Hailey Russell, Jaci Sherer, and Janine Trotter 

 

Integrated Media Resources: Physical Activity

 

Popular Film/Television Show

Title: Bo On The Go

Producer: Halifax Film

Year: 2007-2011

Length: 22 min Episodes

Rating: Not Rated (Educational TV Program)

 

Television Show Description:

This popular netflix series follows both a girl and her best friend dragon through a series of different adventures. Each episode introduces a new adventure/task for both the girl and the dragon to solve. As they go through each adventure they invite the viewers to join them through various physical activities in order to move on to the next task. For example, the first episode depicts the two friends needing help to find their blue bird. To find this blue bird, the two friends must find three doors. In order to find the three doors, the two friends introduce different physical activities, such as crawling, running, jogging, and stretching to the viewers to participate alongside them. As they go through the moves, the two friends motivate viewers by explaining the different movements. Once the movements are gone through, the girl and dragon move on to the next activity, or in this case it was a door. I found these episodes to be very age appropriate for third grade and lower. Not only are these episodes great for introducing physical activity, but it gets children from sitting on the floor watching tv, to actually joining the characters in the activities. For these reasons, this show was the best choice for a third grade audience.

 

Television Show Review:

I found that this netflix series does a great job at getting viewers involved in physical activity. From watching the first couple of episodes, the two main characters take the viewers on different adventures, getting them off of the couch throughout the entire episode. Throughout this show, all of the character speak in first person. Both the dragon and the girl engage the viewers by calling them their “bo-buddies”. Not only does this add a personal connection to the viewers, but it also gives the viewers that comfortability and incentive to join the characters in their physical activity adventures. While this show introduces different physical activities to the viewers, the characters show a dependence on the audience to join them in order to move on to the next task. The characters introduce different ways to move such as “ani-moves”, where they move like animals. Another example is giving the viewers “boogie time” to get all of their jitters out. I find that this acts as a reward system/incentive for the children for doing the activities. During an activity in the first episode, the girl starts to have low energy and calls out to the audience for their help. She states, “help me feel your energy, you make my power band glow when you get on the go”. This shows children that you need to be physically active in order to have the energy to take on adventures.

 

National Health Education Standards (NHES):

• NHES 1: Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.
  • 1.5.1 Describe the relationship between healthy behaviors and personal health.
  • 1.5.3 Describe ways in which a safe and healthy school and community environment can promote personal health.
  • 1.5.4 Describe ways to prevent common childhood injuries and health problems.
• NHES 2: Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology and other factors on health behaviors.
  • 2.5.3 Identify how peers can influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors.
• NHES 4: Students will Demonstrate the ability to use interpersonal communication skills to enhance health and avoid or reduce health risks.
  • 4.5.3 Demonstrate non-violent strategies to manage or resolve conflict.
  • 4.5.4 Demonstrate how to ask for assistance to enhance personal health.
• NHES 5: Students will Demonstrate the ability to use decision-making skills to enhance health.
  • Grades: 3-5 5.5.3 List healthy options to health related issues or problems.
• NHES 7: Students will Demonstrate the ability to practice health-enhancing behaviors and avoid or reduce health risks.
  • 7.5.2 Demonstrate a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal health.
  • 7.5.3 Demonstrate a variety of behaviors that avoid or reduce health risks.
• NHES 8: Students will Demonstrate the ability to advocate for personal, family and community health.
  • Grades: 3-5 8.5.2 Encourage others to make positive health choices.

Healthy Behavior Outcomes (HBOs):

• HBO 1: Engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity for at least 60 minutes every day.
• HBO 2: Regularly engage in physical activities that enhance cardiorespiratory endurance, flexibility, muscle endurance, and muscle strength.
• HBO 5: Follow a physical activity plan for healthy growth and development.
• HBO 7: Support others to be physically active.

 

Learning Objective:

Students will be able to participate in physical activities alongside the characters in the show and make a graph to visually represent the array of physical activities shown in the show and how often they are used.

 

Core Integration:

The BEST way to integrate these episodes into a third grade curriculum is through science and mathematics. Students can watch the show during transition periods or during movement breaks, and will begin to make a chart for the different types of movements included in the episodes and how often the exercise is talked about. The chart will then see how diverse the exercises are and if they are all talked about equally. This will allow students to get physically active every day while doing the activities alongside the characters, but will also allow them to practicing gathering evidence and making charts, which are used in many different subjects throughout their school experience. Students will also participate in a discussion after enough evidence is gathered about what they discovered through their investigation of the show, and talk about why it is important to get physical activity everyday in a wide variety of activities.

 

Documentary

Title: More Than Child’s Play: Why Physical Activity Matters

Producer: PBS

Year: 2011

Length: 56:53

Rating: Not Rated

 

Film Description:

This documentary is about the importance of physical activity for children. It is the best documentary about physical activity because it has many important topics about why children are less physically active recently, and how to change that. It hits on topics such as child obesity and how this will lead to adult obesity. It touches on the fact that it is harder for children to be active outside than it has been in previous years because of issues of safety. It also mentions the interconnected relationship between people and the environments around them, for example, how the current culture does not always lead to the healthiest choices among children. However, they explain how this can be changed, especially within schools. It also explains how this can be hard because some districts are cutting out Physical Education time. This often makes it the teacher’s job to be creative in working in physical activity into their everyday curriculum. It gives examples of ways to implement physical activity into the school day. Some schools built game labs with video games that get kids active, some use jumping jacks to learn spelling or counting, some just take breaks between teaching to walk or run around the building with their students. Things like yoga and zumba take the pressure off students who do not want to participate in sports. This documentary is good for 3rd graders in smaller chunks.

 

Film Review:

This film does a good job at giving facts about obesity today and why children today are not getting as much physical activity as they used to. This documentary will open student’s eyes to different ways that they can be active at home and give them inspiration to make change in their own classrooms. The documentary may be a bit dense to show third graders all at once, however in chunks, this documentary is perfect. This is the best documentary for our age level because it uses student friendly language and give many examples with students. The students in the documentary show what they do every day to be physically active, and the adults explain why it is so important, emphasizing that active students learn better. Other documentaries we looked at were simply too complex and dense for students of this age. They probably would not be able to follow along. Students will be able to follow along with this documentary with some pauses and class discussion as well as student reflection.

 

National Health Education Standards (NHES):

• NHES 1: Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.
  • 1.5.1        Describe the relationship between healthy behaviors and personal health.
  • 1.5.2        Identify examples of emotional, intellectual, physical, and social health.
  • 1.5.3        Describe ways in which safe and healthy school and community environments can promote personal health.
• NHES 2: Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology, and other factors on health behaviors.
  • 2.5.1        Describe how family influences personal health practices and behaviors.
  • 2.5.2        Identify the influence of culture on health practices and behaviors.
  • 2.5.3        Identify how peers can influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors.
  • 2.5.4        Describe how the school and community can support personal health practices and behaviors.
  • 2.5.6        Describe ways that technology can influence personal health.
• NHES 4: Students will demonstrate the ability to use interpersonal communication skills to enhance health and avoid or reduce health risks.
  • 4.5.2        Demonstrate refusal skills that avoid or reduce health risks.
  • 4.5.3        Demonstrate nonviolent strategies to manage or resolve conflict.
• NHES 5: Students will demonstrate the ability to use decision-making skills to enhance health.
  • 5.5.1        Identify health-related situations that might require a thoughtful decision.
  • 5.5.3        List healthy options to health-related issues or problems.
  • 5.5.4        Predict the potential outcomes of each option when making a health-related decision.
  • 5.5.5        Choose a healthy option when making a decision.
• NHES 7: Students will demonstrate the ability to practice health-enhancing behaviors and avoid or reduce health risks.
  • 7.5.1        Identify responsible personal health behaviors.
  • 7.5.2        Demonstrate a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal health.

 

Healthy Behavior Outcomes:

• HBO 1: Engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity for at least sixty minutes every day.
• HBO 3: Engage in warm-up and cool-down activities before and after structured exercise.
• HBO 4: Drink plenty of water before, during, and after physical activity.
• HBO 5: Follow a physical activity plan for healthy growth and development.

 

Learning Objectives:

Students, in groups, will be able to create and present a persuasive work (poster, skit, video, etc.) that displays their own physical activity plan that can be implemented in their classroom.

 

Core Integration:

After watching clips of the documentary there would be a class discussion about the content that the students just watched. We would review the main points of the documentary and then give a follow-up group activity. Students get in groups and create a plan for their classroom. The plan is something that they could do to me more physically active throughout the day. The students work together to create a poster, a video, etc. of their ideas to present to the class. Then we create a poll where each student can vote on which plan they would like to implement. Modifications to the students plans can be made if need be and with collaboration from the students. This presentation will help with their writing as well as detail-oriented planning and artistic creativity. This lesson can be used in a persuasive writing unit.

 

Here is a link to the documentary in full