"Take action! An inch of movement will bring you closer to your goals than a mile of intention." —Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and Human Experience
"Movement is life, life is movement. If you don’t believe it, just try holding completely still for a minute. Impossible. Movement is a human need." —Natalie Rogers, The Creative Connection: Expressive Arts as Healing
While many Canadians spent a good deal of their days sitting at desks, this season—more than any other—tends to bust us out of that sedentary rut. It rarely feels more natural to take a hike, go for a swim or hop on a bike. There’s joy to be found in moving our bodies, under the bright summer sun.
In that spirit, many of this issue’s articles investigate how we can help get more movement into our children’s days, throughout the entire year.
Partner Work: Dance Organizations Collaborate for Bigger Impact chronicles how two organizations—Sharing Dance and ArtsAround—joined forces to help integrate more dance into more classrooms, improve physical literacy and encourage artistic expression.
Activities for DPA in the Classroom offers step-by-step Ideas for individual, partner and group activities to help boost student movement, every day.
Our Community Leader Spotlight this month highlights the work of Toronto-based physical education teacher Lorrie Lombardi, who’s gone the extra mile (or 10) to encourage a love of movement in her students, their families and her fellow teahcers.
10 Ways to Improve Physical Culture in Our Schools lays out one professor’s multi-point plan to improve the health and well-being of of Canadian children.
The peer reviewed Reclaiming Indigenous Ways, Part 1 explores the Rec and Read/Aboriginal Youth Mentorship Program—an innovate approach to after school programming that promotes mino-pimatisiwin, “the good life/living in a good way.”
Feeding our bodies the right fuel, of course, is an essential part of wellness. The peer reviewed feature Teaching Healthy Nutrition to Adolescents: A Five Part Model for Teachers, presents a plan that can help students build healthy habits to last a lifetime.
These articles—plus more—offer ideas to help educators guide Canadian youth toward healthier, more active lifestyles.
We hope you enjoy this issue and we also hope you enjoy a wonderful, movement-filled summer!