Laughter and cheers filled the gymnasium at Schaller-Crestland Elementary on the afternoon of April 25th. Students in grades 3-5 had the chance to participate in the 1st ever S-C Wacky Olympics! All students and teachers were divided into five teams, with each team being designated a specific color. The students wore their team colors and competed against each other in “crazy” events such as Iron Man Obstacle Course, King of the Hill (a plank competition), Dress-Up Relay, Basketball Musical Mats, Bowling Pin Setup, Volleyball Pickup, and Tire Roll Relay. The top three places in each event were awarded points, scores were kept and added up, and the winner was crowned.
The Wacky Olympics were put on by the 3rd grade fitness team “Trailblazers”, along with team leaders Angie Willer, Kate Struchen, and Brenda Mentzer. 3rd graders were in charge of the setup, scorekeeping, and even announcing the events play by play! The Wacky Olympics was a fun and rewarding way to end their Live Healthy Iowa 100 Day Fitness Challenge.
- Author Angie Willer
-Photographer Kurt McKenney
Trailblazer update!!
Congratulations to the Trailblazers!! As a class, they had 35, 100 minutes of exercise for the past four weeks of the fitness challenge. This new total is 11,806 minutes more than the month before. They also ate 880 servings of vegetables. Good job and keep up the great work!!
During the next four weeks, the Trailblazers will continue keeping track of their exercise minutes AND how much water they drink per day.
During the next four weeks, the Trailblazers will continue keeping track of their exercise minutes AND how much water they drink per day.
Here are some letters that the students have wrote about what they have learned so far in the Fitness Challenge.
I had fun learning about eating healthy. I had a lot of fun playing Just Dance on the Wii. Lifting the kettle ball was kind of hard. I learned how to do burpees. Doing the fitness thing was so fun. We also did kick boxing. That was fun. With Liz and Jenny we worked off 6 pringles. We played with scooters and that was fun. Who knows what we will do next? Maybe we will play Jedi Dodgeball. Who knows?
My name is Alex Movall. Six or seven weeks ago we started a fitness club. Yesterday we did fitness stations. My favorite was Just Dance 2. The songs my group did were Monster Mash and half of Tic Tok.
When you are in the Trailblazers, we get to do a lot of exercise. On Feb. 24, we went to the gym and had fitness stations like Just Dance on the Wii and we watched a video on kickboxing. The best part is the scooters. Every Tuesday and Thursday we walk and Miss W turns on the music!
By Connor Pickhinke
We decided our team name about one month ago. We decided our team name was going to be the Trailblazers. For a couple of weeks we walked. The we did fitness statioins. My favorite part in the stations was Just Dance 2. We have learned to eat junk food in moderation. We also are reading stories about calcium, protein, vitamin A, D, C, carbohydrates, potassium, and calories.
By Kenzee Wunschel
The Schaller-Crestland Trailblazers focused on a variety of skills and activities on Thursday, February 24th. Instead of their normal walking period, the students were challenged with a number of different stations.
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| Alex Movall, Keegan McCleary, Taya Hinkeldey, Yesenia DeLao playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii. |
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| Josyln McDaniel, Joe Hernandez, Beth Bailey, Kalyne Wicks during Tae-Bo |
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| Connor Pickhinke, Dawson Blum, Kenzee Wunschel, Jordan Grothe taking a break from scooters |
Jump Roping
Scooters
Fitness Frenzy (sit-ups, push-ups, mountain climbers, burpies, kettle ball raises)
Just Dance 2 on the Wii
Tae-Bo
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| Jacob Contancio, Fletcher Kucera, Eric Mentzer, Jacob Lindquist doing push-ups |
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| Josyln McDaniel, Tori Clayton, Joe Hernandez, Beth Bailey showing the signs at each stations |
Along with walking each week, they have been learning different aspects of living healthy. Each student learned how to find their pulse, resting heart rates, and their heart rates after exercise. During science class, they have learned about the different food groups and the important nutrients that each food group provides.
TRailblazer update:
Congratulations to the Trailblazers!! As a class, they had 23, 620 minutes of exercise during the first four weeks of the fitness challenge. They also ate 554 servings of fruit. Good job and keep up the great work!!
During the next four weeks, the Trailblazers will continue keeping track of their exercise minutes AND how many servings of vegetables they eat a day.
Blazin’ a Trail to Good Health
"Walk a Mile in Our Shoes" is the motto for the 3rd Grade Trailblazers during their walking sessions. For every day or mile the students walk, a shoe with their name is placed around the school. There are quite a few shoes decorating the school's walls! Make sure to check it out if you're ever in the Schaller building!
The third grade class at Schaller-Crestland Elementary has accepted the Governor’s Challenge. They are participating in the Live Healthy Iowa Kids program. This program runs for 100 days which began on January 18th and will continue thru April 27th. The goal of this challenge is to increase their physical activity and to make them more aware of healthy food choices.
The “Trailblazers”, the team name chosen by the 3rd grade students, will participate in weekly physical challenges outside of their normal Physical Education classes. Such challenges may include jump roping, yoga and aerobics, walking, Wacky Olympics, dancing, and even learning how to find their own heart rates.
On January 18th, the Trailblazers held their Kick-Off to the fitness challenge. Personal trainers Jenny Wiebers and Liz Auffert of Wiebers Fitness in Storm Lake were invited down to hold a “boot camp” for the 3rd graders. The ladies began by showing common foods that kids use as snacks, such as Doritos, Pringles, fruit snacks, brownies, yogurt, and much more. The kids turned in their snacks for bags of sugar that equaled the amount found in each snack item. The third graders were asked to pick one snack to “burn off” during our boot camp session. The students picked the Pringles, which had a serving size of six chips.
The boot camp fun began with warm-ups, which consisted of different stretches such as toy soldiers and knee to chest walks. Relay races, push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks were all performed as ways to burn calories. The students also had the opportunity to experience “burpies”, squats, and even wall sits. A plank contest was held with the winners being Fletcher Kucera and Beth Bailey. For those of you who do not know what a plank is, ask one of the 3rd graders! It is an abdominal exercise, one which these students will always remember! Beth and Fletcher won the contest by holding their plank for 3:19. Much to the kids’ amazement it took us 40 minutes to burn off our six Pringles!
As part of our 100 day challenge, the 3rd graders will be walking every Tuesday and Thursday for 20 minutes. For every mile they complete, a shoe with their name is being hung up around the school. If you’re ever in the school, make sure and check out the number of shoes and miles walked by the Trailblazers. If you would ever like to be a guest walker or a sponsor of our fitness team please contact Brenda Mentzer, Kate Struchen, or Angie Willer at the S-C Elementary building.
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| The winners of the plank competition with Mrs. Struchen |
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| Wall sits were a first for many! Even Miss Willer joined the fun |
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| The group with personal trainers Jenny and Liz |
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| Grant Movall, Dawson Blum and Jacob Constancio holding sugar that was found in some of the snacks brought my Jenny and Liz. |
