Second-grade teacher Barb Root first thought that beginning the school day with exercise in the Tiger Den gymnasium at Mansfield Elementary School would result in hyper children and chaotic mornings.
The exact opposite happened, convincing Root of the importance of physical activity for her pupils.
“Instead of teaching to the test, if we taught with more physical activity, the students would be more engaged,” Root said. “This physical activity has been the best thing for attention and behavior.”
The U.S. Department of Education recently named Mansfield one of 67 school districts in 32 states - and the only one in Arkansas - to receive a grant this year regarding eating and exercise programs. The district was awarded $160,000 out of a combined $33 million in grants.
Grants are awarded to school districts and community organizations for starting, expanding or enhancing programs that help children develop lifelong habits for eating healthy and exercising. This year’s recipients plan to implement comprehensive, integrated programs that promote physical education and nutrition throughout the school day and in some after-school programs, according to the department.
Department records going back to 2001 show that eight other school districts or community organizations in Arkansas have received similar awards. They are the Hoxie, Jonesboro, Rogers, Texarkana, Trumann and Springdale school districts, the Jones Center in Springdale and the Boston Mountain Educational Cooperative in West Fork.
Mansfield will receive $160,000 this year as part of a three-year award that will total $322,000, said Tracey Sadoski, the district’s director of school health who wrote the grant application.
“This is going to be something we’re going to use to just try to get all of our students to be more active,” Sadoski said.
The district applied for a federal grant in 2013 but did not receive funding, Sadoski said. Administrators and teachers implemented as much as they could without the grant.
The grant will pay for additional training, curriculum materials and equipment the staff can use in educating children about eating healthfully and exercising.
The district plans to open a cardio room at the elementary campus for the 2014-15 school year, with additional rooms planned for the middle school and high school in the 2015-16 school year, Sadoski said.
YOGA BEFORE CLASSES
For children in kindergarten through sixth grade, the state requires 150 minutes of physical education or physical activity per week.
During discussions about providing more recess for Mansfield district children, a wellness committee brainstormed ideas for increasing physical activity, Mansfield Elementary School Principal Sam Slott said. The district is interested not only in teaching children to read, write and do arithmetic but also in keeping them in shape and healthy as they grow up.
Mansfield Elementary, in the town of Mansfield on the Sebastian-Scott county line, made changes to the school day to give children in kindergarten through fourth grade 60 minutes of physical activity per day, or 300 minutes per week, in addition to a weekly physical-education class, Slott said.
Each school day begins at 7:50 a.m. in the campus gym, Slott said. The first few minutes is spent giving announcements, taking a moment of silence and saying the Pledge of Allegiance. The entire student body spends 10 minutes performing yoga poses before being dismissed for class.
On Thursday, four second-graders led the entire student body through about 15 yoga poses.
Emilie Eaton, 7, a first-grader, liked pretending to be a bridge for one pose that started with her lying on her back on floor. She kept her hands and feet on the floor and arched her back upward.
“There’s the bridge pose, child pose, butterfly pose and flying warrior and tree pose,” Emilie said. “The flying warrior is kind of hard because you have to stand on one leg,” she said.
The flying warrior pose involves standing on one leg while lifting the other leg and making it and the back parallel with the ground. The children stretch their arms forward, pretending they are flying.
Second-graders stay for 20 more minutes of exercise in the gym, physical-education Coach Matthew Howell said. On Thursday, children followed along with a tae bo video with movements that included marching, punches, jumping jacks and kicks.
“It helps me exercise and makes me strong,” second-grader Aden Elmore, 8, said Thursday.
“I’m more hyper in the morning,” second-grader Austin Eason, 9, said. “It calms me down.”A CHANGE FROM LAST YEAR
Root explained that she taught the same group of children in first grade and that mornings were not so calm last year. Without the active start, children wanted to walk around and talk to friends. Other children were so sleepy they would put their heads on their desks, and some children needed a pep talk after a difficult morning.
This year, the time in the gym gives the children time to talk and expend energy, Root said. They are more attentive and focused in class and seem happier, she said.
When Root’s students entered their classroom on Thursday, they were quick to put away backpacks and get started quietly reading books.
After reading time ended, Root led her pupils in a spelling lesson. She wrote words on the board and then had her students stand up. Motions accompanied the spelling of each word.
Sometimes students clapped when they said each letter out loud. When they finished spelling a word, they made a motion that mimicked Spider-Man spraying a web.
Jessie Cook, 9, liked Root’s idea of waving a princess wand and suggested that the class circle a pretend wand above their heads while turning around.
“It’s fun learning,” Jessie said.
After they finished spelling the words together several times, the children sat downand got quiet as they wrote each word in their writing journals.
“They’re active, but then they calm down,” Root said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/18/2014