Our July activity for the month is from our middle school activity box and is a team event called, "Rock-Paper-Scissors" CATCH Trainer and PE Specialist, Shana Green has a great time with her kids showing us how it's done!
It's really worth watching this great warm-up activity.

Team Rock-Paper-Scissors

  Cllick HERE to watch!

The new CATCH Report is complete and available online at the CATCH USA website.

The CATCH Report is full of great information on the different programs, research, testimonials and stories about communities who have benefited from implementing CATCH.  

If you would like to have a hard copy of the report please write:
Kathy Chichester

and get your copy! 

Not a problem, we record and archive all of our webinars.

Ericka Williams of the Oklahoma Dept. of Health discussed how the CATCH Kids-Club (CKC) program has progressed in Oklahoma utilizing successful partnerships and techniques to reinforce healthy behaviors.

CATCH IT HERE 

Webinar Archives

If you have any questions for this or other upcoming or past webinars please write to: [email protected]

 

 

Harold (Bill) Kohl, III, PhD  Professor, The University of Texas  School of Public Health

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently released a report entitled "Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School." The expert committee was tasked with three broad objectives:
1) assessing the status of physical activity and physical education in schools; 2) reviewing the science behind the effects of physical activity on health, development and academic performance in youth; and 3) making recommendations appropriate with the scientific evidence. 

The work of the committee was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 

The first of six recommendations from the Committee, and possibly the most sweeping, is that a Whole of School approach to physical activity programming should be adopted.  With this approach, access to physical activity for all students is provided throughout the school day. This will help ensure that all students meet the youth recommendations of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans of at least 60 minutes of vigorous or moderate-intensity physical activity a day.  Quality daily physical education is at the core of this approach, but the total of all opportunities is acknowledged. 

Such opportunities include active transport to and from school, intramural and extramural sports, recess, active classroom lessons, and before and after school activities.  These strategies, when taken together, can help children achieve the recommended daily physical activity which can lead to better health, development and academic performance. 

Historically, schools have played a central role in the health of our nation's children because healthy children are more able to learn than unhealthy children.  Nutrition (breakfast and lunch), immunization and health screening programs all have played a key role in the school setting because they help students be healthier.  The science base that supports physical activity for good health, development and helping students reach their full academic potential is now too strong to ignore.

Because active children have better cognitive function, better recall and are more likely to reach their full academic potential, efforts to promote physical activity should be given the same attention as other school health programs.  

Physical educators are central to the idea of a Whole of School approach.  Physical educators have unique knowledge, skills and abilities that other teachers do not have. 

Physical educators can and should play a leadership role for the Whole of School approach so that schools can be leveraged to be central to physical activity for youth.

 

 

By Peter Cribb, M.Ed.