ACES With-a-Friend
Planning and Program Suggestions
Welcome to
ACES With-a-Friend! This program is dedicated to educating
children about the importance of lifelong fitness. The scientific
evidence is clear: participation in physical activity offers
many health benefits. Individuals who are physically active
have lower rates of heart disease, stroke, colon cancer,
breast cancer and osteoporosis as compared to those who
are inactive. Additionally, physical activity helps manage
or prevent hypertension, obesity, elevated blood lipids,
back pain and non-insulin-dependent diabetes, not to mention
psychological benefits. According to the Michigan Department
of Community Health, Michigan is consistently ranked among
the 10 worst states for overweight/obese adults in the United
States.
We rely on schools to use the response form to tell us what
has worked well at their celebrations. So please remember
to use the response form to give us your feedback.
Check
out the responses from previous participating schools for
some interesting ideas
Start with a Plan
Your plan for an ACES celebration can be as simple as leading
everyone on a jog around the playground for 15 minutes.
But the more fun you can make it and the more time you can
commit to it, the more impact the celebration will have
on the kids. Most schools try to plan something special.
To help you plan your day, we have included some suggestions
for you to consider. If you have some ideas of your own
that work well, please include them in the response form.
Promotional Ideas
Although the flyers we’ve made available will help, there
are lots of other things you can do to market and promote
ACES With-a-Friend. The "Publicity and Promotion"
section of this kit has lots of good ideas to help publicize
the event in your community, but here are a few ideas to
try in your building.
1.
Remind students about ACES during
every physical education class in the days leading up
to the
event.
2.
Ask classroom teachers to provide
frequent reminders about ACES.
3.
Ask students to create posters
advertising this event.
4.
Put information about ACES in
your school newsletter.
5.
If your district or local government
has a cable TV channel, ask them to run information from
now until the event. And be sure to ask them to
come out and cover the event, too.
6.
If your school or district has
a sign with changeable lettering, ask about using it for
ACES promotion.
Who
to Invite
ACES With-a-Friend obviously
needs “friends.” Our “Publicity and Promotion”
section includes a list of potential invitees as well
as sample invitation and thank you letters. Sending
home the event flyers (with added information
about your school’s plans if you wish) will provide an
invitation to parents and other family members.
Program Ideas
After you’ve rounded up
all the VIPs, put them to work leading the activities.
If you can bring music out to the playground area or to
the gym, consider these suggestions:
«
Use fun songs that all the kids
know:
«
Play oldies, jock-jams, or the
kids’ current favorites. Set up stations assigning
each of your VIPs to lead a different physical activity
at each stop. Each classroom teacher accompanies
his/her students and when the music stops, they move to
the next station. If you don’t have enough VIPs,
let the oldest kids in your school be the station leaders.
They’ll love it!
«
Here’s a great idea from Houghton
Lake Schools. Get a local radio station to broadcast
live at one of your schools. Then have the other
schools tune in and participate along with the school
that’s “live.”
«
Hold a Walk to School Day event
to lead into ACES. Encourage physical activity all
day long by starting with an active commute to school.
Walk to School Day is an international event with many
great resources (like walkability checklists and pedestrian
safety education tools) usually celebrated in the fall.
But you can tout the need for increased incidental physical
activity by including a walk to school as a kickoff to
your celebration of youth fitness.
Try
Using a Theme
A theme for the day might
bring some new aspects to your celebration if you’ve done
ACES before. For instance:
« Beach
Party- Encourage everyone to
wear sun glasses and bring a beach towel that can be used
on the playground for exercises or activities that require
them to sit on the ground. While they’re down on
the ground, teach them the gator dance.
«
Think Pink-
Use a Pink Panther theme with pink clothing and sunglasses.
Play the Pink Panther theme song for your opening music.
Put up pink flyers before the event that say “Think Pink!”
«
Country Western
Roundup- Bring in some line
dance teachers to help the kids with some basic steps.
Kids and VIPs could wear cowboy hats and bandanas.
«
School Pride
Day- Wear school colors and
invite the high school cheerleaders, athletes and marching
band members to take part.
«
Martial Arts-
This idea seems to be popular. Bring in some local
instructors in various forms of martial arts and introduce
the kids to something they may not have tried before.
Other
Ideas
If you don’t
have a playground big enough for this activity, take your
school on a walk through the local neighborhood.
Ask the police to provide an escort.
Ask local
merchants to provide door prizes that encourage physical
activity and draw names to determine prize winners.
No computer or video games allowedonly those things that
get kids moving. Prize suggestions include:
| «
jump ropes |
«
bowling passes |
| «
roller blades |
«
roller skating passes |
| «
miniature golf passes |
«
driving range passes |
| «
batting cage passes |
«
tennis lessons |
| «
gift certificates from local
sporting goods stores |
«
soccer balls, footballs, basketballs,
or other sports equipment |
| «
gift certificates for local
parks and recreation classes |
For other
suggestions for ACES Day or any other time you want to add
some physical activity to the school day, see the section
entitled “Make ACES Last All Year.”
Rainy Day Plan
If your school
has video connections to all classrooms, it would be a good
idea to prepare an ACES video for use in case of rain.
Your older students might be interested in providing a simple
aerobic routine that could be shown in all classrooms at
the designated time. If you don’t have the video hookup,
use your public address system to provide music to exercise
to in the classrooms.
Ideas from Other Schools
This section
includes direct quotes from schools who hosted successful
ACES celebrations in the past. The activity can be
as simple as a walk around the building or as elaborate
as a week-long daily celebration. Do whatever works
best for your school!
By the way,
thanks to Cooper Elementary in Kalamazoo County. Their
suggestion was that we send a list of what other schools
are doing. We have also grouped responses by type
of participants; for example, elementary schools, pre-schools,
middle schools.
See
past ideas from ACES participating schools.
Return
to Michigan
Fitness Home Page
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Home Page
Return
to ACES
Idea Kit
