This Fitness for Life: Elementary School Guide for Wellness Coordinators contains everything you need to implement a schoolwide standards-based wellness program. The guide and its DVD-ROM include the following:
Detailed steps for planning each week of the program and coordinating the efforts of classroom teachers, physical educators, other school staff, and parents
Videos for conducting schoolwide team activities to get all students moving together
Hundreds of printable resources, including full-color signs that reinforce wellness messages, materials to support special activities, planning and assessment tools, and newsletters
An exploration of the program’s educational foundations, including activity and nutrition guidelines; the connections between physical education, physical activity, and academics; and the obesity epidemic
A program overview for teacher training, including a slide presentation, an interview with senior author Chuck Corbin, and handouts
About the Fitness for Life: Elementary School Program
The award-winning Fitness for Life middle and high school programs now have an elementary school companion program. Fitness for Life: Elementary School is a coordinated program that promotes wellness, physical activity, sound nutrition, and healthy lifestyles throughout your entire school. It facilitates total involvement by using physical education lessons, classroom activities and discussions, recess, before- and afterschool activities, cafeteria events, family nights, and more. The program also incorporates nutrition guidelines associated with MyPyramid and introduces the new Physical Activity Pyramid for Kids. All components work together to reinforce targeted educational themes and messages from week to week.
The Fitness for Life: Elementary School program enables you to do the following:
Teach essential health-related concepts of fitness, physical activity, nutrition, and wellness
Meet local and state requirements for daily and weekly physical activity
Implement easy-to-follow lessons that are standards based and developmentally appropriate
Enhance academic performance and help fight childhood obesity
Coordinate efforts among classroom teachers, physical educators, other school personnel, before- and afterschool program leaders, and parents
Meet recommendations and standards from CDC, USDA, and NASPE, among others
With its integrated lesson plans, activities, videos, and resources, Fitness for Life: Elementary School can provide the foundation for a new coordinated school health program or greatly enhance an existing program.
Charles B. “Chuck” Corbin, PhD, is currently professor emeritus in the department of exercise and wellness at Arizona State University. He has published more than 200 journal articles and is the senior author, sole author, contributor to, or editor of more than 80 books, including the 5th edition of Fitness for Life (winner of the TAA’s Texty Award), the 14th edition of Concepts of Physical Fitness (winner of the TAA’s McGuffey Award), and the 7th edition of Concepts of Fitness and Wellness. His books are the most widely adopted high school and college texts in fitness and wellness.
Guy Le Masurier, PhD,is a professor of physical education at Vancouver Island University, where he teaches courses in pedagogy, research methods, and nutrition for health and sport. Dr. Le Masurier is coauthor of the award-winning book Fitness for Life: Middle School (winner of the TAA’s Texty Award) and has edited and contributed to several books, including the 5th edition of Fitness for Life: High School and the Physical Best Activity Guide. He has published numerous articles related to youth physical activity and physical education and served as a coauthor on the NASPE Physical Activity Guidelines for Children.
Dolly D. Lambdin, EdD, is a senior lecturer in the department of kinesiology and health education at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches undergraduate courses in children’s movement and methods of teaching as well as graduate courses in analysis of teaching and technology application in physical education.
Dr. Lambdin taught elementary physical education in public and private schools for 16 years and taught preservice teachers for 33 years at the university level. During much of that time, she taught simultaneously at both levels, a situation that required her to spend part of each day meeting the teaching and research demands of academia while tackling the daily adventure of teaching 5- to 14-year-olds. In addition, she has supervised over 100 student teachers, and as a result has been able to visit classes and learn from scores of wonderful cooperating teachers in the schools.
Meg Greiner, MEd, is a national board-certified elementary physical education teacher at Independence Elementary School in Independence, Oregon. She has been teaching elementary physical education for 21 years and regularly receives student teachers and practicum students into her setting. Meg has received numerous national awards and accolades for her innovative physical education program and the development of TEAM Time, including the 2005 NASPE National Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year, 2005 USA Today All-USA Teacher Team, and the 2006 Disney Outstanding Specialist Teacher of the Year.