Afterschool physical activity shows promise in obesity battle

A study from Spain indicates that an afterschool physical activity program helped lessen the number of overweight and obese fourth- and fifth-grade girls, but not boys, and led to declines in cholesterol levels in girls and boys, report study researchers.

The MOVI program - 90 minutes of after-school games, dance, or sports such as soccer and basketball was held 3 days a week.


Grant Writing Webinar Today PST at 10. Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - Free registration for this date!

Read & Ride: A New & Innovative idea!

by Andrea Bossenmeyer


What a great idea! A way to get kids fit and increase literacy! It's called Read & Ride!

This is a free program for kids, where used bikes were collected from around the community! I love hearing about this because this is the Recycling for the bikes in the community that might otherwise end up in a landfill. Now they are being used to help kids and the community!

Learn more www.KidsReadAndRide.com

Go, Slow, Whoa: Parents to learn new lingo

Americans may be facing difficult choices at chain restaurants in the future. The health bill President Barack Obama signed into law Tuesday requires that restaurant chains post calorie counts for all the food items they sell. The law covers any chain with at least 20 outlets, amounting to more than 200,000 restaurants nationwide.

Adults may be learning the new lingo that kids have faced in making food choices for some time now as a result of school instruction on nutrition.


Go Foods These are foods that are good to eat almost anytime. They are the healthiest ones. Example: skim and low-fat milk.

Slow Foods
These are sometimes foods. They aren't off-limits, but they shouldn't be eaten every day. At most, eat them several times a week. Example: waffles and pancakes.

Whoa Foods
These foods should make you say exactly that — Whoa! Should I eat that? Whoa foods are the least healthy and the most likely to cause weight problems, especially if a person eats them all the time. That's why Whoa foods are once-in-a-while foods. Example: French fries.

Related Featured Articles

Schools role in childhood obesity crisis.


Schools Teaching Organic Gardening

Bullying Quiz: How will you do?

Take the bullying quiz.

Amazing Must See Video : A Wake-up Story

By Andrea Bossenmeyer

Around the Peaceful Playground offices, I'm known for starting our recycling bins, and insisting on non-toxic cleaning products like Method, as well as teaching co-workers about the hazards of processed foods etc.

I follow the Healthy Child Healthy World Blog and can't say enough good things about it. Their Mission is to igniting a movement that inspires parents to protect young children from harmful chemicals.

They recently released this new video that literally gave me goosebumps. Please watch this video and share it with all your friends. Why not retweet it?



As the saying goes, "awareness is the first step"! Let's create awareness and get involved. Please take action by sharing this blog post.

Painting Lines on the Playground. Easiest obesity intervention ever.

by Travis Saunders Obesity Panacea

In most developed nations, kids get far less physical activity than they did just a few generations ago. Given the strong links between physical inactivity and health risk (and given that we're now seeing "adult" diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes in children and teenagers), this has become a very real public health concern. Unfortunately, when it comes to increasing childhood physical activity levels, people often want to reinvent the wheel. For example, many people are enthralled with the Nintendo Wii as a means of increasing childhood physical activity - even though it is expensive, and the evidence supporting it is weak at best. At the same time, evidence continues to accumulate in support of simple, inexpensive interventions for increasing childhood physical activity. Today I'd like to briefly look at one of the simplest possible ways of increasing childhood physical activity levels - painting lines on a schoolyard playground.

The study

In a 2005 study from Preventive Medicine, Dr Gareth Sutton and Elaine Mullan examined the levels of objectively measured moderate and vigorous physical activity in a group of Welsh school children before and after their playgrounds

"were painted in bright fluorescent colors that varied according to school preference, although castles, dragons, clock faces, mazes, fun trails, dens, hopscotch, letter squares, snakes and ladders, and various animals were consistently popular in early primary schools. Late primary schools included markings for netball, football, and short tennis, and targets for games related skills."


What happened?
Not surprisingly, both moderate and vigorous physical activity levels increased by roughly 40% in the intervention schools, while activity levels slightly decreased in the control schools. The graph below illustrates the dramatic increase in the percentage of recess which was spent being moderately or vigorously physically as a result of the intervention.

STRATTON, G., & MULLAN, E. (2005). The effect of multicolor playground markings on children's physical activity level during recess Preventive Medicine, 41 (5-6), 828-833 DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2005.07.009

More on Painting lines on the playground........


Video of painting the playground.

Dr. Carson Honored by AAHPERD

West Virginia University’s Dr. Linda Carson will receive the Margie R. Hanson Elementary Physical Education Distinguished Service Award from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education during the national convention of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance ending today in Indiana.

Carson is also the founder of Choosy Kids, a company that uses the character “Choosy” to promote healthy decision making and active learning. Carson has written children’s music and other resource materials with embedded health messages showcasing the character.

In addition, Carson has served as an expert trainer for the obesity prevention initiatives, “I Am Moving, I Am Learning” and “Little Voices for Healthy Choices,” launched nationwide by the Office of Head Start.

She currently serves on the advisory board of Head Start Body Start National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play, headquartered in Reston, Va.

Well deserved. Congratulations to Linda!

Obesity Boot Camps Not the Answer; but Gym Class Is.

Mandated PE Policies Ignored in CA


Source: Dick Jones Communications from American Medical Network

Obesity boot camps are not the answer to the nation’s waistline problem, says Deborah J. Wray, associate professor in the department of kinesiology at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

“Many programs have developed out of a desire to take advantage of the money that can be made from the obesity epidemic,” she writes in the March 2010 issue of the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. “Many of these camps are designed to get kids in shape in a six-to 10-week period, but they are short-term fixes, just like diets.”

“Short-term camps will not work in the long term. It takes at least six months of continual practice to create a behavior change.”

The thing that will work is physical education class in school, she says, provided that it is taught correctly. Increasingly, however, physical education is not taught at all.

More on Obesity Boot Camps Not the Answer.

Blogs on topic:

Schools Role in Obesity Crisis.

Case Study Could Shape Physical Education Across the Nation.

Sec. Duncan advices more than math and reading are important

Reading and math are important, but so are social studies, science, the arts and recess, Duncan said Monday on ABC's ''Good Morning America.''


Expanding on and explaining President Barack Obama's proposal to change NCLB legislation, Duncan said the new focus goes beyond math and reading to ''a well-rounded education,'' Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Thursday in the NYT.

NYT article: Duncan: More Than Math, Reading Important

Blog posts on the importance of recess and play:

Unstructured Recess: One school's experience


Withholding recess is a "no, no".

Right To Recess Toolkit for saving recess.

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood

Great 5 minute trailer on kids and commercials. Important questions.

Active Kids Club: Go Out and Play

Did you like the video? Go to Activekidsclub.com for tips and tools to create your own outdoor playgroup where you live. Be inspired to get you and your kids to go out and play!

Follow them on twitter: http://twitter.com/activekidsclub

Bullied student gets $800,000

In what could turn out to be a landmark decision, a court ordered a school district to pay $800,000 in damages as a result of student who was bullied. The decision is unique as it was alleged that a student was bullied and harassed in both junior high school and the name calling continued until it escalated into pushing him into lockers at his high school.

This ruling puts schools and districts on alert that "it isn’t enough to simply stop a student from bullying another student once. Instead, it is necessary for there to be continuous efforts to prevent and stop systemic bullying, too."

Complete article.

Blog posts on the topic of bullying:

Life's lessons in good and evil.

Why Bullying Programs Succeed or Fail

PEPSI to remove sweetened drinks by 2012

Pepsi announced plans Tuesday to stop selling its sugary drinks in schools around the world by 2012.

Pepsi will sell water, fat-free or low-fat milk, and sugar-free juice.

For secondary students, low-calorie soft drinks like Diet Pepsi will be added to the mix.

Coca Cola announced earlier this month it would stop selling its products in primary schools, unless parents or school authorities requested it sell them.



Previous blog posts:

Nutrition in Schools - Childhood Obesity

Unstructured Recess: One school's experience

Yesterday the top was Structured vs Unstructured recess. In 1998 I wrote an article called, Eliminate Recess. Let's Skip It! The complete article is available on our webpage. The following is an interview with the principal where the original Peaceful Playgrounds Program was implemented.

After the program was introduced at E. Hale Curran Elementary School in Murrieta, California, the results produced immediate and significant reductions in injuries, nurse referrals, and disciplinary referrals, despite large enrollment increases.

"When I came here I two years ago as assistant principal, I could see the difference immediately," says David Koltovich, now principal at E. Hale Curran Elementary. "I saw almost a total involvement in games. No groups of students were loitering about without anything to do. When kids go out to the playground, they know where they're going. They have favorite games, and they heard right for them. Ninety- five percent of the students are engaged in play, while the few other take time under the shade area to eat their snacks." So what's the secret of this successful program? Koltovich points out that the program has five main components:

* Organizing the playground area around game markings which disperse the children in organized activities.

* Teaching and practicing conflict resolution strategies which the students use to resolve their own interpersonal problems, freeing supervisors to supervise.

* Providing ample game opportunities and equipment so that children don't have to wait in line or compete for a playing spot.

* Providing consistent expectations through training all staff members in the school, not just the playground supervisors, in behavior rules and game rules. And then providing training and re-enforcement each year for staff and students. What principal wouldn't like to see an 86% drop in disciplinary referrals? Or better yet, how about an 83% drop in injuries on your playground? This is just one example of a school's commitment to making the playground a safe and peaceful place for children. Certainly there are many more.

Peaceful Playgrounds Links.

Peaceful Playgrounds Program Information.

Peaceful Playgrounds Free Resources.

Peaceful Playgrounds Webinars.

Peaceful Playgrounds Newsletters

Peaceful Playgrounds Press Coverage.

Peaceful Playgrounds Featured Articles

Structured vs Unstructured Recess

Sunday's New York Times has an article entitled, "Forget goofing around. Recess has a new boss." The article was about Broadway Elementary School in Newark. According to the Times, "there is no more sitting around after lunch. No more goofing off with friends. No more doing nothing." It seems Broadway Elementary has hired a recess coach who organizes daily games and students are expected to participate in the chosen activity.

Structured Recess

Broadway Elementary brought in a play facilitator in January out of exasperation with students who, left to their own devices, used to run into one another, squabble over balls and jump-ropes or monopolize the blacktop while exiling their classmates to the sidelines. Since she started, disciplinary referrals at recess have dropped by three-quarters, to an average of three a week. And injuries are no longer a daily occurrence. NYTimes

I would make the case that structured recess is not recess at all. It is in fact, physical activity directed by a play facilitator.

Unstructured recess

Free play or free form play is a type of play that we support here at Peaceful Playgrounds. People often misinterpret the organization that we provide with our many game markings and choices as "structuring" recess and incorrectly assume that we recommend that schools require participation in one of our games and activities. Nothing can be further from the truth. We believe that children should be free to choose to self select any game or activity of their choice or are free to choose to do "nothing at all".

I'll let you in on a little secret. About 50% of the games we have developed were originally designed by kids. In spending 27 years in schools and numerous playground supervision duties, when I saw kids having fun, I would ask, "what are you playing and what are the rules?" I would proceed to watch and record the play and write a set of rules designed to give the most kids the opportunity to be successful and play rather than waiting in line. The next phase was to design a marking that represented a court where kids could play the newly developed game. We learned that the markings were essential to the game becoming institutionalize at the school site. We call this principle, "out-of-sight, out-of-mind." The purpose the markings serve is to visually illustrate the various games choices that kids have to play. When the markings were not painted then children often quickly forgot about the many game options. We also learned that children were selecting less preferred game choices rather than waiting in line. Therefore, marking the games contributed to children's activity level.

At Peaceful Playgrounds our research indicates that when you enrich the playground with a variety of game markings and choices, teach children appropriate method for solving problems, and provide a consistent set of game and behavior rules it results in fewer discipline problems, few playground injuries, a reduction in bullying and more physically active children.


If I learned anything as a result of nearly 30 years in schools it is that: "Children are not the problem. It's the environment we place them in."

More more ideas about improving the school recess environment click on the links below.

Peaceful Playgrounds Program

Peaceful Playgrounds Research

Right to Recess Campaign

Why Play?

Low Cost. High Activity Playgrounds.

The playground of the future. Oh yeah. It's available now.

A playground on steroids. A playground of the future. Active play interactions. The next big idea in playgrounds. Theses descriptions could all describe Icon.

This past week I observed a new playground structure called Icon by Kompan. But really, structure doesn't even begin to describe it. Think of a giant video game that challenges kids to move around a play structure as an active participant. Yes, panting as a result of quick agility requirements as students within the swirl structure try to be first to tag a blinking light or repeat a light sequence and so much more.

O.k. Now you need to see it. Here's the link to see a one minute video of Icon in action. http://www.icon.kompan.com/

Icon was at the Olympics in Vancover last month and is part of the Kompan line of playground products. According to Kompan, "Physical Movement is the key feature of ICON games. The games set the tempo and guide the young people through a series of outdoor games which stimulate physical energy, interaction and competition."

Exciting, creative and fun. Just think of the possibilities. This is a new innovation to keep an eye on.

Anti-Bullying PSA: The Price of Silence

Great anti- bullying video.

Other blogs and articles on the topic of bullying.

Why Bullying Programs Succeed or Fail.

Bullying Prevention: Life's Lessons in Good and Evil.


Kids Learn How to Play Nice.

Grant: ING Running Program

With the goal to empower school age children nationwide with the means to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle, ING Run For Something Better (ING RFSB), in partnership with the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), has developed a school-based running program. In addition to fighting childhood obesity, research shows that physical activity improves self esteem, school performance and overall well being.

Deadline: April 15, 2010

Award Amount- $2000

Application Download

Additional grant information:

10 Tips for Getting Your Grant Funded.

Free Webinar - Grant Writing For Beginners

Peaceful Playgrounds Grant Resource Center

PEP Grant Information

They said it wouldn't work. But it did. Banning junk food.

Two years ago, as Legislative Chairperson of the CAHPERD I worked with members to advocate for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign several bills into law to eliminate sodas and other highly sweetened beverages and restrict the sale of junk foods in all of California's public schools.

He did. And it appears to have worked according to a study by Sanchez-Vaznaugh and co-investigators which was published in the Journal of Health Affairs. The study authors used eight years of body mass index data from fifth- and seventh-grade students collected as part of California's annual Physical Fitnessgram testing.

The data indicate that before the policies took effect, the rate of overweight students was increasing among all groups in the study -- girls and boys in fifth and seventh grades.

However, in the three-year period after the policies became effective, the increase in the number of overweight children was significantly reduced among fifth-grade boys and seventh-grade students of both sexes throughout California.

Featured articles on topic.

Schools Role in the Childhood Obesity Crisis

Healthy foods, healthy minds, healthy bodies.

Withholding recess is a "no, no".

Physical Activity Used as Punishment and/or Behavior Management

Children and youths have many opportunities to be physically active in the school environment, including physical education class, recess, and before- and after- school programs. However, some schools, teachers and coaches withhold participation or exclude students and athletes from physical activity as a punishment.

Core Issue
The core issue is that administering or withdrawing physical activity as punishment is inappropriate and constitutes an unsound education practice, according to the National Association of Sport and Physical Education. For more on their advisory and to download the position statement go to:
http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/standards/upload/Physical-Activity-as-Punishment-to-Board-12-10.pdf

For ideas to withholding recess check out our 60 Alternatives to withholding recess article.


While you're there download the Right To Recess Toolkit for saving recess.

Doodle For Google Contest

by Andrea Bossenmeyer



Google, one of my favorite companies, has a contest for K-12 students. They are inviting students to design their logo! Google believes in thinking big and dreaming big, so therefore their contest theme is, "If I Could Do Anything, I Would …"

The deadline to register is March 17th and the deadline for entries is March 31. Don't delay! The winning doodle will be featured on our Google.com homepage on May 27, 2010.

Learn more about the contest HERE.

Childhood obesity: Do little changes add up to a lot of weight loss?

First Lady Michelle Obama suggested that taking small steps like exercising a little more or skipping a cookie ("little things") added up over time and make a big difference in weight gain. However, Tara Parker Pope journalist for the NYT suggests otherwise in her article "In the obesity epidemic, What's one cookie." Numerous scientific studies show that small caloric changes have almost no long-term effect on weight. When we skip a cookie or exercise a little more, the body’s biological and behavioral adaptations kick in, significantly reducing the caloric benefits of our effort.

Unfortunately, a little change does not necessarily add up to a whole lot of weight loss as suggested by the First Lady. Read the full article from the NYT to learn why not.

Additional blog posts on nutrition.

Another Study finds: Fit kids equal smart kids

Study author Lesley Cottrell, an associate professor of pediatrics at West Virginia University, in Morgantown stated that, "Children's physical fitness is associated with their academic performance," according to a two year study completed recently.

In general, the fitter the student, the better the test scores, Cottrell's team found. The researchers evaluated almost 1,200 students, assessing their fitness in the fifth grade and then again in the seventh grade. They tested them in four subjects in seventh grade -- reading, math, science and social studies -- using standardized tests.

Study

For more on the topic check out our featured article called, Can Physical Education Make You Smarter?

TED Prize Winner: Teaching Kids About Food

TV food personality and healthy food advocate, Jamie Oliver, gives a TED Talk after winning this year's TED Prize which allows him to communicate a wish.

Jamie’s one wish to change the world is to teach every kid about food. View the 20 minute video and watch his passionate TED Prize talk about how we are slowly killing ourselves and our children with the foods we (don’t) eat.




Check out our other blogs on school nutrition:
Schools role in the childhood obesity crisis.

Schools teaching organic gardening.

Healthy foods, healthy bodies, healthy minds.

Corn Fed Beef Vs Grass Fed

By Andrea Bossenmeyer



Recently I watched the movie “Food Inc.” which is a movie about food production in the United States and its impact on our health. I was enlightened to learn about how the meat industry feeds our animals. According to the movie, the way the meat industry feeds cattle has a direct effect on our health.

Today, let’s just talk about beef. Cattle naturally graze on grass. However, that is not what most of the cattle farms are feeding them. Instead they are eating corn. You may wonder, what is so bad about feeding our cattle corn? The answer according to is that corn can lead to eColi and food born illness. When cattle eat corn, an abundance of eColi builds up in their system.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year from food borne illnesses.” This is not to say this is entirely due to corn fed cows but why risk it when there is the grass fed option?

The good news is when purchasing Beef for yourself, your children or your school you can look at the label and see if it says "corn fed" or "grass fed". I was very excited to know this information and had the direct experience of checking the easy to read labels at Fresh & Easy.


These are the recommendations for Safe Eating by the World Health Organization:
*Be Food Smart and follow CFI's six safe food practices:
1. Use safe water and food. Know the source of your food. Remember, when in doubt, throw it out! Your health is worth more than the cost of any food.
2. Clean. Wash your hands and clean food preparation surfaces between and after preparing raw foods. Use separate utensils for raw and prepared foods.
3. Separate. Keep raw foods separated from prepared foods to avoid cross contamination - at home and in the grocery store.
4. Cook. To kill pathogens, food must be cooked to the proper temperature. Be sure to use a meat thermometer!
5. Chill. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Don't let food stand for more than 2 hours at room temperature.
6. Report foodborne illness. If you are sickened, seek medical attention, get tested and report your illness to the appropriate public health agencies.

Free Webinar - Recess Before Lunch- 5 Steps to Success

A few brave principals across the nation are bringing a long standing school tradition to an end. They are advocating Recess Before Lunch. Recent research shows the number of schools implementing Recess before Lunch is rapidly growing.

Kids eat more, waste less food, return to class calmer, behave better and as a result, instruction time is increased. Sounds great but implementing Recess Before Lunch can be tricky.

Attend this free webinar where we share 5 steps to prepare staff, students and parents for successful implementation.

Thursday, March 4, 2010 - 10:00 AM PST - Free registration for this date!
Friday, April 2, 2010 - 10:00 AM PST - Free registration for this date!

ALL TIMES ARE PACIFIC STANDARD TIME ZONE

Research on Recess= A for Academics

A recent gallop poll shows that principals support recess and feel it improves learning, concentration, and childrens' ability to focus on academics. The study conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Playworks comes at a time that many districts are cutting recess and physical education programs due to wide spread school financial budget deficits.

The poll indicated:
1. 80 percent of school principals said they've seen proof within their schools that recess improves learning.

2. Sixty percent of the principals surveyed say that following a 30-minute recess students listen better and are more focused in class.

And according to Dr. Jane Lowe at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, there are other reasons kids are being denied recess.

"The most surprising finding of this survey is that schools actually still use recess as a punishment so that if children are misbehaving, recess is often the one thing they take away from them," she said. Another Peaceful Playgrounds Resource is our featured article on 60 Alternatives to Withholding Recess.


Support materials on the topic of recess including the "Right to Recess Toolkit" can be downloaded from the Peaceful Playgrounds Website.

Despite mounting evidence that kids need an outlet to blow off steam, learn to interact with others and get the exercise they need, nearly 40 percent of American elementary schools have either eliminated or are considering eliminating recess.