February 17, 2012

Students at Glendaal today were hopping, crawling, dancing, munching, working in groups and participating in a host of other activities as part of Winter Activity Day.

The nearly 300 students rotated to a different activity every 20 minutes in the morning for more than two hours. The outside activity in the afternoon, which included Blob Tag and a scavenger hunt, was held for one hour.

Here's the flyer sent home with students about the day's activities. [MORE] PDF

The funding for the Winter Activity Day came from the school's successful $2,416 grant through the Fuel Up to Play 60 athletic program. Fuel Up to Play 60 (PDF) focuses on promoting healthier eating for children and increased physical activity, at least 60 minutes daily.

Students rotated around the school with their buddy class. Students in each class are paired with a younger student's classroom. The buddy groups participate in many activities together.

Fireball, the school's cardinal mascot, even got into the activities, as can be seen below.

Today, these indoor activities were held:

 ▪ A YMCA instructor led the “Y Fit Kids” program in the cafeteria.

▪ Bob Oates, a retired physical education teacher and administrator from Guilderland schools, held folk dancing classes in the gymnasium. Students learned to work in groups of two and four as they practiced controlling their own movement by tapping their knees and belly followed by a clap as well as 1-2-3 rotation.

 ▪ Stacy Doltz led Zumbatomics activities in the library. Students ran around, danced and moved to the sounds of "Surfin' Safari" and other fast-moving tunes.

▪ S-G physical therapist Meg Puglisi ran the obstacle course. Students used a balance beam, ducked, dropped, jumped on a Trampoline and rolled around as they made their way through the course.

 ▪ One station featured a winter sports movie.

▪ Taste testing kept students' palates satisfied. A series of breakfast foods, like pomegranate and kiwi juices, whole grain bread, brown rice cereal and, skim and soy milk and “craisins (cranberry raisins).” Students also completed a survey, indicating which food they liked the least and the most.

Allowances were made for children with any food allergies.

Here are a few photos from today's activities. Click on the photo to enlarge it...