitness trackers, etc. As you walk to the front of the classroom, just start chatting with them, but don’t talk to them about a game or the Fly Movement challenge yet. Time ~ 1 minute.
Introducing Goal Setting (Optional)
Ok, now that you have their attention and you are in front of the classroom, here are some talking points about introducing goal-setting before we jump into the game:
Talk about YOUR goals first. Kids model what they see. When your students hear you talking about your goals and celebrating your successes, they will want to as well. It might go something like this: “Kids, I wanna tell you about a goal I set for myself this year. I want to visit New York City. So, to achieve my goal I need to save $1,000 so I can pay for my airplane tickets and hotel. (At this point some of the kids might start gasping and repeating One-Thousand-Dollars!) So, for five months, I am going to save an extra $200 every month to pay for my trip. I am doing to do this by not spending money on new clothes, going to the movies, or not buying any new apps or games. And at the end of five months, I will reach my goal and celebrate by going to New York City where I can see the statue of Liberty and Times Square! Time ~ 1-2 minutes.
Now you ask the kids what their goals are. Ask them, “Do you have any goals? For example, do you want to save $20 so you can buy a video game? Or do you want to learn how to play a sport? Or what do you want to be when you grow up?” If no one is talking, call on a few students specifically. And then, as they are telling you their goals, ask them, “Do you have a plan on how to achieve your goal? If you want to achieve your goal, you must develop a plan and stick with it. A goal without a plan is just a wish. Putting a plan into action is what’s going to allow you to achieve your goal. So, if for example you want to save $20, your plan might be to ask your parents what you can do around the house to make every money. If you want to read 5 books this summer, your plan might be to read every day for 30 minutes. If you want to go to college and be a Doctor, your plan will be to study hard, so you can make good grades.” Time ~ 2-3 minutes.
Introduce the Game
Now that you got the idea across about goal-setting and hopefully some of the students have talked about their goals and you discussed the steps he/she needs to achieve his/her goal, you can introduce the game you’d like to play. There’s no shortage of games you can select. You can view some we’ve played here or just do a Google search on fun kids’ games. Meagan, one our amazing board members, likes to have the kids play the charades game. Here’s how the game is played:
- the classroom is split down the middle
- 3 volunteers are selected from each side
- one side plays first
- we show the 3 volunteers an image of something they are familiar with (usually something that requires movement like brushing one’s teeth, shooting a basketball, hula hooping, etc.)
- The 3 volunteers then act out the action to their side of the classroom
- Once their classroom guesses the action they move onto the next action (5-6 actions total)
- Once all the actions have been completed, keep track of the total time it took for the team to finish all the actions
- Repeat with the opposing team, the team that took the least amount of time to complete all actions wins
Time ~ 5-6 minutes.
Introduce the Fly Movement Challenge
Okay, so once the game is finished and you’ve given HIGH FIVES to the winners, you can start preparing to exit by heading toward the door. But as you begin to leave, you can say something like, “Oh kids I forgot to ask you, do you think you moved more than your teacher?” (Wait for their response.) “Who wants to know if you scored more moves than your teacher!?” (Be loud, arouse anticipation and enthusiasm) “Well…. you guys DID average more moves than your teacher! Congratulations! You averaged (insert number of average moves per student here) moves per day while (name of Teacher) averaged x-number. Way to go!” (At this point they should be high-fiving each other and jumping up and down. Continue to say things like ‘Good Job’, ‘Way to Go!’) And of course, this is assuming the kids did score more moves than their teacher.
Then, as you are about to exit the door, tell them about the Fly challenge which can go something like this – “Kids, I have another challenge for you. In fact, it’s a goal. Your goal is to score more moves than Ms. (insert other Teacher’s name here) 3rd grade classroom across the hall! Can you do it?! Can you move more than them and score more moves?!”
(If they are not enthusiastic or not motivated, it’s YOUR JOB to instill belief in them RIGHT NOW).
“Who’s going to win between you and Ms. (name of other teacher) class?!” (get them pumped up!)
After a few seconds…. Ask them how they are going to achieve their goal – “Okay, I think you can beat them. But how are you doing to do it? How are you going to achieve your goals? What are you going to do every day so that you can win?”
(encourage them to give ideas and repeat any good ones)
Some ideas may include:
- Wear my fitness trackers every day
- Play outside
- Go to the park
- Play soccer or hula hoop or tag
After some ideas have been shared, now is the time for you to exit the classroom on a good vibe and let them know you will be back in two weeks to let them know how they are doing. If the kids are hollering, jumping, and excited as you walk out the door, then you had a great awesome Fly Movement 2nd visit!
Total Time: 20 – 27 minutes
A note in closing:
As new mentors/volunteers, we always want to know the absolute “best” way of doing everything when leading kids’ program, but try not to over-think it. Cuz the kids’ will instinctively know if you are having a good time and want to be there versus reading or acting out a script that you think is perfect. So just have fun with it ?
Peace!
Eric Melchor
Related:
http://flymovement.org/2017/09/20/so-you-want-to-launch-a-kids-fitness-program-read-this-first/
http://flymovement.org/2017/09/26/charging-syncing-kids-fitness-tracker-data/
http://flymovement.org/2017/10/14/analyzing-kids-physical-activity-using-fitness-tracker-data/
