Kids need exercise and walking is a great way to get it. Families who walk to school help build relationships within their community as families get to know each other. Exploring the outdoors, being in and around nature, helps ground kids and them supports their appreciation for the world around them.
A few years ago our staff put out a challenge to our community to make it a goal to walk to school every Wednesday. It was a pretty easy adjustment for our community as we already had done this during Earth Week to support our learning of taking care of the environment.
The community bought into this weekly activity and all the students enjoyed participating in it. This is a perfect year-round activity for eco-schools.
Older students wrote announcements to encourage student participation, younger grades graphed who came to school by walking, driving or on the bus
Class awards were given to the class with the most points per division and celebrated all student participation by collecting points for each child who participated (our school collects color house points to help build school spirit).
If you want to start something like this at your school it is pretty easy to do! If you click on the image above to find pre-made activities, templates, and awards for your whole school to use!
