Giving Back, Part 2


Santa Kevin Hynes Runs with Mrs. Goodrow's Class at Christmas Time
The kids wore running numbers just for fun.
Part 1

This is Part 2 of a series to help people design school running programs.

7. Schedule your Program
Choose a schedule to optimize participation. Recess is popular for mileage programs. You have a captive audience.

Some clubs meet before or after school, or alternate between these periods on different days. Other schools incorporate their running into the school day.

In any event, do what is best for your school population and stick to the schedule.

8. Work with the school administration on a permission form.
Your school system should be able to advise you on the necessity of waivers. At most schools there will already be sports programs and procedures in place. Get your form approved by the principal before it is sent home.

Make sure to let parents know about the benefits of the program, logistics, any fees to attend, time and place, contact people, etc.

9. Structure your sessions.
Kids are comfortable with structure. First, design a general structure for each time you meet. Here's an example for an after school program.

3:00 Arrive at meeting place. Check in with leader. Put belongings in certain spot. Check to see that shoes are tied.
3:10 Meet to go over activities.
3:15 Warm-up laps
3:20 Stretching
3:25 Running Activities: perhaps laps for mileage, running games, running drills, relay races
3:45 Warm-down laps
3:50 Stretching
3:55 Wrap-up discussion, journal writing, discussion of next session.

Next, decide if each day will include the same activities or if some days will be mileage days and other days, game days. Try to stick to your structure with occasional minor changes.

10. Weave good running practices into your sessions.
Spend some time deciding which basic principles you want the kids to learn about running and make sure these principles are woven into your sessions.

Here are some suggestions:

Pacing yourself makes you a stronger runner. No matter what kind of program you plan, kids need to learn to pace themselves. They need to be taught to start out slowly and pick up the pace only after running with a good steady rhythm, instead of going out as fast as they can at the start.

Good sportsmanship is a quality of a true athlete. Great runners exhibit good sportsmanship. Good sportsmanship includes cheering for and congratulating others. It also includes not giving up.

Having a personal goal can help you accomplish things. Goal setting can be incorporated into journal writing. Kids should be able to come up with reasonable goals for themselves or for the whole group.

Running long distances develops over time. Start out with short distances and gradually increase with time. Use age-graded distances.

11. Spice up your Program.
Vary your games. Obtain a book of outdoor games and plan carefully for them.

Use your stopwatch. Choose a couple days a month to time kids on a route. Have the kids set their own goals and keep track of their times. Encourage them to compete against themselves not against their peers.

Teach them some fun drills to give strength, speed, or agility. If you're not familiar with these, visit with a track team yourself, practice with them and learn the skills to teach your kids or better yet, invite members of the high school track team to demonstrate and work with your kids.

Invite the high school kids back to demonstrate and teach your kids how to 'pass off a baton' for relay races. Use makeshift batons. Toilet paper tubes, squeeze toys (dog bone shaped ones) are great but also plan for one day when the kids get to use the real batons borrowed from the track team.

Let kids create running games at home. Listen to their ideas and choose some to incorporate in your sessions.

Kids can create some of the materials for running games in the classroom.

12. Integrate Academics
Capitalize on kids' natural love for running to help them learn academics. The tie-ins are endless. Even if you are not a teacher, you can probably use at least one school bulletin board to put up a map and track your group's mileage across the country, thus integrating running and geography. Lots of schools have mini-competitions between classes to see which class can accumulate more miles each week. Or set a distance goal and see if you can reach it by a certain date.

In the classroom, let kids keep running journals or write letters to famous runners.

Run off the Log-a-Mile charts and have kids keep them in their desks to track their mileage. Use them to count by two's, learn fractions, and study numeration.

Invite a local runner to the program for a presentation or question and answer period. Let the kids come up with the questions. Plan the program so that the kids can do a short run with your visitor. Take photos and send thank-you notes.

Start a running number collection. Post the numbers around the room to be used to 'Count the Days' or just as a big vivid number line.

Have kids write stories using running as a theme.

Read books about famous runners.

Study nutrition. Use the food pyramid activities found on this site.

Again the ways to integrate are many. Once you get started, it'll be hard to stop.

13. Plan an event.

The Japanese Fan, Katie's Raffle Prize
She'd had her eye on this fan for a long time.

Involve the kids in the planning of a fun run or race. A lot of this planning can be integrated into classroom activities. Kids can design the t-shirt, name the event, decorate running numbers, write letters to invite family members, make the notice, construct signs for a route, do a little fund raising for some frills for the race (balloons, ribbons etc.) or fund raise for a good cause and donate the proceeds of your fun run to that cause.

Keep the distances reasonably short but make the fun run challenging enough that it is something that the kids anticipate. Remember they will have extra energy on the day of the event. The adrenaline will be flowing from excitement.

Invite families but not the whole town, at least not the first year. Keep it manageable.

And make sure to award each kid for participation. Every child who runs, including participating siblings, should go home with a ribbon, medal, goody bag or raffle prize.

It's fun to have a raffle. Allow the kids to donate raffle prizes, but keep it optional.

If your town has other local races, go as a group, or send a notice home to parents to let them know about the race.

14. Read!
Use the informational books and materials suggested in our Resource Section. They will give you activities to do at home and at school, suggestions on getting started, rules to help implement your programs, information on suggested distances, ideas for games to use or adapt, and just about everything that you could want to help you build a program to meet the needs of your group. Best of luck. Oh yes, visit this Web site often and encourage your kids to contribute. Help make kidsrunning.com be a fun and informative place for running kids, parents, teachers, coaches and runners.

I'm hoping that this Web site will encourage our young people to embrace running, stay healthy and be the best they can be. Please stop by again to read what I've written on my tablet.

Please email goodrow@infionline.net with comments on this article.

Without a doubt, if the impetus started by Runner's World continues, 2000-2001 may very well be known as the 'Year of School Running Programs'.