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Play Your Way to Fitness: A Low-Organization Games Program for Children in Grades 4 and 5 at Risk of Overweight
Beverly A. Moylan, Kathryn J. Faloon, & Angela M. Thompson . Play your way to fitness. Atlantic Provinces Exercise Scientists, 17-18.
Target Group: Grades 4 and 5 children at risk of overweight
Program Name: Fit for Life
Location: Antigonish, NS
Study Objective: The purpose of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of a low-organizational games program to improve the health-related components of physical fitness for children in grades 4 and 5 at risk of overweight.
Study Design:
Intervention or Program:
• Twenty-eight students participated at least 3 days per week in this ten-week physical activity program delivered by volunteer university students.
• With supervision, the participants walked 25 minutes to the one-hour low-organizational games program which emphasized inclusive, continuous participation rather than elimination and competition.
• The program consisted of a warm-up, four or five low-organizational games – such as tags, relays, circuits and other low organizational games, and a cool-down.
• Pre- and post-program testing included (1) cardio-respiratory endurance determined from heart rate and aerobic power obtained using a graded, sub-maximal treadmill test (2) muscular strength and endurance determined from push-ups and curl-ups, (3) flexibility measured using the sit and reach test, and (4) body fat estimated from the sum of eight skin folds.
Impact on Physical Activity:
• At post-program testing, significant improvement was found in heart rates, curl-ups , push-ups, sit and reach scores, and sum of skin folds
• Thus, children participating at least three times per week in a low-organizational games program were able to improve the health-related components of their physical fitness and in particular reduced their overall body fat.
Implications for Practitioners:
Staffing consisted of volunteer students and a low organizational games program produced large health benefits among participants.
The author is willing to share the Fit for Life games booklet created for the program. This games booklet is organized according to the health-related components of physical fitness and includes suggestions for activities that focus on cardio-respiratory endurance, muscular strength (lower and upper body), muscular endurance and flexibility.
Author: Angie Thompson amthomps@stfx.ca 902-867-3540
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