What is Fitness for Life: Elementary School?
The award-winning Fitness for Life middle and high school programs now have an elementary school companion program. Fitness for Life: Elementary School is an innovative multimedia program that facilitates total school involvement by using physical education lessons, classroom activities and discussions, recess, before- and afterschool activities, and even family nights to deliver appropriate physical activity, plus concepts to promote health-related fitness and active lifestyles.
Fitness for Life: Elementary School was developed by nationally and internationally recognized leaders Charles B. "Chuck" Corbin, Guy Le Masurier, Dolly Lambdin, and Meg Greiner. The program has been field tested and is based on the most current research and standards regarding health-related fitness, activity, wellness, and nutrition.
Why use Fitness for Life: Elementary School?
The Fitness for Life: Elementary School program enables you to do the following:
- Teach essential health-related fitness, activity, nutrition, and wellness concepts
- Meet local and state requirements for daily and weekly physical activity
- Implement wellness in the curriculum
- Implement easy-to-follow standards-based lessons
- Enhance academic performance and help fight childhood obesity
- Coordinate efforts with nonschool personnel, including before- and afterschool program leaders and parents
- Meet recommendations and standards from CDC, USDA, and NASPE, among others
What comes with the program?
Fitness for Life: Elementary School includes everything you need to implement a coordinated nutrition, physical activity, and wellness program:
- 4 full weeks of theme-based lessons featuring videos, activities, and music
- 7 classroom guides featuring 140 lesson plans and activities for grades K-6
- A physical education lesson plan book packed with activities and 32 lessons
- More than 16 hours of video content, including 140 physical activity routines (28 core routines with special wellness messages for each school day) and 4 schoolwide team activities
- A complete wellness coordinator's guide that includes assessment tools and resources for schoolwide special events
- A music CD to accompany the physical education lesson plans
- Hundreds of full-color reproducibles, including signs, newsletters, and activity cards
- Program-specific Web site
This wealth of information also allows you to be flexible in how you run the wellness program. There is enough material that you don't have to use all the resources the first year; you can choose which materials to use and how often you would like to use them.
Fitness for Life: Elementary School program contents
The Fitness for Life: Elementary Schoolprogram includes the following books:
- Physical Education Lesson Plans
- Guide for Wellness Coordinators
- Classroom Guide: Kindergarten
- Classroom Guide: First Grade
- Classroom Guide: Second Grade
- Classroom Guide: Third Grade
- Classroom Guide: Fourth Grade
- Classroom Guide: Fifth Grade
- Classroom Guide: Sixth Grade
The books include the following bound-in discs:
- 10 DVDs
- 1 CD-ROM of resources
- 1 CD of music
About the Author: Charles B. "Chuck" Corbin, PhD, is currently professor emeritus in the department of exercise and wellness at Arizona State University. He has published more than 200 journal articles and is the senior author, sole author, contributor to, or editor of more than 80 books, including the 5th edition of Fitness for Life (winner of the TAA's Texty Award), the 14th edition of Concepts of Physical Fitness (winner of the TAA's McGuffey Award), and the 7th edition of Concepts of Fitness and Wellness. His books are the most widely adopted high school and college texts in fitness and wellness. Dr. Corbin is internationally recognized as an expert in physical activity, health and wellness promotion, and youth physical fitness. He has presented keynote addresses at more than 40 state AHPERD conventions, made major addresses in more than 15 countries, and presented numerous named lectures (Cureton, ACSM; Hanna, Sargent, and Distinguished Scholar, NAKPEHE; Prince Phillip, British PEA; and Weiss and Alliance Scholar, AAHPERD). He is past president and a fellow of AAKPE, a fellow in the NASHPERDP, an ACSM fellow, and a lifetime member of AAHPERD. Among his awards are the Healthy American Fitness Leaders Award (President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports--PCPFS, National Jaycees), AAHPERD Honor Award, Physical Fitness Council Honor Award, the COPEC Hanson Award, and the Distinguished Service Award of the PCPFS. Dr. Corbin was named the Alliance Scholar by AAHPERD and the Distinguished Scholar of NAKPEHE. He is a member of the advisory board of Fitnessgram and was the first chair of the science board of the PCPFS and the NASPE Hall of Fame. In 2009 Dr. Corbin was chosen for the Gulick Award, the highest award of AAHPERD.
Guy Le Masurier, PhD, is a professor of physical education at Vancouver Island University, where he teaches courses in pedagogy, research methods, and nutrition for health and sport. Dr. Le Masurier is coauthor of the award-winning book Fitness for Life: Middle School (winner of the TAA's Texty Award) and has edited and contributed to several books, including the 5th edition of Fitness for Life: High School and the Physical Best Activity Guide. He has published numerous articles related to youth physical activity and physical education and served as a coauthor on the NASPE Physical Activity Guidelines for Children. Dr. Le Masurier has delivered over 30 research and professional presentations at national and regional meetings and currently serves as the Epidemiology section editor for Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport as well as the Health Foundations section editor for the International Journal of Physical Education. Dr. Le Masurier is the creator of the Walk Everyday Live Longer (WELL) program, a pedometer-based physical activity program used by the Arizona Department of Health Services. Dr. Le Masurier is a member of AAHPERD, NASPE, and ACSM. He lives with his wife on Protection Island in British Columbia, where they serve their community as volunteer firefighters. Guy is thankful for his morning kayak commutes.
Dolly D. Lambdin, EdD, is a senior lecturer in the department of kinesiology and health education at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches undergraduate courses in children's movement and methods of teaching as well as graduate courses in analyysis of teaching and technology application in physical education.
Dr. Lambdin taught elementary physical education in public and private schools for 16 years and taught preservice teachers for 33 years at the university level. During much of that time, she taught simultaneously at both levels, a situation that required her to spend part of each day meeting the teaching and research demands of academia while tackling the daily adventure of teaching 5- to 14-year-olds. In addition, she has supervised over 100 student teachers, and as a result has been able to visit classes and learn from scores of wonderful cooperating teachers in the schools.
Dr. Lambdin has served as the president of NASPE (2004-05) and on the NASPE board of directors for two three-year terms. She has also served on numerous local, state, and national committees, including the writing teams for the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills in Physical Education, the NASPE Beginning Teacher Standards, the Texas Beginning Teacher Standards, and the NASPE Appropriate Practices Revision. Dr. Lambdin has been honored as the Texas AHPERD Outstanding College and University Physical Educator of the Year.
Meg Greiner, MEd, is a national board-certified elementary physical education teacher at Independence Elementary School in Independence, Oregon. She has been teaching elementary physical education for 21 years and regularly receives student teachers and practicum students into her setting. Meg has received numerous national awards and accolades for her innovative physical education program and the development of TEAM Time, including the 2005 NASPE National Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year, 2005 USA Today All-USA Teacher Team, and the 2006 Disney Outstanding Specialist Teacher of the Year. Meg is currently working with NASPE as a Head Start Body Start trainer of trainers, serving on the AAHPERD Physical Best Committee, and presenting NASPE Pipeline Workshops all over the United States. She has served on the NASPE Council of Physical Education for Children and on the public relations committee. She has served as the physical education president for both Oregon and Northwest District AHPERDs. She also has served Oregon AHPERD in many capacities and has received the OAHPERD Honor Award.
