On the move

It's true. Acting like a monkey in school can help you do better at math.

That's what Hamilton County Schools are learning, using the Kid Fitness kits distributed to every public and private school classroom through the United Way of Greater Chattanooga and the YMCA.

"If you can get kids up and moving during different parts of the day, it will stimulate the brain," said Bill Rush, director of the North Georgia Family YMCA. "The idea is to try to get kids more active than they are now."

Kid Fitness encourages students to mimic animal-themed movements as short exercise bursts between classroom units or in physical education classes.

The local United Way started two initiatives with the program in 2008.

One, with funding from the Tennessee Department of Health's Project Diabetes, sent 4,400 age-appropriate Kid Fitness kits to child-care providers throughout the state. They were distributed at training events given by the Child Care Resource and Referral Center, which is operated by Signal Centers of Chattanooga.

The other, with backing from Chattem and Bank of America, provided age-appropriate kits to each of 1,562 classrooms of children from kindergarten through fifth grade in the county.

"United Way recognized the (national) trend about obesity and looked at what could we do to address it," said Linda McReynolds, vice president of institutional development for the United Way. "We know a healthy child is a learning child."

The YMCA provided a training session on the program for elementary school physical education teachers and showed how classroom teachers could play a supporting role.

"Everyone is always looking for a new and different resource, especially in working with children," Mr. Rush said. "Any time you can get a tool that works is helpful for them."

He said Kid Fitness is fun, first, and is created in a way that provides exercise but not in a typical exercise mode. He said the arm and leg movements and repetitions provide toning and some cardio training.

If students participate in seven-minute bursts four or five times during the day, they get 30 minutes of good exercise, Mr. Rush said.

"It gets the mind and body to refocus on that next subject," he said.

At Battle Academy on Market Street recently, Hamilton County Schools lead physical education teacher Chris Darras incorporated the movements of monkeys, horses, bears and crabs in a weekly class for first-graders. Classroom teachers, he said, also work in the exercises.

"They get it twice," he said. "That reinforces how important fitness is for the kids."

Both United Way initiatives with Kid Fitness are in the process of evaluation, according to Mrs. McReynolds.

The kits' use is being assessed by the College of Health, Education and Professional Studies at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, she said. Data on the child-care centers initiative is expected to be completed this week, but assessment of the Hamilton County Schools initiative won't come until February, she said.

The program is being studied in 17 classrooms involving 300 children at Bess T. Shepherd and Wallace A. Smith elementary schools and Battle Academy, Mrs. McReynolds said.

SHINING STAR

The United Way of Greater Chattanooga was lauded recently for its distribution of the Kid Fitness kits in child-care centers. It was one of 10 programs across the state honored for efforts in promoting healthy lifestyles with the Shining Star Award by the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Health. The local United Way received its honor in the education category.