Khayelitsha’s 10km run and 5km fun run/walk are just a few days away – taking place on Sunday August 25 and starting and finishing at the Mandela Park Stadium.
A real highlight this year will be having nearly 400 children from local schools participating. Enabled by Woolworths, MySchool, the Sports Science Institute of SA (SSISA) and the Two Oceans Marathon Initiative (TOMI), we hope that this is just the start of encouraging young people to be fit and healthy and showing them just how much fun it can be.
While there will be more “Move for Health” events where we hope to provide similar opportunities – it’s also important for local schools to do whatever they can to keep the pupils active.
Ideally children should be accumulating about 60 minutes of activity a day – which includes moderate to vigorous activity. Short bursts of 15, 10, or even five minutes count towards this daily tally, so let’s consider some physical activity ideas in the school environment so as to promote not only their health – but their academic performance too.
A classroom activity bin
Have an “activity bin” in the classroom filled with skipping ropes, bean-bags, soccer and tennis balls, tennis-set bats and Frisbees to be used during break-time.
Skipping rope circuit – Post these details on the classroom wall. All you need here is a small square of concrete where pupils alternate skipping 20 jumps with:
10 mini-press-ups
10 sit-ups
10 burpies
10 high knee runs and 10 lunges
This circuit will only take a few minutes, but gives kids a quick effective mini-workout. Teachers could develop a star-system for pupils each time they do the mini-circuit.
1km Health Track
This has proven to be a great success in some schools. The 1km circuit (health) track makes exercise easily accessible to kids at any time –including before and after school and no teams are required – so it’s a great individual exercise. It’s a wonderful grass-roots project that any school can implement and it will help to keep kids in shape year-round.
How to set it up:
Measure out and develop a 1km track (or even just a 500m course) around the school grounds.
The track should include five stations spaced every 100 to 200m where pupils can do a variety of exercises such as 1 minute of mini-press-ups, sit-ups, skipping rope, hula-hoop swinging, lunges, squats and high-knee running.
In between the five stations, the pupils can hop, skip, jump, walk or run (any forward movement) that takes them to the next station.
A 5-minute warm-up should be done before starting the track and stretches can be done at the last station.
The objective of the track will be to encourage pupils to complete as many kilometres as they can each week, so twice around a 500m track.
A log chart in the classroom can track each pupil’s accumulated kilometres and suitable rewards and certificates can be issued in the class or even at school assemblies.
We look forward to seeing many Vukani readers at the Khayelitsha event on Sunday August 25. The 10km kicks off at 7.30am and the 5km at 7.45am. You can enter on the morning but make sure you are there at 6.30am to buy your entry.
For more information email khayelitshaathleticclub@gmail.com.
Remember at the end of the race there will be lucky draw prizes from SSISA, Two Oceans Marathon, Woolworths and MySchool up for grabs, as well as some vendors catering for hungry participants.
We look forward to an amazing morning of gees, energy and smiles in Khayelitsha. Make sure you are part of transforming the community into an active and healthy one.
Kathleen Mc Quaide is exercise scientist at the Sports Science Institute of SA.