A monopoly on fitness
Elaine Miller has her middle school physical education students jumping through hoops, and, believe it or not, they like it.
Miller, who teaches phys-ed to grades five through eight at Central Christian School (CCS) in Kidron, and her assistant, Rachel Linder, a senior at CCS, have come up with an unique way of encouraging fitness in the students at CCS. The idea, which came from a session Miller attended at the National Middle School Association Convention held in Baltimore last fall, is Fitness Monopoly, a gymnasium-sized board game built around a baseball theme.
Miller stood in the center of the gym explaining the game to her seventh-grade students as Linder demonstrated the physical challenges of each activity--high-jumps, hula-hooping, Indian runs and using a two-person swing trainer to bat a baseball. Students are divided into teams, she said, then move to the center of the gym to roll the die. The students are the game pieces, making their way to the spaces indicated by posters hanging on the walls around the gym, each representing rooms of their school. Students might land on the library or the cafeteria, the principal’s office or the gym, and, once they’ve landed, they complete the activity associated with it. Students might also find themselves on familiar Monopoly spaces, like free parking where they take a few moments to rest, or one of the four railroads where the activity is associated with core subjects like reading, history or science.
The activities for each space are different, and, while the majority are physical challenges based on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, the railroad spaces, for example, give students an opportunity to watch a short video demonstrating how baseballs are made, read a baseball-related segment, or see a movie about a historical baseball event.
One of the students’ favorite spaces instructs them to grab a microphone and belt out “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as their team members cheer them on, an activity fifth-grader Carrie Hamsher said is fun to watch her classmates attempt. Her friend, fifth-grader Christiana Murray, agreed, adding that several of the activities are kind of hard. “Some of the things make you have to stretch a lot,” Murray said. “There are fun things, like the drawing,” referring to the space instructing players to draw a picture of what physical fitness looks like.
While the activities can be challenging, each space offers an easy, medium and difficult level that students can choose. When they’ve completed the activity, they tally points based on their accomplishment and roll the die again, continuing until they’ve moved completely around the giant board.
By the time the program ends April 15, each group will have participated in the game for three weeks, a total of six times. While this is the first year Miller has presented the program, she said she’s sure to continue it, creating new sports-related themes each year.
“I’ve had all positive reactions from the students. One parent of a fifth-grader shared how disappointed her daughter was when a testing session interfered with her Fitness Monopoly time. She had really been looking forward to it that day.”
Miller said she couldn’t have created the program without Rachel Linder, her assistant. Linder created the posters for the spaces and came up with the activities based on drills she had done in volleyball camp, softball and a circuit training class she participated in during her sophomore year. She then tailored the challenges for middle school students and helped Miller determine appropriate difficulty levels.
“She’s a real self-starter,” said Miller of Linder. “She worked on the program a couple periods a day and after school.” Linder also spends the first session with each class setting up the stations and demonstrating the activities.
Seventh-grader Morgan Darr was excited about her first session. “It’s fun, because you can move around and you’re not doing the same thing the whole gym time. The Indian run will probably be the most difficult part, but I think doing the balance boards will be fun.”
Miller said parents can continue encouraging fun physical fitness at home by creating their own Fitness Monopoly, using activities suggested on the President’s Council on Fitness website at http://www.fitness.gov.
Her only regret is that she can’t be one of the students. “I’d like to be in a group and complete the challenges with them, because, as adults, when do we get the opportunity to experience fun physical fitness?”
With unique and challenging games like Fitness Monopoly, Miller’s students aren’t likely to grow bored, and they just might get the chance to go directly to good health.
Miller, who teaches phys-ed to grades five through eight at Central Christian School (CCS) in Kidron, and her assistant, Rachel Linder, a senior at CCS, have come up with an unique way of encouraging fitness in the students at CCS. The idea, which came from a session Miller attended at the National Middle School Association Convention held in Baltimore last fall, is Fitness Monopoly, a gymnasium-sized board game built around a baseball theme.
Miller stood in the center of the gym explaining the game to her seventh-grade students as Linder demonstrated the physical challenges of each activity--high-jumps, hula-hooping, Indian runs and using a two-person swing trainer to bat a baseball. Students are divided into teams, she said, then move to the center of the gym to roll the die. The students are the game pieces, making their way to the spaces indicated by posters hanging on the walls around the gym, each representing rooms of their school. Students might land on the library or the cafeteria, the principal’s office or the gym, and, once they’ve landed, they complete the activity associated with it. Students might also find themselves on familiar Monopoly spaces, like free parking where they take a few moments to rest, or one of the four railroads where the activity is associated with core subjects like reading, history or science.
The activities for each space are different, and, while the majority are physical challenges based on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, the railroad spaces, for example, give students an opportunity to watch a short video demonstrating how baseballs are made, read a baseball-related segment, or see a movie about a historical baseball event.
One of the students’ favorite spaces instructs them to grab a microphone and belt out “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as their team members cheer them on, an activity fifth-grader Carrie Hamsher said is fun to watch her classmates attempt. Her friend, fifth-grader Christiana Murray, agreed, adding that several of the activities are kind of hard. “Some of the things make you have to stretch a lot,” Murray said. “There are fun things, like the drawing,” referring to the space instructing players to draw a picture of what physical fitness looks like.
While the activities can be challenging, each space offers an easy, medium and difficult level that students can choose. When they’ve completed the activity, they tally points based on their accomplishment and roll the die again, continuing until they’ve moved completely around the giant board.
By the time the program ends April 15, each group will have participated in the game for three weeks, a total of six times. While this is the first year Miller has presented the program, she said she’s sure to continue it, creating new sports-related themes each year.
“I’ve had all positive reactions from the students. One parent of a fifth-grader shared how disappointed her daughter was when a testing session interfered with her Fitness Monopoly time. She had really been looking forward to it that day.”
Miller said she couldn’t have created the program without Rachel Linder, her assistant. Linder created the posters for the spaces and came up with the activities based on drills she had done in volleyball camp, softball and a circuit training class she participated in during her sophomore year. She then tailored the challenges for middle school students and helped Miller determine appropriate difficulty levels.
“She’s a real self-starter,” said Miller of Linder. “She worked on the program a couple periods a day and after school.” Linder also spends the first session with each class setting up the stations and demonstrating the activities.
Seventh-grader Morgan Darr was excited about her first session. “It’s fun, because you can move around and you’re not doing the same thing the whole gym time. The Indian run will probably be the most difficult part, but I think doing the balance boards will be fun.”
Miller said parents can continue encouraging fun physical fitness at home by creating their own Fitness Monopoly, using activities suggested on the President’s Council on Fitness website at http://www.fitness.gov.
Her only regret is that she can’t be one of the students. “I’d like to be in a group and complete the challenges with them, because, as adults, when do we get the opportunity to experience fun physical fitness?”
With unique and challenging games like Fitness Monopoly, Miller’s students aren’t likely to grow bored, and they just might get the chance to go directly to good health.
Published: March 31, 2011
