RUN, SPOT, RUN! 2003 Planning for a classroom fun run by Carol Goodrow (On May 31, we held the event. Please visit our photo page.) Click here for photos. Finish Line Certificates by Sarah, Grade 4 Click photo for bulletin board detail. Our classroom fun run is almost here, and we're finished with our planning. Please read all about our fun run and next year, perhaps you can have your own! A classroom fun run is a great way to promote physical activity as a lifetime habit for your students and their families. If you host one, it will probably be the first of many to come. WEEK 1 1. Schedule the event. Call the town manager and reserve space in the town park. Make sure the town will cover the cost of insurance. Send a letter of intent to use the space to the town manager as a follow-up. 2. Design the T-shirt. I use Photo Illustrator to make a print ready file. This year I made a 3 color design to keep the cost reasonable. The more colors, the more expensive the design. Take your disk along with a printed copy of the logo to your local T-shirt shop. Get an estimated price. 3. Start sending notices home. We've sent 3 so far: -Telling the date and time and general information about what's to come. -T-shirt order form with date orders are due and date that money is due. -Notice in form of a letter written by the children. This was part of our 'friendly letter' writing unit. Our letter contained the name of the event, and the fact that the families (sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, and grandparents) were invited to the event. 4. Invite your alumni. Our classroom fun run is open to students from my past classes. They received copies of our notices. 5. Check with your sponsors from the year before. For 3 or 4 years the Hartford Courant has helped supply our medals. We're checking with them now, to see if they will sponsor us again. 6. Start your training. There's still ice and snow outside, but we're going to run in the all purpose room today. 7. Anticipate! Have your children write a journal entry about what they think the event will be like. WEEK 2 1. Set up a container for collecting safety pins to pin bib numbers to T-shirts. 2. Order medals for all of the kids running. 3. Have children individually decorate running numbers. 4. Train! Do a mile outdoors. Use a quarter mile loop on the field. Briskly walk one lap then get in a circle and stretch. Slowly walk the next lap. Run the third lap. Start out easy, maintain your pace, and sprint the last 50 meters or so. Briskly walk the last lap and then stretch. Return to the classroom, get a drink, and write all about your training in your running journal. WEEK 4 1. Create a bulletin board on a movable display to be taken to the fun run. See above photo and click on it to enlarge. We made a cross-country background (trees with fun run signs on them). We also wrote stories with "Spot, a running dog" as the theme. 2. Call in the T-shirt order. 3. Obtain goodie bag supplies. So far we have rub-on butterfly tattoos from the Boston Marathon Expo, postcards from the Boston Marathon Expo, and little books donated from the PTO. 4. Continue training. Encourage your kids to run. Do they have a mileage club? If they do, they should do extra laps in preparation. WEEK 5 1. Send out reminder notice for T-shirt orders. 2. Ribbons are in! 3. Train: Make a goal to complete at least 1/4 mile without a walking break. Run 1/4 mile, walk 1/4 mile, run 1/4 mile. Play "Indian File" game. Jog in a line. Last one in line sprints to the front of the line and jogs. Child who is now last in line sprints to the front, etc. 4. Call parents of children who might need a ride to the event. 5. Make a motivating bulletin board. We put a finish line photo of Khalid Khannouchi, breaking the Marathon World Record in the center and then we made our own finish line drawings. WEEK 6 1. Finish the running numbers. Turn 3 digit numbers into numbers from 1-100 by pasting drawings of Dalmatians over the first digit. 2. Get goodie-bags ready. 3. Practice counting skills by having children sort collected safety pins into groups of 20. 4. Have children write about their excitement. 5. Let children choose food they want to bring to fun run. 6. Send reminder notice home. LINKS Run, Spot, Run! Printable Joural Writing Paper Run, Spot, Run! is the culmination of our Run to Read and Write program. The kids will run or run/walk an XC mile, get medals, receive their red Run to Read and Write KR/RW ribbons, eat healthy snacks, and write in their journals at our fun run. I have tried to keep this very popular event small and cozy so my children all attend with their families and so that it is a very special memory for them. rwedit@rodale.com