For Schools
Here are just a few ideas for the classroom...
HealthEncourage parents and pupils to make the walk to school a workout. Research shows that a brisk one-mile walk to school and back takes around half an hour and can burn up to 150 calories.
Ask pupils to count the number of steps or to time their walk to school.
Incorporate walking or running into PE lessons.
Have a lesson on healthy lifestyles looking at diet and physical exercise.
As a warm-up activity in PE ask the children to run, hop, skip, jump or walk in the manner of the word given: e.g. quickly, quietly, noisily, excitedly, boringly etc.
Can they mime movement in the following conditions: wind, rain, ice, mud, snow
Create a walking dance pattern based on STOP/LOOK/LISTEN/THINK/GO.
Environment
Ask the children to play memory games with the objects they see on the way to school – count them and see if they can recall them all once they’ve arrived at school.
Ask them to interview other people about their walk to school and write it up.
Ask pupils to make a note of any wildlife they see on your way and draw it up when they get to school.
Ask them to identify different flowers and trees on their walk.
Greening the Trees - adapted from the "Way To Go!" school travel awareness program, developed in Vancouver, Canada. With thanks to Bernadette Kowey, Program Co-ordinator.
This exercise is a creative way to survey the way your pupils travel to school.
"Draw a large tree with branches, but no leaves. This can be the class tree, but each child should draw their own tree as well. Every time a child walks or cycles the whole journey to school, they place a green leaf on their own tree and the class tree. A yellow leaf is used if they walk part of the journey or come by bus and a brown leaf represents a whole journey to school by car.
Compare individual trees after several weeks. Which is the greenest?"
Walking Music
How many songs can the children think of with "walk" in the title?
Think about using "walk" songs as "music of the week" or as links in a class assembly about walking to school. Here are some ideas:
"You'll never walk alone", "These boots are made for walking", "Walking on sunshine", "Doing the Lambeth walk", "A walk in the Black Forest", "Walking on the moon", "Walk like an Egyptian", "Just walking in the rain", "Walking in the air" (snowman music), "Walk 500 miles", "Everybody walk the dinosaur", "Walking to New Orleans", "Walk of Life"
If you feel really creative, use the tune but make up your own words, like this one adapted from ‘Rock Around the Clock’:
We're gonna' walk to school, walk to school and back
We're gonna' walk, walk, walk 'coz we've got the nack!
We're gonna' walk to school, walk to school and back,
We're gonna' walk, walk, walk 'coz we're on track!
We're gonna' walk, we're gonna' walk, we're gonna' walk to school and back!
