![\"Andersons_Marathon](\"http:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/S3858-Marathon-Pedometer-000.jpg\" "\\"Andersons_Marathon")
<\/a><\/p>\nStep It Up <\/p>\n \u00a0Be Active Throughout the Day <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Make Good Food Choices <\/p>\n Pay it Forward <\/p>\n By incorporating a few easy ideas into the school day, you can help your kids stay healthy, active, and emotionally well, so they do better in school and in life.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0What do you do to keep your students active during the school day?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Keeping kids fit and healthy in school can be challenging. You know it\u2019s important, but you also have other things<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,12],"tags":[68,197,265,298,299,306,453,573],"class_list":["post-2330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elementary-school","category-featured","category-health","tag-active","tag-elementary","tag-healthy","tag-how-to","tag-ideas","tag-kids","tag-school","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5918,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions\/5918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/b>Invest in pedometers<\/a> for your students and staff, and have school or classroom-wide contests to see who can take the most steps every day or week. Incorporate steps into things your class does anyway. Design math lessons around counting steps, go the long way to the library or lunchroom, and encourage kids to be aware of their steps when they go to the bathroom, play in gym class, and walk home from school.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Set aside 5 minutes at the beginning, middle, and end of every day to get up and move. Have students stand up, touch their toes, and twirl around. Make the activity fun and light (or even silly), so kids enjoy doing it. Show them ways to be active at home, too, like by volunteering to walk the dog or doing 5 jumping jacks after each 15 minutes of computer or video game time.<\/p>\n![\"Andersons_Water](\"http:\/\/www.itselementary.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/700-0-ESB28-Athletic-Poly-Bottle-28oz-000.jpg\")
<\/a>Stay Hydrated
\n<\/b>Stock up on water bottles<\/a> for your entire school (staff, too). Turn drinking fountains into filling stations and set aside time throughout the day to \u201cfill \u2018em up.\u201d During snack or lunchtime, add fruit to water bottles to provide nutrients and make the water taste better.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Getting kids to make good food choices isn\u2019t always easy, especially with all the \u201cnot-so-good-for-you\u201d options out there. Teach your kids how to read labels and talk about what healthy eating means. Have each kid bring in a healthy snack or lunch and share with the class why they chose the foods they did.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Wellness isn\u2019t only about physical health. It\u2019s also about positive emotions and feeling good, and one of the best ways to feel good is by doing things for others. Encourage your kids to practice random acts of kindness and to \u201cpay it forward\u201d when others do nice things for them.<\/p>\n