Coordinated School HealthTeams and Project Healthy Schools create physical activity opportunities during the school day

School budget cuts, decreased enrollment and state education funding, in addition to changing state requirements for health and physical education classes have led to less physical activity time during middle school. This trend, coupled with increasing childhood obesity, has proposed a difficult challenge for creating opportunities for students to remain physically active during the school day.

Schools with active Coordinated School Health Teams (CSHT) have effectively increased opportunities for fun and creative programs to increase physical activity while limiting spending. In Ann Arbor, where Project Healthy Schools (PHS) a Community-University collaborative to decrease childhood obesity through educational and environmental school based interventions is well established, CSHT have planned and implemented school wide “Beach” Volleyball tournaments, annual fun 5K runs, brain break activity wheels, walk to school events, and holiday themed walking and running events with an educational twist, such as the Estimation Turkey Trot. These physical activity opportunities incorporate exercise into the school day and involve all grades. The recent Beach Volleyball tournament, played in an indoor gym during the winter months, provided students with almost 3,000 minutes of activity for a total of 117 games of volleyball. Over 90% of students participated in the annual 5K run, raising $2,000 for future school based wellness events.

Combating childhood obesity in schools with decreased funding for physical activity and health classes can be achieved with unique collaborations between programs such as PHS, CSHT and creative and willing staff who positively promote active lifestyles.