Happy Feet, Healthy Food Kids' Club

HAPPY FEET, HEALTHY FOOD KIDS' CLUB
Autumn Session 2
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Journaling

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Leaves by Mikaila

Having an autumn running club is a must. The cooling temperatures and ever changing scenery make running and walking most pleasant. Furthermore it's harvest time. Children visit apple orchards, pumpkins abound, and it's a great time to think about healthy eating.

Our autumn club is designed similar to our spring club with a some subtle changes. Here are some of our first changes.
MATH
We have many first graders in our club. Since they are just beginning to learn about numeration, we will focus on numbers 1 - 20 as we use footprints to chart 1/2 miles and leaves to count days run in our folders.

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NATURE
We will be keeping a record of fall changes by coloring leaves in our folders. The children will eventually be recording other autumn observations.

THE CLUB SESSION
The agenda is displayed in the classroom:
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1. Backpacks in the hall.
2. Make a nametag.
3. See Mrs. Goodrow with your Happy Feet, Healthy Food book and to pick up your folder.
4. Get a leaf stencil.
5. Trace a leaf. Don't color it in yet.
6. Eat your snack.
7. Say, "Hello!" to your neighbor.
8. Wait patiently.

THE BOOK
When all of the students arrive, we talk about the days' activities. Then we read a page together from Happy Feet, Healthy Food. Since many of the children are returning from the spring club, we start the book in the middle. Today we are on the "Push-up" page. I read the "Reason to do Push-ups" section to the kids and a confident reader reads the "Fun Feet" section. We read the rest together and talk about the pumpkin seed recipe and visiting the pumpkin patch. Then we brainstorm. The topic is "Places to do Push-ups" and the hands go up.
In your room.
At school.
In gym class.
On a trampoline.
In the water.

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Then it's time to go outside.

First we take a long walk to the field. We go out single file, and when we get to the field we remind the children to stay spaced. We ask them to imagine there is a whole bicycle between themselves and the next runner and it works. We jog around half the field then spread out along the entire length of the field getting ready to play a game.

Our game is called "Cheetahs, Deer, and Elephants". It's a simple game, but it delights the children. When the teacher calls out "CHEETAHS!" the children run their fastest back and forth across the field (about 100 meters in total). On the command of "DEER!" the children run easy with "pretty form" imagining they are beautiful deer. When they hear "ELEPHANTS!" they do exagerated heavy walking also swinging their arms as in a power walk. And when they hear "PUSH-UPS!" they do the number of pushups called (between 1 and 5) on their knees or on their toes. leaves

When the children have gone back and forth a few times, it's time for out nature walk. We head into the woods and go down the hill, up another, weaving in and out of paths and then head back to the school.

IN THE CLASSROOM
The children go directly to their seats and color in their leaves. They are also asked to draw 2 footprints (each representing a half-mile traveled on their folders. We bring each child a small papercup of water. They number the leaves according to the days run. We have run 2 times. They use another set of numbers to count the footprints. So far we have 4.

It's almost time to go home, but we still have to journal. I write the sentence, "We ran like cheetahs," on a chart. I underline, "We ran," and tell the children. You can copy the whole sentence, or you can just write, "We ran," but if you can, you can write your own journal entry and say anything you want.

The children get to work.

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Next, we use the "Time Tracker". We count by 10s keeping track with our fingers. "Ten, twenty, thirty, forty." We were outside for 40 minutes so that means we can put 4 Xs in our time tracker. Then we discuss other exercise. If the children had gym, they can put 3 more Xs. If they had recess 2 more. The goal is for 60 minutes of exercise and all the children easily meet the goal.

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It's time for recording healthy foods. The children draw pictures of apples, bananas, broccoli, chicken, peanut butter, milk, etc. If they are not sure if a food is healthy they ask. "Is oatmeal a healthy food? Is an egg?"

Finally, they use the picture block in their journal to make a drawing of someone doing a push-up. The parents are arriving and the room is still busy with energy, excitment, and activity.

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