Program Details
The Victoria School Wellness Challenge incorporates fitness, nutrition and education into a 30 day program where students work together to "walk, jog or run across Canada", by logging their collective steps. The program allows children to take a hands-on approach to getting active and eating well, while practicing teamwork, learning about the importance of creating a healthy lifestyle, and having fun!
The program includes 3 core elements:
1. Fitness
Each classroom is equipped with a set of pedometers, donated by local businesses/organizations to the Greater Victoria School District/Healthy Schools Program, to track the number of steps taken by each child on a daily basis. The Circle Canada website, courtesy of Speakwell.com, is used to track the distance walked by the children (as a class) across a virtual map of Canada. Children are encouraged to get active, have fun, and support one another in the goal of collectively walking/running as far across Canada as they can in 30 days.
2. Nutrition
On each day of the challenge, children have the opportunity to sample healthy snacks donated by community businesses. The primary goal of the nutrition component is to provide children with healthy, balanced foods to assist their ability to learn and exercise. In addition, the snack selections are designed to demonstrate to children that healthy food can taste good too!
3. Education
During the 30 day period, health & wellness personalities from the community visit the classroom to speak to the children about a variety of topics, including exercise, nutrition, general health, goal setting and teamwork. Speakers include local athletes, personal trainers, nutritionists, health-related professionals, and representatives of careers that place a premium on peak physical health (e.g. firefighters). The primary goal of the education component is to educate children about the importance of healthy living and its long term benefits. Scheduling and frequency of these visitor sessions are coordinated with each participating classroom teacher at the beginning of the challenge.
Aside from the 3 key program elements, additional group incentives can be arranged for completing the challenge – e.g. donated prizes from community businesses, group field trips, etc. Teacher input will be requested to determined what incentives would be of greatest appeal to his/her class.
What is required from the participating class/school?
Prior to the challenge, the teacher will meet with the program organizers to be briefed on the challenge format, outline allergy issues prior to snack/meal selection, determine availability/scheduling for speakers to visit the class, and discuss what prizes/incentives would provided added motivation to their class to complete the challenge.
During the challenge, the teacher will be responsible for distributing one pedometer to each child at the beginning of the school day, and collecting the pedometers at the end of the day. To track the class's daily progress across the Canada map, the teacher can compile the class's daily pedometer results and:
- input the cumulative tally directly into the Circle Canada web map each day, or
- email the final tally to steps@schoolwellness.ca, for the program organizers to input into the map and email the teacher the daily progress.
Following the challenge, the teacher will be required to return the pedometer set to the District Resource Centre, and collect program evaluation forms from the students.