MUDDY DOG RUNNING LOG! Want your kids to do the mileage? Need an incentive? Here's a fun kids running and fitness program. LINKS: Program Directions Muddy Dog Printable Chart Section Muddy Dog Award Page 25-Milers |Award Page 50-Milers | Award Page 75-Milers | Award Page 100-Milers Sponsored by USATF, it's similar to the original Log-a-Mile program that thousands of children participated in over the years. Just as I once integrated running in the classroom, I hope to integrate this program with all sorts of learning goodies for children. MUDDY DOG RUNNING LOG for KIDS of ALL AGES It's easy! 1. Print a Muddy Dog Running Log. 2. Lace up your running shoes and go out for a run. 3. Walking is okay, too! 4. For footprint map charts, color in a footprint for every half-mile run. If using another chart, follow directions specific to that chart. 5. Send your completed chart with a BUSINESS-SIZED SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) to: Muddy Dog PO Box 209 Fiskdale, MA 01518 6. Receive a special USATF sponsored free bookmark. If you follow this new program, you will find connections to running and writing, running and math, and more. Please stop back often to see it develop. MUDDY DOG RUNNING LOG - MANY DIFFERENT FORMATS - Choose one just right for you! CHART FORMAT - CLARITY For the Clarity Freak This format is just right for me. And it is the most helpful for making the bridge between footprints and fractions. Great for teaching math. Clarity Charts 25 Mile Chart PDF (fast loading) | 50 Mile Chart PDF (fast loading) | 75 Mile Chart PDF (fast loading) | 100 Mile Chart PDF (fast loading) If you don't want clarity to be the focus, there are artsy Muddy Dog Running Logs below. So check them out too, then print away and lace up those running shoes before you get out the door. Midnight and I have 21 footprints colored in already. Hmmm, how many miles do 21 footprints equal? INTEGRATING WITH MATH Do you need to dovetail your running activities with the curriculum? Would you like a clear model for beginning fractions? Then this Muddy Dog Chart might be a good fit. It's my fraction model. So far, I've made one for the 25-mile trek. There are so many ways you could use this to help a child understand fractions and numbers. Just click and download and then let the curriculum connections multiply. Here is one that I love. It's the MONEY MODEL. Using this "hundred chart" makes it EASY for kids to count money. If you are using this at home or at school, you can make extra copies when counting money. For example, if a child has to count a quarter, 2 dimes, 3 nickels, and a penny. Just start with the quarter. Put it right on the 25, then move to the next section. Put the dime on the 35, the nickel on the 40 and then one baby step to a new row for the penny. They will quickly get the hang of it and will even MORE quickly learn how to count quarters. MONEY MODEL with Checkpoints | Money Mat JUST math, no checkpoints FOOTPRINT MAP WITH ART 25 Mile Chart PDF (full color) | 25 Mile Chart JPG (faster loading) | 25 Mile Chart PDF (gray scale - medium speed) | 50 Mile Chart PDF (slow loading) | 50 Mile Chart JPG (faster loading) |50 Mile Chart PDF (gray scale - medium speed) | 75 Mile Chart PDF (slow loading) | 75 Mile Chart JPG (faster loading) | 75 Mile Chart PDF (gray scale - medium speed) | 100 Mile Chart PDF (slow loading) | 100 Mile Chart JPG (faster loading) | 100 Mile Chart PDF (gray scale - medium speed) ADD YOUR OWN ART AND FOOTPRINTS Artsy Kids: 25 Mile Chart PDF (Make your own pictures and footprints) If you like these, please email me and I will make creative-kids charts for 50, 75, and 100 miles. Kids will run to such imaginary places as Turtle Trail, Sandpit Slide, and Buttercup Bugs, coloring in footprints as they go. They'll walk over (or under) Bunny Bridge and glide across Slippery Slime. CLICK HERE for LOG-A-MILE Archives from the Kids Running Web site In the year 2000, I developed the Log-a-Mile program with the help of my schoolchildren. The program, was a celebration of my love of running, my work with kids, and the onset of the Web site kidsrunning.com. Over the years, it was one of my favorite kids running programs. The program as it was known, has been discontinued, but if you are in the middle of the old Log-a-Mile program, you can just continue as a Muddy Dog! Special thanks to my student Christopher for daily feedback on the bookmarks and to my student Zachary for encouraging me to make the 100-Mile bookmark funny AND to ALL of my students who were excited about this project. I will put a name/state award completion page up soon. This program was mentioned on LetsRun.Com today, July 2. Visit our friends at pecentral.org This running log will be mentioned in a summer newsletter. The Muddy Dog Running Log appeared in Bev Sklar's AOL health article, Get Kids Running. Want your own golden "muddy" dog? Visit my friend Amber's business in Connecticut. meadowviewgoldens.com 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 carolgoodrow@verizon.net