Lawrence kids introduce parents to physical eduation
In an age where children are sitting in front of more screens than ever, the Lawrence Primary School at the Number Two School is trying to inspire students and their families to be more active.
From Sept. 24 through the 28, the school held its second annual Take Your Parent to PE Week, a program pushed by Active School, a national movement to ensure that 60 minutes of physical activity a day is the norm in K to 12 schools.
“One goal was to involve families more,” said Principal Christine Moore. “Gym teachers want to get families more involved in physical education to help increase activity at home.”
Tara Nelsen, a physical education teacher at Lawrence Primary, echoed Moore’s statement that they want to help kids be more active at home. “Lots of kids end up sitting around all day,” Nelson said. “We want to help kids become physically literate. We want them to learn how to run, hop, skip, gallop, jump and throw so when they’re older they have those skills to build on.”
According to Nelsen, they’ve typically had up to 10 parents attend for every 20 students in their classes. Parents took part in the classes’ warm up, the game of “taco tag,” where a player tags another and hands off the toy animal to that player, and dragged the children on scooters using hula-hoops.
Parents were able see how their children are active at school, and were given the opportunity to try to keep up with the students. “They’re actually getting a real work out,” said Monet Taylor, who was there with her son, Tristan Taylor.
Lesly Sanchez, was there with her son Aidan Manzano. “It’s important to be involved [in the school] as much as possible,” she said. “And physical education is beneficial to everyone.”
