As reported in Child Magazine, September 2003, Peaceful
Playgrounds is the most implemented recess curriculum in the nation with
over 7000 schools.

See excerpts from the article below:
Last year, the Antelope Trails Elementary School, located in
Colorado Springs, adopted Peaceful Playgrounds. The program entails
painting the blacktop and fields with colorful grids and circles that can be
used for more than 100 games. The goal: to encourage kids to int…

As we enter the summer season the heat presents a particular challenge for summer school and year round school locations. Principals and physical educators will face daily decisions regarding children’s heat health on the playground.

It should be noted that kids absorb more heat than adults while sweating less. The
result is a greater propensity for heat cramps, exhaustion or heat stroke.
So how hot is too hot for physical activity? The determin…

From the Cabrillo PTA Newsletter
Peaceful Playgrounds Still Going Strong After 5 Years.

Five years ago, unsafe playground equipment was
removed at Cabrillo, leaving students with little to do
at recess. Faded blacktop markings were hard to see,
students became restless, and problems were
commonplace. Recess was no fun anymore.
Unresolved playground conflicts soon spilled over
into the classrooms. "Wouldn't it be nice," thought
our entire s…

Perhaps following a NYC initiative, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education unanimously adopted a resolution that would open school playgrounds to community use in the afternoons, on weekends, and during school vacations. The motion was introduced by Board President Mónica García and was co-sponsored by Board members Marlene Canter and Richard Vladovic, and builds on the District’s robust joint use construction program…

In researching childhood obesity I recently came across an article which described parents giving their overweight or obese children diet drinks such as slimfast or medifast meals...I was quite shocked and alarmed.

While limiting calorie consumption is on the right track, a more nutritious choice for the developing bodies of children is to focus on 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day...As well as following the FDA food guide pyramid.
If …

I ran across a nice piece entitled: PE in Our Nation’s Schools A case of "many children left behind" and a nice "FIT" for health care by Dr. Mike McGee on the Health Commentary website.

His position is that it is time to take on the issue of the lack of physical education in schools, which more and more advocates are characterizing as a public health issue. As more of a typical child's school day is given over to math or…

A recent report is suggesting that after a 20 year growth in obesity statistics it is finally leveling off. The proportion of US children and adolescents who were unusually heavy for their height rose by about 20 per cent from 1999 to 2004, but didn't change between 2003 and 2006.
The most recent statistic is that 32% are overweight obese, compared to 29% in 1999.

Let's keep this trend at a halt by keeping kids active this summer!

Suggest…

Recent studies indicate that what you eat effects how you do in school. A recently released study shows that homegrown foods have a positive impact on everything from test scores to attendance. Most recently, the “Children’s Lifestyle and School-Performance Study,” which appeared in the April issue of the Journal of School Health, found that children—regardless of their socioeconomic status—performed better in school if they increased their fru…

A new study from Pediatrics June 08 found that non-competitive games resulted in more physically active children when compare to competitive games. It seems that most competitive games (included in the study) involved games of elimination which limited participation time. More students reported enjoying participating in games of elimination however.

"This study highlights the importance of quality over quantity in a physical activity ses…

School districts across the nation are facing a difficult choice. Raise school lunch prices or offer fewer, less savory and less healthy options.

Given that schools are already taking a loss on each lunch served the outcome may be one of the first roll backs on the effort to stem the childhood obesity crisis.
While it costs about $3 to produce a school lunch, the U.S. Department of Agriculture pays districts $2.40 for meals eaten by children who…

Last week there were an abundance of articles and news coverage regarding the Journal of the American Medical Association (CDC data) study that found U.S. childhood obesity rates may be leveling off after surging for more than two decades. I found it difficult to get very excited about these new revelations. I will admit that "leveling off" is better than "gaining" (no pun intended) .

It reminds me of the visual of a boat…

Tips for healthy kids:

1) Provide them with at least five servings of vegetables and fruit a day.
What does that look like? a small apple, half of a banana, a handful of baby carrots, one celery stalk cut up and a stalk of steamed broccoli.

2) No sugary drinks: offer water once an hour, and 100% juice (1 serving/day), and or low fat milk.

3) Encourage children to be active. Buy them consumable equipment like balls, hula hoops, beanbags etc. Children…

Published in the Daily Herald5/31/08by Eric PetersonPictures by Bill Zars Daily Herald staff photographer.
Teachers and staff at Lakeview Elementary in Hoffman Estates know recess is meant for exercise, not playground conflicts. But they'd searched fruitlessly for a way to encourage the former and discourage the latter among students.Then a staff member whose own child attends school in St. Charles heard of a program in use there that sh…

Relationships between the home environment and physical activity and dietary patterns of preschool children was reported in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Journal last month.

They found that 3 factors influenced the amount of children's physical activity at home. 1. parental physical activity, 2. size of backyard, and 3. amount of outdoor play equipment.

Preschoolers in Family Care Homes Need More Phy…

The slide show addresses Peaceful Playgrounds research on what goes wrong on the typical school playgrounds and what schools can do.