An exercise in creating fitness habits

They wiggle, jump, climb and stretch. Teacher Mark Holme puts his first-grade students through their paces during twice-weekly physical education classes in Bonney Lake.

“Move your toes – only,” Holme tells the children. “Show me how to wiggle one arm. Now one leg. Arms and legs only – but not your head.”

Judging by the expressions on their faces, it’s a good bet that precision body control is a challenge for some of these kids. But they are clearly having fun while they develop body awareness.

Holme is in his fifth year teaching P.E. at Emerald Hills Elementary School in Bonney Lake. He’s a veteran P.E. teacher, with 22 years in the field.

But he’s excited to learn more with the help of a $1.2 million grant that’s coming to the Sumner School District from the U.S. Department of Education. The money will be distributed over the next three years.

The payoff, district officials hope, will be kids who do better in school academically as well as socially, and who emerge with an established fitness habit they will carry through their adult lives.

Holme said he’s looking forward to working with other P.E. teachers in the district on a consistent kindergarten-through-high school curriculum. The grant will help purchase that curriculum, along with fitness equipment – everything from climbing walls to heart-rate monitors.

Sumner is one of five school districts in the state – and the only one in Pierce County – to win funds this fall from the federal education department’s Carol M. White Physical Education Program.

The PEP grant will bring nearly $500,000 to the district this year, followed by grants of more than $300,000 the following two years. They will be supplemented by a required investment of more than $300,000 from the school district – much of it through services, staff time and community partnerships instead of cash.

The goal: to teach kids about health, fitness and nutrition, using a curriculum that’s packed with movement and fun games.

“We have had to change our focus as kids have changed, and also as the science has changed,” said Brenda Kuehlthau, the Bonney Lake High School teacher who will manage the grant.

She said children come to school at many different fitness levels, and many aren’t interested in learning traditional sports skills.

Loren Willson is a Sumner teacher on special assignment who works with districtwide curriculum and teacher professional development. He helped write Sumner’s grant application, with assistance from a Spokane-based company called Focused Fitness. The company also publishes the curriculum that will be used.

“It’s a movement-based curriculum,” Willson said.

One example: Kids will learn how fat deposits can collect in their arteries by playing a tag game that also raises their heart rates.

Willson said the idea is for schools to look at the whole child. The grant requires participating schools to provide counseling and social services, as well as traditional health and P.E. classes.

“Healthy kids learn better, bully less and have better relationships with their peers,” he added.

He said that perspective is especially important in an era of cost-cutting, when classes such as art and P.E. can fall victim to budget trimming.

Last year, the Franklin Pierce School District reassigned seven elementary school P.E. specialists to other teaching jobs to save money. This year, the Parkland-based district is contracting with the YMCA – at a cost of about $100,000 – to offer structured physical activity for students at its eight elementary schools.

In Sumner, the district has 21 full-time P.E. teachers at its 13 schools. That number includes eight elementary teachers, who will now get a chance to work more closely together.

“All our P.E. teachers do a good job,” Willson said. “But their opportunity to collaborate has been limited in the past.”

The grant will pay for substitute teachers so the regular P.E. instructors can get training on how to best use the new curriculum and equipment. The first training sessions are scheduled for November.

The grant also requires Sumner school officials to collect data and document fitness levels. Sensitive health data will be collected by district technicians, and student privacy will be protected, Willson said.

“We have to show substantial progress toward meeting our goals,” he said.

They might have to demonstrate that children are logging improved heart rates, for example, or eating more healthful snacks.

Such results are important if P.E. is to earn its place alongside other more “serious” academic subjects.

“We are constantly trying to fight the stereotype that it’s glorified recess,” Kuehlthau said.

The new programs, she added, have the potential to “truly elevate P.E. to the next level.”

Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com