Success Story: It’s Game On! at Wes-Del Elementary School

By Lorna Grisby
Posted: September 22, 2010

Where student fitness and nutrition were concerned, teachers and administrators at Wes-Del Elementary School in Gaston, Indiana, had all of the best intentions. A school wellness policy was in place; a school health council had been established; and, best of all, some teachers were offering health and wellness programs to their students. The only problem was there was no coordination of information or efforts.

“They weren’t talking to one another. So, everything was hit or miss,” explains Cathy Whaley, former Ball State University Wellness coordinator for Delaware County. “They had after school-programs periodically that might have had a physical education or nutrition lesson. They had some health curriculum and they had physical education classes. They had good intentions, but there was no leadership. There was no direction or goals for their wellness efforts.”

Whaley, M.S., CHES, who’s an instructor in the Department of Physiology and Health Science at Ball State University and a long-time volunteer leader for Action for Healthy Kids in Indiana, realized that while Wes-Del had disjointed health and wellness efforts, it had the makings of a perfect Game On! pilot school. Components were in place that would make it easy to transform the elementary school, with kindergarten through fifth grade students, into a Game On! success.

Forming a team

The first step was to gauge school interest. So in June of 2008 Whaley held an informational meeting for Wes-Del teachers. She gave background information on Action for Healthy Kids, explained Game On!, and asked the roughly 10 assembled teachers a simple question: did they want to receive grant funding to increase nutrition and physical activity in their school by implementing the Game On! framework to coordinate all their wellness efforts?

They answered with a resounding “yes.” With that, the team was formed. Members included the principal, school nurse, physical education teacher, several other teachers and Kathy Hunt, Wes-Del’s home school counselor, who served as its Game On! Champion.

“Motivation and interest were first and foremost,” Whaley explained.” Anything that they needed to be taught related to Game On! we could do through technical assistance, but we needed their enthusiasm.”

That’s just what she got. During that initial meeting, the teachers did a lot of brainstorming about school programs and practices they could change or augment, and they even decided some of the challenges in which their students could participate.

Getting Prepared

In advance of a meeting to be held in mid-August, Whaley emailed Wes-Del’s team members with a Game On! schedule and information to help them get organized. For instance, she explained that they had lots of great ideas, but they’d have to narrow their focus in order for the program to work. She explained at what points along the way they’d have to send out press releases to the media and letters to parents. She also reviewed all of the resources they’d have at their disposal, including where they could get food for taste tests to give them a better understanding of how all the Game On! pieces fit together.

Picking Challenges

Next up was picking the challenges. Some teachers picked the nutritional challenges for their classrooms. There were even school-wide taste tests. Each food group was recognized at least once. Interestingly enough, some items, like cherries and grapes that were used in challenges were later incorporated into the lunch menu because students enjoyed them so much.

With help from local Ball State University students, between 20 and 35 kids engaged in a variety of after-school physical activities and games, and healthy snacks two or three times a week.

Looking back, Whaley says the entire program “exceeded the expectations. People just need to know it’s not as hard as they may think it is or as expensive.”

Setting a Game Plan

The trickiest part of the entire undertaking was establishing a game plan, because as Whaley points out, it requires a great deal of organization. First up was determining the challenges schedule. The next order of business, as she saw it, was to determine the strategy for promotional materials: deciding which group – school, staff, parents and news media – would receive which communications and when. With Wes-Del’s challenge calendar in-hand Whaley, sent the relevant communications to the school’s Game On! Champion routinely and Mrs. Hunt distributed them. There were event announcement fliers and permission slips that needed to be sent to parents. A news release was sent to media. Posters and flyers were posted in school. [template materials available!]

In addition to the promotion, pre-tests were conducted to assess the students’ knowledge of everything from the recommended number of fruit and vegetables they should eat daily to which activities qualify as exercise.

Getting Going

Once all that was determined, getting going was easy. It was just a matter, Whaley says, of incorporating Game On! activities and challenges into what the school already was doing. For instance, an Challenge Course became part of the school’s traditional field day event.

Impact

Since the program was introduced, students at Wes-Del have an entirely different attitude about physical activity and nutrition.

“It was a complete environmental shift for the whole building when they did Game On! They just needed guidance and once they got that they were off and running,” says Whaley. “The biggest thing is that they’re continuing the program and before, everything was kind of chaotic and didn’t describe what their wellness plan was. Now they have a plan, and their school health advisory council members have school wellness policy goals and objectives. The students at Wes-Del Elementary had so much fun they are not going to let the teachers just drop it.”