The Arkansas Governor's Council on Fitness wants to invite fourth-graders out to play.
If their schools will let them.
The council's annual Great Arkansas Workout will include two field days for fourth-graders this spring, in Conway on April 28 and in Bentonville on May 1. Schools, which apply to participate, will bus 30 pupils and their chaperones to the workout nearest them for an otherwise free morning or afternoon smorgasbord of games and exercise.
"We'll supply small snacks for their halftime break, and then we'll have water," says council member Rance Bryant, director of health and fitness at Conway Regional Medical Center. He is point man for the central Arkansas workout.
The Conway workout will once again use the University of Central Arkansas campus; and the Northwest Great Arkansas Workout will once again use the Walton Life Fitness Center in Bentonville.
"Last year we had schools from Perryville to Lavaca, Dover, Marshall, and of course we had the Conway schools. So they came from all over," Bryant says.
This year's plan resembles last year's, with only a few minor changes suggested by the physical education teachers who participated. "It was a three-hour event, and we had 13 different stations," he says. Children spent 10 minutes playing at each station before running to the next one. "They ranged from gymnastics to obstacle course, boot camp, hip-hop dance, basketball and football drills, tabatas, track relays ....
"We want to do activities that they do not do every day, because they're so used to the basketball, baseball, football, soccer. Some of these kids have maybe never done gymnastics or obstacle course or hip-hop dance. ...
"It is for the fourth-graders. In that age range, they're fun. They like to be active."
Schools can apply online at agcof.com under "Activities."
"We encourage the PE teachers or the school administrators to apply," Bryant says. "It's a simple form to fill out" with only a few questions, such as what criteria they would use to select students to attend, what steps the school takes to improve pupils' health and how many teachers and chaperones they would include in the outing.
Bryant says each event typically includes 400 children.
Last year, a tornado struck communities around Conway two days before the workout. Volunteers pulled off the event anyway, and it "was kind of a shot in the arm for us as well as for the local kids because [the storm] hit the community hard. To be able to have it here in Conway where that happened, instead of postponing ... it was a great day," he says.
For more information about the central Arkansas workout, contact Bryant at (501) 450-9292 or email rbryant@conwayregional.org. For questions about the Northwest Arkansas workout, contact Christine McKnelly at (501) 671-1598.
ActiveStyle on 02/09/2015