Youth are told to be active at least 60 minutes per day and adults are supposed to make sure they get that physical activity.
But do the young ones know why they're being active? Better yet, do the adults know how they can make them get that activity without telling them it's work?
photo courtesy of Thorsten Gohl
Some of those answered were provided earlier this month in Fort Providence as Deh Gah School hosted Andrew McMillan, the physical literacy supervisor from the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence in Vancouver, for a week-long visit with a focus on implementing fundamental movements into the phys-ed program.
Thorsten Gohl, the school's physical literacy co-ordinator, said the school contacted the folks in Vancouver to see if they could come do something specific with the school.
“Chris Wright, who also works with the institute, did a course with Sport North earlier this year and I was part of that,” he said. “I asked if they could come to Fort Providence and do something similar to what Chris did and they thought it was a great idea.”
Every single phys-ed class for the week was spent on teaching movements and why those movements are important, which makes up a huge part of what physical literacy is about, said Gohl.
“We played games and they all reflected the skills of jumping and hopping,” he said. “It's all about playing by learning and the best part is the kids didn't even know they were being active. It was so much fun seeing them play because they thought they were just playing fun games.”
It was a learning experience for the teachers as well, he added, and the goal is to make sure it becomes part of the everyday schedule.
“The goal is to try and implement the tools with the staff and the high school students in order to sustain it,” he said. “It is so important to learn the fundamentals, having fun with it and being active for life.”
McMillan himself said visiting the community and working with the staff and students at the school was a unique experience.
“Deh Gah School really does have a distinctive perspective on the challenges of developing physical literacy but because of their closeness to the community and its people, I can see Deh Gah becoming the epitome of a successful physical literacy program in the North,” he said.
Gohl is hopeful this visit is the first of what he hopes will be many visits to the North for exercises like this one.
“I'm hoping to bring in as many people possible,” he said. “Chris is planning on doing some more work with the high school students and work on basic movement skills. I'd like to make Fort Providence the place in the NWT where we can show programs like this can work.”