Increasing Physical Fitness Levels In Children

For years, Americans have been told that exercising and staying active is imperative to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In general, this fact holds true for all generations and age groups, including the youth of today. Children simply need to exercise and participate in more physical activities in order to maintain a high level of health. The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools suggests that, “one of the leading causes of this epidemic (childhood obesity) is a marked decline in physical activity and athletic participation” (“Athletics in Schools”). Childhood fascinations with watching television, playing video games, and browsing the internet are just a few of the sedentary hobbies taking over children’s free time to be active. Therefore, mandating physical activities in schools across the country will effectively reduce the frequency of this major, obesity health crisis in young students. Understandably, a plethora of factors cause and influence children to become overweight and obese, but working to fix each evident problem will, in the end, contribute to finally ending the developing childhood health crisis.

First of all, students do not have much knowledge about the different fitness components; they do not understand the relation between the fitness components and health. If students acquire the background knowledge about fitness, it could improve the class engagement and motivation, and increase the independent drive to exercise. Second barrier to students’ achievement is the lack of motivation to be active, and even more difficult, to specific fitness activities, such as sit-ups and push-ups. In today’s society, students spend more time sitting in front a screen and less time moving. Parent and school today have more responsibility making sure the children get enough physical activity. According to the New York Times (2016), “early school physical education (PE) programs can make a significant difference, and the earlier these routines are learned the more likely they will be carried forth into a healthy adulthood”. Another barrier that prevents students’ success is the loss of instructional time due to discipline problems. The classes are too big, with many diverse students with individual problems, which are difficult to address when these issues are from very different backgrounds. Finally, there is not enough support from home affecting not only physical education, but

It is important to make the best possible use of space and equipment so the children can enjoy the activities.All children will have equal opportunities to develop movement skills and the environment will be changed to help children practise the mivements skills.When planning physical activity we ensure that no child is excluded from play and activities are modified as necessary.

What activities and experiences you and your child have engaged in might be promoting healthy behavioral practices and an interest in physical activity?

Today’s generation of children is the most inactive and obese in all of U.S. history (Loonin, 54). Poor exercise habits are developed as early as preschool age (All children above the age of 2 should be getting at least an hour of exercise a day in order to stay healthy and maintain a healthy weight (Overweight and Obesity, 2). Many young children have become accustomed to staying inside and using electronics, where they do not have to exert much energy whereas going outside and playing would. The average child in today’s society spends up to

promote physical activity, there is still a very clear problem. Children are being given all these opportunities yet still failing to be active. This is due to technology. “On average, Canadian children spend about six hours every weekday and seven hours daily on weekends watching TV, chatting online or engaging in virtual games” (Pichard, 2012). For children, this is far too much time in front of a screen. If we eliminated screen time, and personal devices, 73% of children would be less sedentary (Participaction, 2016). The fact that PE is not an everyday class is also a problem, the more. Physical Education should not be looked at as just a “free” class. Yes, it can be fun but it was also important to get a child moving throughout the day. Gym not only benefits a child’s health, but also the social aspect (Mooney, 2014). PE class is one of the only times children can laugh, talk and play without breaking a school

Also, I incorporate in my lesson a variety of strategies to be able to reach all diverse students. Many of my students come from different cultures and speak many different languages. To be able to ensure understanding I need to access background knowledge, use visuals, demonstration, model, etc. One of the strategies used for the students to understand flexibility it was accessing prior knowledge and critical thinking when I ask them to compare their muscles to rubber band or elastic bands. Another strategy I used is group leaders to lead the warm-ups. This strategy increase their motivation and the students are more engaged in the activity. To improve the aerobic capacity I include running activities and games in the daily routines. Also, I used a research based strategy to improve motivation while running the mile. The purpose of the research was to demonstrate that checking heart rate helps the students to improve their time because it works as a motivational tool. Deal and Deal (1995) explain how measurable outcomes using heart rate telemetry can be an effective tool to improve and measure physical activity, which translates into better results on the physical fitness test (p. 31). Another strategy that I use for the aerobic component of fitness is instant self-assessment and feedback. Students have a card where they record their time each time they run the mile. Every time the run they set a goal for that day. After they run they record the time and have their past times to compare with the past miles. They write a short sentence to explain the reasons they improved or did not improve that

It is really important to me to have strong core for what I believe about teaching physical education and health. I believe that the most important things is that the students is physically active and I also believe that the students should have at least one thing or activity that they interested in that they can do for the rest of their lives in order to ensure that love to be physically active has become part of their lifestyle. Therefore, I would like to have a variety of physical activities, sports and fitness method in my curriculum and I would like my students to develop their skills and increase their knowledge of different skills and activities because it can provide a fun and enjoyable of physical activity, as well as build psychomotor and cognitive. I will try to safely provide the students the enjoyment of physical activity, become more confident with their abilities, increase their knowledge of health related fitness, and help them to find things that they love to do to continuous to be physically active. My philosophy of teaching physical education and health is including content knowledge of what I want to

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the number of obese children ages 6-19 have tripled to 16% over the last twelve years. That is an alarming figure. One of the main causes is lack of physical activity. This may seem like an obvious cause, but it seems to be the one our youth have the most problems with. Physical education is being

To slow this epidemic of childhood obesity, physical activity needs to be put back in these children’s lives.

As America’s children find more enjoyment out of technology, they become more stagnant and prone to weight gain and obesity. Over the past thirty years, the child obesity rate has tripled so that, “nearly 20 percent of the nation’s children ages 6 to 11 and 18 percent of those 12 to 19 are considered obese” (Chandler, Seiss). Child obesity is a major concern for health advocates because obesity can lead to other health problems such as diabetes and heart issues. It is hard to think about children who have so many weight-related medical concerns at such a young age. For those reasons, there is, “a national effort to mobilize a generation that has been labeled the most sedentary in the nation’s history” (Chandler). Children have also become less physical because of the No Child Left Behind Law that required more time spent on academics (Kerr). In order to find more classroom time without extending the school day, many administrators are cutting gym class and recess. Michael Chandler, author of “In PE, Dodgeball Is Out. Zumba Is In,” states that, “In a 2007 survey of school administrators, 44 percent reported cutting time from physical education and recess, as well as other subjects, to increase reading and math instruction” (Chandler). Because of the benefits of PE classes that accompany a rise in child obesity, all schools should mandate students grades K-12 to participate in a daily PE class, even if it means cutting into academics.

Nowadays, more and more children have obesity compare to the children in thirty years ago. The research showed that children who have obesity in their early age may cause either short-term or long-term consequence. The short-term consequence for the obesity children include low self-esteem and the long-term consequence includes asthma and heart disease. (CDC) The best way to prevent these is to encourage children do at least one hour physical exercise a day within the trained instructor guided. ( Epstein 2014) My paper is mainly focused on how my curriculum promote physical development in a child care center.

Obesity is the condition of being seriously overweight. It is now considered a global health epidemic by the World Health Organization (2000) (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2010). Physical activity is important to children in the middle childhood age group because a staggering amount of children have become overweight in the last few decades and teachers play a role in preventing obesity by becoming a positive role model,

There is nothing more important than health, especially in this day and age. It’s concerning that only 29 percent of high school students surveyed by the CDC (2011) had participated in at least 60 minutes of physical activity on all seven days before the survey. The CDC also noted that only 31 percent of these high school students attended physical education class daily. Only 8 percent of elementary schools, 6.4 percent of middle schools, and 5.8 percent of high schools provide daily physical education to all of its students (SHPPS, 2000). The government is missing the fact that physical education can actually improve test scores, not the opposite.

In the modern schools, too many elementary schools are so centered academics and don’t focus on the well-being of the students. The school systems also don’t realize that physical activity can help students perform better in the classrooms. In the recent years, there has been a worldwide tendency to reduce school-based physical education in favor of academic subjects. Given the beneficial effects of exercise and the disadvantages of a sedentary lifestyle, cutbacks in physical education lessons are not near as productive as people think. Systematic reviews provide clear