Fitness Education for Children—A Team Approach

In the latest edition of his book Fitness Education for Children: A Team Approach, Stephen Virgilio emphasizes the importance of collaboration to combat obesity and promote active lifestyles. Virgilio shows how you can combine the efforts of physical educators, administrators, classroom teachers, school volunteers, parents, school lunch personnel, health service professionals, and others in the community.

Virgilio provides new suggestions and information on incorporating the team approach to help schools meet wellness policy objectives. He spells out a school wellness approach with the physical educator as physical activity director and guides you in integrating school fitness breaks and activities in the classroom curriculum. He also

• offers new exercise, rhythmic, and pedometer activities as well as new fitness games;

• provides current research and statistics on childhood obesity and approaches to intervention;

• includes a completely new chapter on yoga (including activities) for school-aged children; and

• presents information on the stages of behavioral change, helping teachers modify long-term health behaviors in children.

This new edition also includes updated Activitygram/Fitnessgram procedures and a discussion of SMART goals. You’ll find a new section on teaching children with autism spectrum disorder and the current USDA’s MyPlate. You’ll also receive the most recent physical activity guidelines for children from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and help in developing programs that support those guidelines. And you’ll find updated references throughout the book as well as new websites for further information.

Fitness Education for Children also offers strategies for cross-curricular activities and classroom collaborations as well as suggestions for using technology to enhance your communication with students and parents.

Written for veteran and new physical educators as well as students preparing to enter the profession, this text covers the gamut of issues that educators need to know to provide effective fitness education. Those issues include the principles of fitness, teaching children with disabilities, planning lessons, teaching fitness concepts, collaborating with other teachers, and getting parents and your community involved. You also receive updated developmental exercises and active games and activities, and you’ll learn how to hold exciting schoolwide events.

Fitness Education for Children offers a blueprint for battling obesity in school-aged children by promoting healthy lifestyles. This book will help you understand the educational philosophy, instructional strategies, assessments, and pedagogical models that will transform your curriculum into a springboard to a lifetime of healthy activity for the children you teach.

Stephen J. Virgilio, PhD, is a professor of physical education at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. He has researched and studied childhood obesity and fitness education for over 30 years. He taught elementary physical education for six years before earning his doctorate from Florida State University.

Dr. Virgilio has authored four other books, including Active Start for Healthy Kids?(Human Kinetics, 2006), which focuses on children ages 2 to 6. He has published over 75 manuscripts and conducted more than 150 presentations and?workshops, including several keynote addresses. He is the coauthor of the nationally known Heart Smart Program, a school-based?cardiovascular health intervention program.

Dr.Virgilio has been quoted in over 100 major newspapers, magazines, and websites. He has served on the editorial board of Teaching Elementary Physical Education; Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance; and Strategies. He has also served on several national committees and projects with the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE). In 2006, he was elected to the NASPE board of directors. He has been a consultant to school districts throughout the United States as well as Dannon, Fisher-Price, Sport-Fun, and Skillastics. He has also served as senior writer to the PBS children's TV?show Kid-Fitness.

Since 1977 he has been a member of NASPE and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Dr. Virgilio?resides in East Williston and Seneca Falls, New York. In his spare time he enjoys bass fishing, kayaking, boating, traveling, and studying world economics.