Physical Activity: Grades 3-5

Hi Kids!

What’s your idea of a FUN way to play?

Did you know that just by playing tag, taking a walk with a parent, or eating a piece of real fruit, you are helping your body stay healthy and grow stronger?

Would you believe it if we told you that by being physically active, you are actually helping to strengthen your bones, your heart, and even helping to improve your performance in school?

Well, it’s true! You are doing all those things, plus you are having lots of fun at the same time!

We want to help you find cool and FUN ways to be active. We want you on our "Nutrition & Fitness Team." By getting active along with your friends and your family, you are joining the team and helping us win the battle for the Health of America! Join kids from across the state and the nation who are saying they want to make healthy choices for healthy lives and HAVE FUN AND BE ACTIVE in the process.

Unfortunately, kids in America aren’t getting the recommended daily amount of physical activity. Getting the right amount of physical activity (or exercise) will not only help you grow strong, but also help your body to maintain proper energy balance.

In case you haven’t heard about "energy balance" before, it refers to making sure that the amount of energy we consume (which we get as calories from food) each day equals the amount of energy we burn to fuel our bodies.

When we don’t get enough physical activity to burn off what we eat each day, we throw off our body’s energy balance and store the extra. And, it isn’t good for your health if this imbalance persists.

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That’s why we at N&F want you to join the team and get active! By choosing to get active when you play and choosing to eat foods that are good fuel for your brain and your body, you are making healthy choices for healthy lives. By setting your own goal of working up to being physically active for 60 minutes a day and by eatiing 5 servings of fruits or vegetables each and every day, you’re on your way. Plus, you’ll be helping us with our plan to win the battle for the health of America. You don’t need to get all of the recommended daily hour of activity done all at once. You can count the time you spend being active in gym class and recess toward your daily total, as long you are active and moving around during that time.

Courtesy of USDA-WicWorks

Just like learning to read or play soccer requires practice, being an active kid can take practice. You don’t need to be the quickest in your class or have to score the most points in sports games to be a winner at being active. You don’t even need to buy special equipment. In order to rack up the big scores in this game, you just need to be ready to HAVE FUN and get up and move!

A good FIRST STEP is to talk to your parents about your decision to get more active. They can help. Ask them to read the “Parents” section of this site to find out more about how they can help you set goals and get more active. Work with your parents on setting family goals. You’ll be doing things together and having fun together.

Here are some tips for helping make physical activity a regular part of your day:

• Choose physically active games and sports you like or are interested in trying
• Find active games and sports you can do with a friend or family member
• Try doing these activities at a set time every day (example: right after you get home from school)
• Do it before you turn on the television, computer or video games
• Keep a list of active games and sports you enjoy handy so you can refer to it when you get bored
• Get your parents and entire family involved in a physical activity you can all do together
• Always remember to be safe and do a warm up before and a cool down after to avoid injury
• Keep a journal tracking your activity - be proud of your success in getting physically active
• Make sure to let your physical education teacher at school know you’ve decided that this is important to you. Let them know you are trying to include more physical activity in your life. They’re interested in helping you and have even more tips and good ideas you can use

How Much Time Do You Spend Being Physically Active?

If you don’t know how much time you spend, you might surprise yourself. It's like solving a mystery. There are some things we can do to help you figure it out.

To make it easier to figure out your current level of activity, it really helps to keep a journal. You’ll find journal sheets on this website at: Daily Food and Activity Diary. Over the next few days try and mark down during or at the end of the day how much time you spent being active. You don’t have to do it all at one time; you can collect it over smaller segments of at least 10-15 minutes throughout your day. You can include in your journal time spent in gym class, playing on a sports team, running or playing games during recess, or any other activities you did before or after school that involved being on the move or getting exercise.

When you review your journal, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how much time you spend being physically active.

Setting Short & Long Range Goals Can Make Physical Activity Even More Fun

A great way to make getting more physically active more fun and rewarding, is to choose and strive to achieve a goal you set for yourself. While Nutrition & Fitness discusses goal setting in greater detail in its school assemblies and in its follow up programming with students, we wanted to remind everyone about the importance of setting and reaching goals.

When setting a goal, whether it be an amount of time spent being active each day or a distance you want to be able to run without stopping, it’s important to set goals you can reach and to be specific about what you want to be able to accomplish..

You don’t want to set goals that are too high or take too long to achieve. Instead, break up the goal into smaller goals you can reach in a few days. Remember, it will take time to achieve the bigger, more distant goals.

Setting your goals is a process that you should work on with your parents, guardian or your physical education teacher. Involving your parents or guardian may provide the opportunity for you to work as a team and challenge each other to meet set goals. Your P.E. teacher has a lot of experience in setting physical activity goals; they do it everyday when they decide what your class needs to accomplish in gym period that day.

Remember, you should be proud when you reach a goal. It’s okay; you deserve it. Let your parents and other people who care about you know when you reach your goals; they’ll be proud of you too!

If you have a question about goal setting or about other aspects of making physical activity a priority in your life, talk to your parents first. If they give you permission you can also go to “Ask The Pro” on this site. Submit questions you have. Chances are that the answer to your question that will be posted at this site will provide help to others attempting to get more active.

If You Get Stuck or Could Use Some Help: Ask The Pro

Tips for Making Healthy Physical Activity Part of Your Daily Routine

• Choose fun physical activities that you already enjoy or have an interest in trying
• Find activities that you can enjoy with friends or relatives (makes it even more fun)
• Try doing physical activity at a set time every day
• Do it before you turn on the television, computer or video games
• Keep a list of the physical activities you enjoy handy to provide ideas when bored
• Get your parents and entire family involved in a physical activity you can all do together
• Always remember to be safe and do a warm up before & a cool down after to avoid injury
• Keep a journal tracking your activity - be proud of your success in getting physically active
• Make sure to let your physical education teacher at school know that you’ve decided that this is important to you. Let them know that you trying to include more physical activity in your life. They’re interested in helping you and have even more tips and good ideas that you can use.

For a List of Healthy & Fun Physical Activities, click here!

Physical Activity Links