 
 
 CLUB LESSON PLANS AND ROUTINES With a bit of planning, The Happy Feet, Healthy Food Kids' Club can run very smoothly. In my club, the children begin arriving in my classroom during bus time. It takes about 15 minutes for all the children to arrive. During this time we take care of administrative activities so that all the children are ready to listen as soon as possible. CLUB ROUTINE On arrival, the children follow the directions written on our white board. Volunteers are available to guide the kids through these activities. Kids are encouraged to wear their club tees. This spring our tees will say happy feet kids, fit and fun. WHITE BOARD DIRECTIONS 1. Jacket on your chair. 2. Gloves and hats in your sleeve. 3. Get out your books and snack and put them on your desk. 4. Go to the back of the room and make a name tag. 5. Turn in all notes, Happy Feet Lunch Blanks, and Treasure Literature Studies. 6. Get your folder and go back to your desk. 7. Eat your snack. 8. Decorate the cover of your folder with drawings of healthy snacks. 9. Be ready to listen. CLUB OFFICIALLY BEGINS Teacher briefly greets class, compliments children on being ready, and then leads children through completing footprint folders.   Left, 2008 ribbon design. To be printed on white satin ribbon with rainbow colored foil. Right, 2009 ribbon design (scenes from our hiking trail). To be printed on black satin ribbon with gold colored foil. FILLING IN FOOTPRINTS Children are working towards club ribbons. They must fill in 26 footprints in their folders to become an official "Happy Feet, Healthy Food Kids". Color-coded footprints are posted in the room to guide teacher and kids. Since there are SO many ways children can earn footprints, all children should earn this ribbon if they embrace the mission of the Happy Feet Club. The folder will also have a page where children can record footprints once they pass the "Healthy-Habit Marathon" of 26 footprints. On this page, they'll be on their way to becoming Healthy-Habit Ultra-marathoners. FOOTPRINT CHART PRINTABLES 2007 and 2008 Footprint Chart Printable. 2009 Footprint Chart. The key for earning footprints on the 2009 printable is on the top of the chart and is slightly different from the coding below. Click on the 2009 printable to see what I mean. RED - All children fill in a a footprint with a red crayon for COMING to CLUB. ORANGE - Anyone who brought their HAPPY FEET BOOK to club fills in an orange footprint. YELLOW - Anyone whose PARENT is VOLUNTEERING gets a yellow footprint. GREEN - Anyone who brought a FRUIT or VEGETABLE for HEALTHY SNACK fills in a green footprint. BLUE - Anyone who has JOURNALED in their HAPPY FEET book at home during the week colors a footprint blue. PURPLE - One foot is colored in for each HAPPY FEET LUNCH blank turned in. BROWN - This brown footprint is for anyone who brings their THE KIDS RUNNING book to club. BLACK - FAMILY PROJECTS earn black footprints. If a child participates in physical activity or a healthy eating project with their family, they earn this footprint, but they bring in a note from home. GLITTER & SPARKLES - The children use glitter paint to fill in a footprint if they turn in a completed TREASURE LITERATURE STUDY from The Treasure of Health and Happiness. STRIPED FOOTPRINT - A striped footprint indicates that a child has completed a FUN RUN or other RUNNING EVENT. MULTI-COLORED FOOTPRINT - This is for doing an activity from the KIDS RUNNING book. .  Kid-made Box-stacle Game READING THE HAPPY FEET BOOK Next we read one information page in the Happy Feet book. The teacher reads the top "Reason to..." to the club kids, then one child is the reader. The reader reads a sentence of the FUN FEET section while the other children listen. The the whole club reads the same sentence in choral fashion. This continues until the FUN FEET section is complete. The PACK-A-SNACK section is sometimes read in the same manner or the teacher reads the PACK-A-SNACK section to the group. A couple of minutes are taken to discuss the various sections of the info page and also to discuss the GOOD STUFF nutrition section. RUNNING GAMES Most days we play a running game. If the weather is good we head outdoors to do this, but before we go, we read the directions to the running game together. OUTDOORS We walk/jog to the field, play a running game, then jog a lap or two of the field or go for a nature hike in the woods. Our goal is to exercise for 30 minutes at club. If we head inside early, we walk the halls of the school until we have exercised for 30 minutes. CLUB SONG Before our exercise period is over, we take a break to sing at least one verse of our club song. INDOORS When our exercise period is over, we head back to the classroom. Upon entering the room, each child drinks a small cup of water. The the children are to go to their seats and complete the journal section in their Happy Feet books. They must write "Monday's date", complete their daily section. They can use their running game direction sheet to help them with ideas. They can also write their own entry or copy one from the white board. They fill in the TIME TRACKER with Xs to stand for 10 minute blocks. With the 3 Xs from club and approximately 3 from recess or gym, they always meet their goal of 60 minutes of daily exercise. They draw a healthy food they've eaten during the day in the HEALTHY FOOD 9-SQUARE, do something quickly in the WRITER & ARTIST'S CORNER and then close their journals.  KIDS RUNNING BOOK Club is almost over. There are from 5 to 10 minutes left now. The children open their KIDS RUNNING books and follow while the teacher reads the chapter. At certain points they join the teacher and read selected paragraphs aloud with the teacher. Then the teacher goes over the assigned but OPTIONAL homework from the activities at the end of each chapter. Kids will earn the privilege of coloring in a multi-colored footprint for completing these. See KIDS RUNNING PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES. THE TREASURE OF HEALTH AND HAPPINESS BOOK This spring the children will have the option of checking this chapter book out from the Nerac/CNC Happy Feet Club Lending Library. They will be able to earn Treasure Sparkle Footprints for reading this at home with their parents and bringing in a literature study. See TREASURE LITERATURE STUDY. Each page completed earns a glitter and sparkle footprint. There will also be an after-school reading on a non-club day. Children will be invited to attend and the chapter book will be read together. At this time, the children will follow along as the teacher reads. At certain points they will join the teacher and read selected paragraphs aloud with the teacher. GOING HOME Children pack up. They wait for parent pick-up. Parents must sign children out and pick up handouts that include notices, letters, race or event announcements, and the Treasure Literature Studies and club is over for the day. The children have entered the classroom anywhere from 3:05 - 3:30 and they are picked up at 4:35. It's a jam-packed club session full of many activities, with no time to spare, but it works. The children stay on task, have fun, and are developing healthy habits that will last for a lifetime.  Happy Feet, Healthy Food, Your Child's First Journal of Exercise & Healthy Eating The Treasure of Health and Happiness Kids Running: Have Fun, Get Faster & Go Farther PRIVACY POLICY |