Healthy Practices: Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Community and Family Participation

Helthy Practices: Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Community and Family Participation:

University of Colorado System

1. Welcome to healthy practices: nutrition, physical activity, and community. In this course, you will learn about the fundamentals of creating a culture of health in the school environment. You will learn about the importance of physical activity, physical education, and healthy eating, attendance, and keeping kids in school. You will hear about specific program partnerships that are concrete examples of how this can happen and is occurring in everyday life. You will also be introduced to the comprehensive school physical activity plan, USDA nutrition guidelines, templates for school wellness policies, and a host of other resources to guide you on your learning path about school health. Healthy kids are better learners. Since kids spend the majority of their day in the school environment, this is a great place to start in promoting good health in students. Please join me as we go on a fun journey of learning.

2. School Nutrition

Greetings, students.  My name is Eve Kutchman, and I'm a Health Educator from Children's Hospital Colorado. I am here to talk with you about creating a healthy environment in a school setting. In this video, we will address both the nutrition environment and nutrition services. 

You will soon learn the differences between the two. Nutrition environment and services is one of the components of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child, or WSCC model, and is a tool that many educators use to organize the জটিল complexities of school health. 

Nutrition environment and services is where students learn and practice healthy eating habits as well as having প্রবেশ access to healthy food options. Nutrition is important to a child's overall health and learning potential.

Since children spend the majority of their day in the school environment, this is the perfect opportunity to not only teach about healthy nutrition, but also to provide the opportunities to make healthy choices, it's more than just lunch. So, let's break down what this means. 

You just heard two distinct areas being addressed: আপনি কেবল দুটি স্বতন্ত্র অঞ্চল সম্বোধন করার কথা শুনেছেন:

the first being nutrition environment, and the second being nutrition services. এই উভয়  একে অপরের পরিপূরক Both of these areas complement each other, work together to provide comprehensive opportunities, but serve different purposes. ব্যাপক সুযোগগুলি সরবরাহ করতে একসাথে কাজ করুন, তবে আলাদা উদ্দেশ্যে বাস্তবায়ন করে।

It's important to understand the differences between the two and how they work together. Let's first establish the environment. This refers to the opportunities to learn about and practice healthy eating.  Where do kids learn? বাচ্চারা কোথায় শিখবে?

Nutrition environment হলো, স্বাস্থ্যকর খাওয়ার বিষয়ে শিক্ষা এবং তা  অনুশীলন করা।

Of course, in the classroom with their teachers, but they also learn by examples of seeing people in action with food. Let's think about where kids have an opportunity to access food throughout the school day. যেখানে বাচ্চাদের স্কুলের পুরো দিন জুড়ে খাবার অ্যাক্সেস করার সুযোগ রয়েছে।

Of course, this includes the traditional cafeteria or lunch room, but let's also consider other distribution or vending options such as machines, a la carte, school stores, kiosks, and concession stands. These are the places where kids can choose to purchase items. 

It also includes non-vending situations such as school উদযাপন celebrations, rewards, classrooms, parties, and fundraisers. Raise your hand if you've ever been involved in the candy bar fundraiser. ক্যান্ডি বার তহবিল।

All of these options are places to consider putting your healthy eating skills to good use as well as providing the opportunity to make a healthy choice. By the way, beverages are included with the food discussion. Now, let's define what the services component means. 

This refers to the provision of meals and snacks that meet Federal Nutrition Standards for the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. 

It also includes health and nutrition accommodations of all students, making sure that foods and beverages sold outside the meal program meet nutrition standards, and that school nutrition professionals meet the education requirements to provide these services.

There's also annual training and professional development involved for those professionals. We're only a short way into our introduction, and you probably are thinking, this seems like a huge area. 

Well, it indeed is, but the benefits of good nutrition for kids are one of the cornerstones স্তম্ভ of health and learning. 

We previously mentioned that good nutrition is associated with better learning outcomes, overall health, and helps ensure that students are able to reach their potential, but there are a lot of different views on how this happens. 

আমরা পূর্বে উল্লেখ করেছি যে ভাল পুষ্টি আরও ভাল শিক্ষার ফলাফল, সামগ্রিক স্বাস্থ্যের সাথে জড়িত এবং ছাত্ররা তাদের সম্ভাব্যতায় পৌঁছতে সক্ষম হয় তা নিশ্চিত করতে সহায়তা করে তবে কীভাবে এটি ঘটে যায় সে সম্পর্কে অনেকগুলি ভিন্ন মতামত রয়েছে।

So, later in this section, we will talk about the science behind good nutrition, and you will see why this is such an important cornerstone. Because nutrition impacts all areas of the school, it's important to note that it takes the entire school team working together to make this successful.

So, later in the course, we will discuss tips you can suggest all people in the school environment use to promote healthy eating. Finally, let's call out beverages. These are included in the discussion and are often the first item to tackle in making healthy changes. 

সুতরাং, পরবর্তী কোর্সে, আমরা স্বাস্থ্যকর খাওয়ার প্রচারের জন্য স্কুলের পরিবেশের সমস্ত লোককে ব্যবহারের পরামর্শ দেওয়ার জন্য এমন পরামর্শগুলি নিয়ে আলোচনা করব।  অবশেষে, আসুন পানীয়গুলি কল করি।  এগুলি আলোচনায় অন্তর্ভুক্ত রয়েছে এবং বেশিরভাগ ক্ষেত্রে স্বাস্থ্যকর পরিবর্তন আনার ক্ষেত্রে এটি প্রথম আইটেম হয়।

Sugar-sweetened beverages are the primary source of added sugars in the American diet. SSBs are a contributing factor to obesity, and the elimination of them drastically আয়তন বহুলাংশে reduce the sugar ব্যবহার consumption. Water is a simple solution to the SSB debate. 

It is important that students have access to free drinking water throughout the day, not just in areas requiring physical activity. Remember, environment and services are two different areas that work together for a comprehensive approach to nutrition.

শারীরিক ক্রিয়াকলাপের প্রয়োজনীয় ক্ষেত্রগুলিতে নয়, শিক্ষার্থীরা দিনব্যাপী বিনামূল্যে পানীয় জলের অ্যাক্সেস থাকা গুরুত্বপূর্ণ।  মনে রাখবেন, পরিবেশ এবং পরিষেবাদি দুটি পৃথক ক্ষেত্র যা পুষ্টির জন্য একটি বিস্তৃত পদ্ধতির জন্য একসাথে কাজ করে।

This is a big bucket of work that contributes to health and learning. So, fuel up with some fruits and veggies, and let's get started.

3. Science of Nutrition Standards:

Welcome back.  Let's get started on the science behind nutrition. According to the 2015 to 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, there are five simple guidelines to follow in order to increase tendencies towards healthy eating or what's known as establishing healthy eating patterns. নিদর্শন

These will serve as the basis for us to discuss the science. Remember food is fuel for our bodies, so it's important to choose the best fuel source possible. For the full guidelines, please refer to the reading material.

For now, let's see what the five guidelines are and how they relate to the importance of school nutrition. Here they are: one, follow a healthy eating pattern across the জীবনকাল lifespan. Two, focus on variety, nutrient ঘনত্ব density, and amount. 

Three, limit calories from added sugars and saturated fats and reduce sodium intake. Four, shift to healthier স্বাস্থ্যসম্মত food and পানীয় beverage choices and five, support স্বাস্থ্যকর খাওয়ার ধরণ healthy eating patterns for all. 

These guidelines promote healthy eating patterns that are important to growth, development and preventing health conditions. Let's look at point one, why is it important to eat healthfully across the lifespan? A path to good nutrition starts young. 

Kids who develop healthy eating habits will take those with them as they age. Healthy young eaters make healthy adult eaters and it's easier to make a good habit than it is to wreck a bad habit. Point two, what is meant by variety, nutrient density and amount? বৈচিত্র্য, পুষ্টি ঘনত্ব এবং পরিমাণ বলতে কী বোঝায়?

In general, anything you eat or drink contains calories. Food is the fuel that helps your body function. We measure the fuel in terms of calories. Nutrients are substances that provide the essentials for growth and maintenance of life. 

সাধারণভাবে, আপনি যা খান বা পান করুন তাতে ক্যালোরি থাকে।  খাদ্য হ'ল এমন জ্বালানী যা আপনার দেহের ক্রিয়াতে সহায়তা করে।  আমরা ক্যালরির ক্ষেত্রে জ্বালানী পরিমাপ করি।  পুষ্টি উপাদান এমন পদার্থ যা জীবনের বৃদ্ধি এবং রক্ষণাবেক্ষণের জন্য প্রয়োজনীয় সরবরাহ করে।

Choosing a variety of food sources with lots of nutrients helps your brain work better. They also can mean that you will tend ঝোঁক কম ক্যালোরি গ্রহণ to consume less calories and stay within acceptable গ্রহণযোগ্য অংশ মাপ portion sizes. This gives your body what it needs to perform efficiently. 

When you choose foods that are less nutrient dense, like fast foods are things we preferred to consider sometimes foods, they will have more calories from things that are not essential for growth and maintenance of life.

Research shows that fast and processed foods are associated with higher calorie intake and lower nutrient quality. Point three; limit calories from added sugars and saturated fats and reduce sodium. 

Remember that I just talked about nutrients, sugar saturated fats and sodium have been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, high blood pressure and a host of other diseases. These are not good fuel choices for the body especially growing kids. 

It's known that sugar, fat and sodium consumption in kids often exceeds recommended guidelines. So, being aware of these in the school environment is even more important. Point four, shift to healthier food and beverage choices. This concept is pretty basic.

If you have an abundance of healthy options, you'll be more likely to choose these options. Remember the candy bar fundraiser? What if we used a tasty fruit in its place? Point five, support healthy eating patterns for all. সবার জন্য স্বাস্থ্যকর খাওয়ার নিদর্শনগুলিকে সমর্থন করুন।

This means that everyone has a shared responsibility to support healthy habits. This includes home, community and school. It's important to reinforce পুনরায় বলবৎ করা what is শেখানো taught and অনুকরণে modeled in the school environment. In addition to these guidelines, we also have MyPlate to assist with making healthy choices. 

MyPlate is a USDA easy-to-follow meal guide. It encourages people to understand not only the guidelines, but that everything a person eats or drinks বিষয় matters. You can learn more about MyPlate by going to this website.

At this point, you may feel overwhelmed বিহ্বল by the reasons behind the recommendations, but don't worry, you have the Nutrition Services Department at your school. They've been charged with the responsibility to follow guidelines, recommendations and compliance. 

Now that you understand the importance of the science, it will make more sense why these regulations exist. They've synthesized a great deal of overall nutrition information and have made it applicable to the school setting. 

We'll get into that in the next video, but for now, it's time to fill up with some nutrients and get our brains ready to learn some more.

4. NSLP Standards:

Welcome back.  Are you ready to take a closer look at nutrition services? Remember this refers to the provision of meals and snacks that meet federal যুক্তরাষ্ট্রীয় nutrition standards for the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program or NSLP. 

This program is unique to the US, but its principles can be applied to school environments all over the world. NSLP includes provisions that address the health and nutrition accommodation needs of all students. 

NSLP provisions make sure that foods and beverages sold outside the meal program meat nutrition standards and that school nutrition professionals meet the educational requirements to provide these services.

So, let's take an overview of the standards and see it through the lens of the School Nutrition Department. First here's a bit of history. The NSLP has been around in the US for quite some time. 

The program was established in 1946 as the National School Lunch Act and signed into law by then President Harry Truman. Through the years this program has been evaluated and updated into its current state to provide the best possible nutrition services for kids in schools. 

As it's been evolving, it's spent increasingly recognized as a valuable tool within the education system. What exactly is NSLP?  Good question. It is a federally assisted meal program. The goal is to provide balanced, low to no cost daily lunches to kids and schools.

It also serves as the foundation for other programs that address breakfast, snack, after-school activities and some are services when kids are not in school. Let's look at some fun facts that speak to the growth and reach of this program. When it first started, it reached about 7.1 million kids. 

Today over 30 million kids are involved. No wonder it's such a valuable tool to the education system. How does this work?  Another good question. Schools who are participating get subsidies and USDA foods for each meal or snack they serve. 

These meals and snacks have to meet certain standards to qualify for the subsidy. We will overview the standards in just a bit. But for now, keep in mind the science we previously discussed and you will begin to understand how these guidelines impact kids.

In addition, kids could also qualify to receive these meals at a significant discount known as free or reduced or FRL. The percentage of kids who qualify for this option is often used as a measurement for the socioeconomic আর্থ-সামাজিক status at the school. 

This status is a standard of qualification for other additional service programs. For more information on qualifications, check your reading materials. For now, let's get back to the standards. Now that we know what it is, and how it works, let's talk about the standards overview. 

This is going to be a very quick introduction as it takes many hours and certifications to become an expert. But for our time together, it's important to understand it from a bird's eye view.

It's important to note that these guidelines take into account not only what is good for kids but they are also designed to be sensitive to the challenges that schools face in meeting these guidelines. 

Standard one, school meals are intended to be high in nutrients and adequate পর্যাপ্ত calories. 

Remember the nutrient density science? This is exactly what this point refers to. Portion served and sold to kids are filled with the fuel needed for learning and growing while also being satisfying. 

Standard two, school meals are right size to reflect প্রতিফলিত করা balance. 

These are age adjusted to make sure students are getting the appropriate amounts of fruits, vegetables, dairy, protein, and drains. Think of what we learned about my plate. The portions are adjusted to match the age and growth of the individual kids.

In short, an elementary school portion looks different than a high-school portion. 

Standard three, school meals are designed to meet a portion of the child's nutritional and energy needs of the day. Proper nutrition is important both in and out of schools. 

So it's important for kids and families to build on what is happening during the school day not just start up. This includes before and after school meals and snacks as well as home meals. 

Standard four, these guidelines need to be flexible in order to meet the needs of all students. 

This part takes into account food allergies, special diets, culturally appropriate needs. So these guidelines do not have a one size fits our answer. As the standards are tested and implemented, it's important the nutrition staff to work together to stay current.

Therefore there are requirements for nutrition staff hiring and training as well as required professional development once a person is on the job. 

As mentioned before, the staff have a huge responsibility to synthesize সমন্বয় করা a great deal of information while providing food to kids that is appealing and enjoyable. Wow, and that was just the overview. 

Now that we know what it takes to follow the guidelines, lets give a quick cheer to all those people who work in nutrition services. We're grateful for you.

গাইডলাইনসটি অনুসরণ করতে কী কী তা আমরা জানি এখন, পুষ্টি পরিষেবাদিগুলিতে যারা কাজ করেন সেই সমস্ত লোককে দ্রুত উত্সাহ দিন।  আমরা আপনার জন্য কৃতজ্ঞ।

Positive Nutrition Environment: ইতিবাচক পুষ্টি পরিবেশ:

Welcome back.  Let's talk about how to put the regulations and standards into practice. The importance of school nutrition extends well beyond the cafeteria and involves more than just the nutrition staff. Anytime there is an opportunity for food, there's an opportunity to present healthy choices. 

ফিরে আসার জন্য স্বাগতম.  আসুন কীভাবে প্রবিধান এবং মান প্রয়োগ করা যায় সে সম্পর্কে কথা বলি।  স্কুল পুষ্টির গুরুত্ব ক্যাফেটেরিয়া ছাড়িয়ে ভাল প্রসারিত এবং কেবল পুষ্টি কর্মীদের চেয়ে বেশি জড়িত।  যে কোনও সময় খাবারের সুযোগ রয়েছে, সেখানে স্বাস্থ্যকর পছন্দগুলি উপস্থাপন করার সুযোগ রয়েছে।

Make it the norm আদর্শ and get everyone in the school building on board for a সমন্বিত বার্তা coordinated message. Let's take a closer look at some specific examples and what we can do to provide healthy nutrition options and make it an easy choice. First, let's look at school meals. 

Research shows that students who participate in school meal programs consume more fruits and veggies or in scientific terms, more nutrient rich foods and also have a higher intake of calcium and fiber, other important nutrients.

School meals include breakfast and students who eat breakfast have better attendance rates and score better on tests. So, how do you increase the number of kids who are participating in meals? Here are a few suggestions: make the meals appealing because healthy food can be fun and tasty. 

Make sure students have enough time to eat their meals and don't feel rushed. Recess ছুটি before lunch helps with this. 

It's also a good idea to ask students and parents what they would like to eat and then let the Nutrition Services staff work their magic on fitting those foods into the nutrition standards. Snacks and beverages. 

Snacks and beverages are an important part of a healthy eating pattern and we've established that kids who have better patterns perform better in school.

Foods that are considered a better choice for snacks are ones that have either a whole শস্য grain, fruit, vegetable or প্রোটিন protein listed as a first ingredient, are considered low in sodium, sugar and fat, have fewer than 200 calories. 

In addition to snacks, water should be available free and at all times for students. Water should be the go-to beverage. Celebrations and fund raisers. These are essential parts of the school environment and are great opportunities to promote health along with a consistent সঙ্গত বার্তা message. 

Not all celebrations need to be rewarded with food but when they are, make sure the easy choice is the healthy choice along with being a fun and appealing choice. Concessions and extra curricular.

Oftentimes, concession stands that sell food for extra curricular activities, are sponsored and administered by outside vendors. These vendors should be aware of the healthy eating policies of a school and provide options that are in alignment with such policies. 

প্রায়শই, ছাড়ের স্ট্যান্ডগুলি অতিরিক্ত পাঠ্যক্রমিক ক্রিয়াকলাপগুলির জন্য খাদ্য বিক্রি করে, বাইরের বিক্রেতাদের দ্বারা পৃষ্ঠপোষকতা এবং পরিচালিত হয়।  এই বিক্রেতাদের একটি স্কুলের স্বাস্থ্যকর খাওয়ার নীতি সম্পর্কে সচেতন হওয়া উচিত এবং এই জাতীয় নীতিগুলির সাথে সারিবদ্ধ থাকা বিকল্পগুলি সরবরাহ করা উচিত।

This helps promote a সমন্বিত বার্তা coordinated message. Classroom learning.  Nutrition messages naturally occur in health education classes. But what if a school doesn't have dedicated time for health education? 

Think about other options for classroom integration মিশ্রণ such as science, physical education, language arts classes and Consumer Science. Teach lessons in the classroom that can be applied to the many environments referred উল্লেখ করা to earlier in this course. Employee wellness.

It's important to take the focus off the students for just a minute and focus on everyone in the school environment. This includes teachers, as well as administrators, staff, paraprofessionals, volunteers, program participants or anyone who walks through the doors of a school. 

All of these people have an opportunity to participate in healthy behavior that not only improves their own personal health, but sets a good example for the students. It's important to realize that the adults in the building might have just as much room to learn in this area as the students. Wow!  

That was a lot of information, but don't worry, small changes lead to big results. There's a wealth of information out there that can help you along the way.

Just remember to apply that information to the standards and overviews we talked about earlier in this video and you will have the foundation for making wise, healthy choices. It's time to fuel up and help our schools and the children and parents to stay healthy.

Physical Activity

Learners, I want to welcome you. My name is Eve Kutchman, and I'm a health educator from Children's Hospital, Colorado. Today, I'm here to talk with you about creating a healthy environment in a school setting. 

In this video, we're going to talk about physical activity and its role both in and out of school. PA is one of the components of the WSCC model. WSCC stands for whole school, whole community, whole child. 

And the model is a tool that many educators use to help organize the complexities of school health. Physical activity is important to a child's overall health, and children spend the significant amount of time at school. Therefore, school tends to be a logical place to encourage physical activity.

The physical activity section of the WSCC model represents where students have access to comprehensive physical education, or PE. As well as opportunities for physical activity, or PA, before, during, and after the school day. Let's take a look at what these terms mean. 

You just heard two terms, physical education and physical activity, that sometimes are used interchangeably or synonymously. By that we mean that people think of them as the same thing, but it's important to understand the difference between the two and why both are important. 

Physical education, or PE, is formal movement instruction. In short, kids need to be taught how to move and given the tools to make movement enjoyable. PE provides the base to develop the physical skills, such as balance, understanding different modes of locomotion.

These are ways to move, such as running, jumping, skipping, or hopping, and kinesthetic awareness. 

KA includes things like being able to jump over an object without running into it, the ability to adjust a movement so you don't run into others, or just being able to move out of the path of a moving object. These all are needed for movement. 

PE provides the opportunity for students to master movement proficiency or physical literacy, which is considered the ability to move combined with the confidence to move. This sets students up for lifelong participation in physical activity, physical fitness, exercise, and play.

Physical education classes, as they're offered in schools, are designed to promote physical fitness, confidence, social skills, teamwork and problem solving. While students are learning movement mastery or perfecting a skill. 

Think of it in terms of throwing, it takes muscle to launch a ball, but it takes mastery to hit the target. All of these skills are important both in and out of the gym setting. 

Without the firm foundation of physical education, students lack the tools to engage in meaningful and effective physical activity that sets them up for a lifetime of physical activity enjoyment. 

Now let's look at physical activity, or PA, which is the opportunity for movement outside the formal physical education setting. Physical activity can be defined as any movement of the body that requires energy expenditure, measured as level of intensity from low to high, or using calories.

Exercise, which is considered movement that is planned for the improving or maintaining a physical fitness by increasing heart rate and breathing, is a type of physical activity. But not every physical activity is considered exercise. 

You may have heard the recommendation from just about everyone, from the CDC to the NFL, that all kids need at least 60 minutes of physical activity everyday. This is a true statement. The benefits of physical activity can be seen in kids who accumulate this amount of PA on a daily basis. 

These benefits include improving fitness, brain function, focus and concentration. Other benefits include disease prevention, stress reduction, and promoting positive mental health, along with building bones and muscles.

Physical activity is important to many more things, but it also helps with weight management. No wonder PA is such an important segment to a school day. We will take a deeper look into these benefits later in this course. 

But for now it's important to note that when PE and PA join together in the school setting, a change in physical activity culture can occur. We call this the comprehensive school physical activity program, or CSPAP. We will talk about this in detail later in the course. 

But if you are not ready to take on a comprehensive program, we will also talk about steps you can take that still contribute to increasing activity in your school.

In concluding this video, remember, physical education and physical activity are both unique and important to movement proficiency or physical literacy. Which is considered the ability to move, along with the confidence to move. This contributes to the overall health of school-aged children. 

We will learn about the whys and the hows as we continue through the section. But for now, it's time to get moving, it's time to play.

60 Minutes of Activity:

Welcome back.  In this video, we will be taking a closer look at the recommendations of 60 minutes of daily physical activity. We will break down the different categories that can contribute to the 60 minutes and set the stage for understanding the science behind the 60. 

It will also become clear why schools are a great environment in which to promote physical activity. We previously discussed the differences between PE and PA, so please keep those in mind as we go through this video. To start, I pose this question to you. 

At first pass you might think, well, that's an easy question. Yes, 45 plus 15 equals 60. The answer more often than not is no. We will revisit this question at the end of the video and you will see why this is often the case for children in our public school system in the US.

Now, let's look at where the 60-minute recommendation for activity came from. According to the Centers for Disease Control or the CDC, children and adolescents should have 60 minutes or more of daily physical activity. 

The 60 minutes should be a combination of moderate, which is equivalent to a brisk walk, and vigorous, which is equivalent to jogging. In addition, the vigorous type needs to occur at least three days per week. 

Rigorous research has been conducted on this subject and the consensus is that this is the combination that best contributes to overall health benefits. So, you can see that the majority of the 60 minutes falls into the category of exercise that I defined in the first video.

As a reminder, exercise means movement planned for maintaining or improving physical fitness. Exercise can sometimes be very intimidating, overwhelming or simply not appealing to kids. So, experts came up with a different more descriptive term called MVPA, moderate to vigorous physical activity. 

Exercise physiologist often measure activity and metabolic equivalents or METs. One MET is defined as the energy it takes to sit quietly or be sedentary. Moderate activity, like brisk walking, usually requires three to six METs and vigorous activities like jogging use more than six METs. 

If you compare a 30-minute run against a 30-minute kickball game, it's safe to say more METs were used during the run therefore, more MVPA was accumulated during the run. Think about or consider an activity on an energy scale from sitting quietly to running.

If students can break up the time sitting quietly in class with time dedicated to increasing that MET expenditure, then that's the foundation for incorporating physical activity into the school day. 

If a student's movement experiences are more enjoyable, they're more likely to increase MET usage, or simply put, play harder. Using activities that the kids enjoy either structured or unstructured, while teaching the foundations of movement, makes getting the daily MVPA much easier. 

We often hear some concerns such as, it can be hard to find an hour block of time during the school day for something besides academics. Most students don't have daily PE, some don't have PE at all. There's no time in the school day for extra physical activity.

No worries, it's okay to break up the 60 minutes into smaller more manageable periods to fit your specific school needs, and not all physical activity needs to happen during the school day. A comprehensive approach takes into account before, during, and after-school activity time. 

Also, keep in mind that it's okay for kids to do physical activity on their own outside of the school setting. Going to the rec center, participating in extracurricular activities, as well as solo activities like swimming or bike riding are great examples. 

So, let's revisit our question from the beginning of this video. The student has daily PE for 45 minutes and daily recess for 15 minutes, do they meet the requirements? Why is the answer to this question most often no? It's because the movement portion of recess and PE are not continuous.

Let's think about the METs and what's happening in these situations. Our kids continually running during recess, or do they stop to talk with their friends or hang out by the playground equipment? 

Do PE classes start right at the beginning of class and run continually like a group exercise class would? Or is there time to stop for instructions, explanations, standing in line waiting to turn, or time spent changing into the gym class uniform? More likely, the answer to this question is yes. 

We want to look at this activity analysis realistically and all of these examples demonstrate way METs are measured. They take into consideration that recess and PE are not continuous. It's important to remember that just because time is blocked on the schedule does not immediately equal movement.  

That's okay. This deeper understanding helps in the implementation of an effective plan. Next up, we'll talk about the physical benefits and how this helps kids in the school environment. Now get outside and get some physical activity.