Physical Education Action Plans

We need a way to combat the obesity epidemic and reverse the dangerous trend of sedentary and inactive behavior in children. Physical Education Action Plans: Challenges to Promote Activity at School and at Home contains action plans that teachers, recreation leaders, and parents of children ages 5 to 13 can use to turn this tide and get kids moving and having fun again.

According to national physical activity guidelines, kids need 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily, but they don’t understand the importance. That’s where Physical Education Action Plans comes in. This handy book and CD-ROM package offers

•57 engaging action plans and 19 quick activities that can be used in physical education classes or at home with family members,

•a rubric that comes with each action plan and guides you in assessing activity,

•class challenge activities for students to complete in school, and

•take-home challenges for students to do with their family and friends.

Each action plan has both a class challenge worksheet and a take-home challenge worksheet. Children complete the take-home challenges with family members, and these challenges are an integral part of promoting activity at home. All class challenge and take-home challenge worksheets are found on the CD-ROM, which also offers other printable materials—including cards, certificates, and station signs—that you can use during PE class.

The action plans are grouped around a variety of themes (fitness, strength, agility, speed, flexibility, endurance, physical skills, skill themes, and so on). A comprehensive action plan finder helps you choose just the right action plan for your students according to the NASPE standards or skills involved. Every action plan makes a real-life connection for the students between the concepts of physical activity, fun, and meaningful—thus making their experience richer and more valuable.

The action plans and challenges in Physical Education Action Plans supply kids with all the aerobic and muscle- and bone-strengthening activity that they need. They will also enjoy the learning, playing, writing, thinking, and planning that the challenges provide. You get to offer appropriate action plans, motivate kids to get and stay active, and help them learn practical life lessons. And the kids receive the building blocks that will help them remain active and healthy throughout their lives. In fact, they might have so much fun, they’ll start wearing out their shoes instead of the seats of their pants!

Charmain Sutherland, a national board-certified physical educator, loves a great challenge. She began teaching physical education and health in 1990 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In 2007 she was named the Physical Education Elementary Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (MAHPERD). In that same year, Sutherland received the Washington Post Agnes Meyer Award as Teacher of the Year for her innovative teaching methods. At Severn Elementary, she vowed to teach like her hair was on fire and was chosen as their Teacher of the Year and became a finalist for the Excellence in Education award by Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Annapolis, Maryland. Her dedication and service to the physical education profession won her a Simon McNeeley award from MAHPERD.

Sutherland also served as vice president of physical education for MAHPERD. She worked with her MAHPERD team as exhibits co-chair for the AAHPERD national convention and continued advocating for physical education as a physical activity consultant for Head Start Body Start. While opening a new school in 2008, Nantucket Elementary (home of the Starfish), she discovered that more than ever, even the littlest efforts make a difference. Since then, she continues to serve as a physical education advocate—however she is needed—to promote physical activity while working in Maryland as a physical educator and living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In her leisure time, she enjoys playing water sports, tennis, softball, and golf and inventing new games.