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EPEC Choose Your Move
An After School/Summer Program The purpose of the Choose Your Move program is to help 8- to 12-year-olds be physically active. It is designed as non-competitive circuit-training workouts to be played in after-school settings. It is ideal for weekend and summer programs as well. Choose Your Move is a multi-faceted program aimed at promoting fun, as well as physical activity. Individual students or teams of students visit various countries/places (or stations). At each station they learn something about a country or place and a sport or activity for which it is famous. They learn which muscles are used in the sport or activity. With the help of clear, picture-based posters, they also learn several exercises that would benefit them if they were to participate in that particular sport or activity. The students then choose, on their own, which exercises to do at each station. Students are encouraged to participate not only in the after-school setting, but also at home. That may motivate other family members to also “choose to move.” Through doing the circuit-training workout, students gain knowledge about countries, sports, muscle locations and exercises. After participating in Choose Your Move over time, they should also develop increased fitness levels (aerobic, strength, and flexibility), as well as a habit of regular physical activity. An added feature of the Choose Your Move program is its emphasis on personal/social skills. Each class period, students learn something about being healthy citizens based on the acronym RESPECT. For each letter in RESPECT, they learn a new personal/social characteristic and two indicators for each characteristic. For example, R stands for responsibility. Two important ways to show responsibility include “following rules” and “not making excuses.” Background of Choose Your Move Note: the sample files provided here are PDFs - if you are having difficulty viewing them, please click on the icon below to get the most recent version of Adobe Reader.
Background of Choose Your Move The Choose Your Move program was developed at the Michigan Fitness Foundation with several collaborative partners (see copyright page). Grant money for its development came from the Michigan Department of Education, with federal funding by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Choose Your Move content is based on the Personal Conditioning Module of the Exemplary Physical Education Curriculum (EPEC). EPEC, also a program of the Michigan Fitness Foundation, is a public health initiative that addresses the crushing burden of chronic disease attributable to physical inactivity. It is being carried out in schools and has been well received by physical educators within Michigan and across the country. It is a legitimate public health program, with sound scientific grounding in chronic disease prevention, using state-of-the-art educational theory. The result is an exciting curriculum that equips students to understand the importance of physical activity and to obtain the fitness, knowledge, motor skills, and personal/social skills they need to be active for life. The Choose Your Move program is an attempt to create a bridge between physical education teachers and parks and recreation staff to increase physical activity among youth. The program creates a consistent message and language for youth between the in-school curriculum and community programming. It is built on a shared philosophy of nurturing healthy youth. It provides tools for the parks and recreation staff to make physical activity opportunities available and enjoyable. Choose Your Move was tested by 13 pairs of schools and community sites (see acknowledgement page) in a pilot study. Students reported that they learned sports played in other countries, names and locations of muscles, which sports the muscles are used for, which exercises are good for certain sports, and new ways to exercise. Facilitators highlighted the educational value of Choose Your Move, particularly for learning the muscles and the RESPECT component. All feedback was used to make final improvements to the program prior to publication.
Choose Your Move is an eight-week program containing 16 lessons. Students participate two times per week in a lesson that is conducted by a staff member in an organized setting. Students are also encouraged to participate three or more days per week on their own, such as at home. The lessons are 45 minutes long, with instruction on how to do the circuit-training workout occurring in lessons one and two. During the remaining seven weeks, the lessons consist of short segments of instruction on Healthy Citizenship (based on the acronym RESPECT) followed by staff facilitation as participants do the circuit-training workout. Every lesson contains a warm-up and a cool-down period. After the first week, each student will do the circuit-training workout with a team every class period. Ideally there are 12 teams. The teams can change or remain the same. Each day, the team randomly selects an activity card that determines the station at which the team will start. After approximately three minutes of participating at the initial station, the teams regroup at the game board to determine which station to go to next (the next one listed on the game board). At each station, they learn more about a country or place and a sport or activity for which it is famous. Then they participate in an exercise that corresponds to the sport or activity for each country or place. The workout continues until teams have visited all 12 stations. Students are encouraged to repeat the exercises at home three or more times per week. An Activity Log is provided to help them track the exercises they do at home. Students are also encouraged to invite family members and others to do the exercises with them. The role of the staff member or coordinator is more of facilitation than instruction. It is important that facilitators ensure the safety of the activity area and set up the workout properly. They also need to organize/assign teams, conduct proper warm-ups and cool-downs, instruct on Healthy Citizenship (RESPECT), demonstrate the exercises properly, and ensure that the circuit-training workout runs smoothly. Finally, facilitators need to frequently encourage students. More specific details appear in the lessons that follow. You may wish to purchase the following equipment for this program or make your own alternatives.
Search the S&S Worldwide Discount Sports website for this equipment.
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