http://www.sparkpe.org/blog Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 29 May 2012 16:00:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en sparkpehttp://feedburner.google.com Integrating Physical Activity and Literature The primary goal of structured physical activity time is to ensure that children engage in sufficient minutes of developmentally appropriate activity. Teachers have opportunities to enhance lessons through the integration of language arts by reading a book before a lesson, incorporating a book into a lesson, ... http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/physical-activity-and-literature/ For those of you new to SPARK -- or perhaps just a bio or two shy of a full SPARK deck -- Drs. Jim Sallis and Thom McKenzie are SPARK’s Founding Fathers – kind of like our Washington and Jefferson. They developed, submitted, and won the original NIH grant that launched ... http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/%e2%80%9cwhere-in-the-world-are-jim-and-thom%e2%80%9d/ Children face an abundance of “firsts” when they attend preschool, including their first experience of structured activity time. Enjoyment and success during activity is best achieved by remembering the saying, “The best defense is a good offense. Children need to learn the expectations for the structured activity class time. For ... http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/decreasing-inappropriate-behavior-durring-pe/ A simple way to teach kids nutrition is to provide a fact, and then ask questions about how that fact relates to them. It gets kids thinking and discussing real-life situations. Try the ideas below to start healthy conversations about vegetables! Veggies offer vitamins, minerals and ... http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/get-kids-talking-about-eating-veggies/ Up To $4M Available to California Organizations! The California Endowment has announced the Innovative Ideas Challenge (IIC), a new grant program seeking innovative ideas to address the persistent and emerging health issues that impact underserved communities in California. Projects should align with the 10 outcomes or 4 big ... http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/new-funding-for-california-orgs-innovative-ideas-challenge-grant/ Between 60 and 70 percent of Americans are overweight or obese. Nearly a third of the nation’s youth age two to 19 are overweight or obese. We can’t stress enough the danger of obesity—it leads to serious health problems including heart disease, the leading cause of death in America. New ... http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/hbo-the-weight-of-the-nation/ I had the pleasure of presenting/attending this gathering in Las Vegas, March 27-30th.  The group meets every other year and partners with ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) which has their own Health and Fitness Summit immediately following. What a enjoyable and memorable event!  It was really nice to attend a ... http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/national-association-for-health-and-fitness-forum-meeting-2012/ Today, more and more teachers are looking for ways to integrate their smart phones and iPads (and other tablets) with their physical education and health courses. Below is a list of apps that we've found helpful for Physical Educators. Click Here to view ... http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/physical-education-pe-apps-for-teachers/ Phospholipid bilayers? Pythagorean Theorem? The Lusitania? Kennedy Who? And so it goes. Students in every grade level at schools across the country are struggling in class. It’s not because they’re underachievers, or they’re not smart, or they don’t care. It’s because we’re working against them. The longer children and teens are ... http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/how-physical-activity-affects-academic-performance/ Physical activity and physical education are two terms that are often mistakenly used interchangeably. While there are inherent similarities and overlapping, there’s one point that needs to be made clear—physical education and physical activity are not synonymous. For example, say there are two children. Both get adequate physical activity—playing at recess, ... http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/physical-activity-vs-physical-education/