Let’s get physical!

It is a proven fact that daily physical activity is essential in everyone’s life, especially for learners who are your own age.

Physical activity allows people to:

• maintain flexibility
• build strong bones and muscles
• promote good posture and balance
• improve fitness
• strengthen the heart
• improve self-esteem and confidence
• increase relaxation
• help meet new friends and strengthen relationships

How much physical activity?

How much physical activity do learners who are your age need?

Children aged 5-11 should be active for at least one hour of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity daily. But more is even better! A daily physical activity or DPA of 20 minutes is a start!

What is moderate intensity physical activity?

Moderate intensity physical activity makes you breathe harder and your heart beat faster. You should be able to talk, but not sing. Examples of moderate intensity physical activity include walking quickly, skating, bike riding and skateboarding.

What is vigorous intensity physical activity?

With vigorous intensity physical activity, your heart rate will increase even more and you will not be able to say more than a few words without catching a breath. Examples of vigorous intensity activity include running, basketball, soccer and cross-country skiing.

Your daily goal should be one hour of physical activity every day. It may seem difficult to achieve, but you can break that one hour down into small parts. Everything at your learning environment, at home and at play counts!

Get up and get active with Lucas and Greg and Teacher Deniece for a superhero themed workout!

Check out the following video entitled “Power Up: Super Hero 5” to participate in a fun daily physical activity.

Great job on completing that superhero themed workout!

That video was approximately 7 minutes, which means you can add that 7 minutes to your one hour of physical activity!

What happens if you want to participate in daily physical activity but do not know where to start?

The following are some suggestions for daily physical activities:

• walk or roll to school
• bike or run instead of getting a ride
• rake the leaves in the fall or shovel snow in the winter
• help carry the groceries
• move to your favourite music
• replace computer and TV time with something active like workout TVOKids workouts
• participate on a team or an intramural program
• go to the playground and play with others

Your daily physical activity time

We learned that you should accumulate at least one hour of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity each day. With that knowledge, you are going to create a plan for yourself. Starting with a daily physical activity time of 20 minutes is a great way to add towards your one hour.

Creating a plan is a great way to organize your daily activities.

Think about moderate and vigorous exercises that make you happy, but also provide you with a great sweat and increased heartbeat!

Create a plan to get yourself one hour of daily physical activity each day of the week. Complete the Daily Physical Activity Plan in your notebook or using the following fillable and printable document. If you would like, you can use speech-to-text or audio recording tools to record your thoughts.

Reflection

As you read through these descriptions, which sentence best describes how you are feeling about your understanding of this learning activity? Press the button that is beside this sentence.

Now, record your ideas using a voice recorder, speech-to-text, or writing tool.