PROGRAMMER S GUIDE Cool Moves is for Everyone! Eat Smart... Play Cool... Be Healthy for Life! INSIDE THE GUIDE: Introduction to the Issues 2 Using Cool Moves in Your Club 3 Eat Smart Program Elements 4 Play Cool Program Elements 5 Eat Smart Basics and Program Ideas 6 Play Cool Basics and Program Ideas 7 Motivate Participation. Measure Progress. Reward Success! Great Resources on the Web Tips for Your Cool Moves Program 8 10 12 What is Cool Moves? Welcome to Cool Moves! With rates of youth inactivity and obesity on the rise, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada formed a partnership with Kraft Canada to provide Clubs with tools and resources to address these issues across the country. Thanks for being part of this valuable initiative! Cool Moves has two distinct parts Eat Smart, where participants are encouraged to make healthier eating choices, and Play Cool, where participants are encouraged to engage in more physical activity. Each participant will receive his or her own Cool Moves Journal one week per month to help record efforts to Eat Smart and Play Cool. Each journal has space for every day of the week (Saturday and Sunday combined to form Weekend ) where participants have the What you ll find in this guide This guide has been put together to give you everything you as a Programmer need to know to run Cool Moves in your Club. It includes the background information you need to understand the issues you are dealing with, details of the program elements of Cool Moves, support information that can be used in funding proposals, tips for opportunity to record all of the healthy choices they make. At the end of the week, Club staff or volunteers will mark the Eat Smart and Play Cool journals (more information on this can be found on pages 2 and 3) and award participation levels. The levels are (1) Yellow, (2) Orange and (3) Red, which is the highest level of achievement. The second component of the program is a wall calendar where participants participation and achievement can be displayed for all to see! During the week when levels are awarded, participants will be given a check mark on the calendar. As a leader, you will also be receiving the Cool Moves Back Pocket Guide filled with great activity and tasty snack ideas to incorporate into your planning. Best of luck with your Cool Moves program thank you for your leadership! staff, tips on creating baseline measurements and tracking individual and group progress, and an annotated web resource list to help you in your search for more information and activity ideas. You will also find information on how to incorporate all of the great Cool Moves resources together to have a successful Cool Moves program. Good Luck!
PAGE 2 About the issues The issue of childhood obesity and related preventable chronic disease is impacting our children at an increasingly younger age. More young children are being diagnosed with type 11 diabetes than ever before. Effects of obesity in children include problems in the following areas: orthopedic, neurological, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, endocrine as well as social and economic challenges. For this reason, Boys and Girls Clubs across Canada have identified youth inactivity and obesity as priority issues and are committed to taking leadership in their respective communities to assist and support children, youth and families choose healthy lifestyles. We are undertaking this initiative to support the efforts of Boys and Girls Clubs across Canada, focusing on the critical years of 8-12, particularly those most atrisk. The issue of childhood obesity is serious and it is escalating at an alarming rate. In order to affect positive change with youth, all factors that influence their lifestyles must be considered. Boys and Girls Clubs across Canada have the opportunity to work with and impact children of all ages, races, cultures and socio-economic status. Cool Moves will be an important vehicle for helping children across Canada to make healthy and wise choices to improve their lives. Children and youth want physical activity to be FUN not EXERCISE. What the experts say The issue of childhood obesity is complex and multi-layered. There is current research to support the principles of the Cool Moves program, but in an effort to streamline this project, the following key points have been identified by Linda Millar, Vice President, Director of Education at Concerned Children s Advertisers: Over 1 in 3 children in Canada is overweight or obese. 80% of those overweight in childhood will remain obese as adults. Canadian rates of obesity have doubled over the past 5 years for boys and girls. 3 out of 5 youth under the age of 17 need to make serious lifestyle changes in order to enjoy the benefits of good health. Children presently spend up to 6 hours per day engaged in some form of sedentary activity. Obesity is an indicator and key contributor to preventable chronic diseases like type II diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and psychological and neurological conditions. Objectives of this guide The purpose of this guide is to inform you of the issues, and guide you through how Cool Moves, in the context of your program, can be used to address these issues. By using this guide you will: Understand the relationship that physical activity and healthy eating have with overall health and well-being. Understand childhood obesity and the roles that staff and volunteers can play to affect positive change. Become aware of the recommended ways to increase physical activity and improve eating habits. Help children to introduce and maintain positive changes to their lifestyles by incorporating the recommended resources and suggested activities.
PAGE 3 Using Cool Moves in your Club Now that you know the facts about youth inactivity and obesity, it s time to look at all the great things Cool Moves has to offer to help you deal with these issues in your Club! This page outlines all the components of the program, and how they can be used together. The specifics about Eat Smart and Play Cool can be found on the next two pages. STAFF RESOURCES: Cool Moves Programmer s Guide, Leader s Guide and Back Pocket Guide. These guides will help you and your staff run an effective Cool Moves Program. The Programmer s Guide (this guide) provides in-depth information about the program, the issues, and additional resources. The Leader s Guide provides the basics, and serves as a quick reference for program staff. The Back Pocket Guide provides quick and easy Eat Smart and Play Cool ideas to use in your programs. Cool Moves Journal One week each month, each Club member uses his or her Cool Moves Journal to track the number of healthy eating choices he or she made in the Eat Smart portion of the journal, and how many minutes of physical activity he or she completed in the Play Cool portion of the journal. Members can complete activities at the Club or on their own time! Cool Moves Wall Calendar The wall calendar is set up with every participant s name down the left side, and the months written across the top. At the end of one week per month, staff or program volunteers mark the journals and award levels of achievement of Yellow, Orange and Red (details on the next page) by putting a check mark of the appropriate colour on the wall calendar. Cool Moves Program Certificate Use the Cool Moves Certificates to celebrate your successes! These certificates can be awarded when youth have achieved great results, reached an individual or team goal or for participating in an event it s up to you!
PAGE 4 Eat Smart Eat Smart is about getting informed about food and nutrition, sharing knowledge and skills and making nutritious choices when choosing meals and snacks. Participants can use their journals to record things that they have done such as: Research and Learning Become more informed about nutrition and healthy eating by doing things like: Learning to use Canada s Food Guide. Learning to read labels. Use the internet to learn about the food they eat. Sharing Show what you know! Share your great healthy choice ideas with others. Share a favourite recipe with friends at the Club. Make a poster about healthy foods or about making healthy choices. Making Healthy Choices Choose to eat healthier snacks and meals. Eat two different vegetables with dinner. Help a parent with the grocery shopping and pick healthy foods. Be a great role model! Club members will Levels of Achievement Participants can earn recognition for their efforts and commitments by filling in their journals one week per month. At the end of the week, program staff will review the journals and mark progress on the wall chart. The levels are: follow your lead when making food choices. Are you eating healthy snacks? 1. Yellow Number of Activities: 6 to 11 activities or choices. Number of Days: Minimum 4 days with at least 1 activity. 2. Orange Number of Activities: 12 to 17 activities or choices. Number of Days: Minimum 4 days with at least 2 activities. 3. Red Number of Activities: More than 18 activities or choices. Number of Days: Minimum 4 days with at least 3 activities. Key Messages Now that you know what Eat Smart is all about, here are some tips on how to reinforce the messages of the program to your Club members. Eat Smart is a healthy choices program, not a diet program. Focus on making smart choices for a balanced diet. Strive to make healthy choices. Be sure to balance indulgence foods and treats with veggies, fruit, nuts and other healthy alternatives. Healthy foods taste great! Just because you re eating healthy doesn t mean you have to give up on taste! Get informed! Being informed about nutrition gives you the power to make healthy choices. Try something new! You ll never know if you like something until you give it a try. Eating is enjoyable...bon appetite! Don t eat things you don t like try things and find what works best for you!
PAGE 5 Play Cool Play Cool is about getting active and finding a healthy balance between physical activity (things that get you moving around) and sedentary activities (like watching TV). There are lots of different things that are considered physical activity not just organized sports! Three different types of activity are explained below. Endurance Activities These activities make you breathe deeper, make your heart beat faster and make you sweat Some examples Running to the Club Swimming Dancing Skateboarding 1. Yellow Amount of Activity: Minimum of 30 minutes per day over a minimum of 4 days. Flexibility Activities Flexibility activities help you stretch out your muscles to help relax and keep your joints moving. Some examples Yoga Gymnastics Tai Chi Stretching 2. Orange Amount of Activity: Minimum of 45 minutes per day over minimum of 4 days. Strength Activities These activities help you to build strong muscles and healthy bones and also improve your posture. Some examples Lifting weights Raking leaves Rock climbing Climbing stairs Levels of Achievement Using their journals, participants should record all of the physical activity they do throughout the week. In the space provided, they should list the activities they did, and the number of minutes they spent doing them. Participants should start with activities that they feel comfortable doing. Ultimately, we would like participants to increase the amount of all three types of activity at a higher level of intensity. The following levels of achievement will be awarded based on the amount of activity completed. 3. Red Amount of Activity: Minimum of 60 minutes per day over minimum of 4 days. There are many ways for youth to PLAY COOL. Help them find something they enjoy doing! Key Messages There are many things you can do to reinforce the positive messages of the Play Cool program. Here are some tips to get you started! There are MANY ways to be active! Don t limit yourself to competitive or traditional sports. Dream big...but start small. You can achieve your goals, but start at the pace that works for you. Get Informed! Being informed about activity gives you the power to make healthy choices in your life! Being active is fun enjoy it! It feels great to get up and move around and getting involved in new things is a great way to make new friends! Try something new! There are so many activities to do, don t limit yourself. Give yoga, karate or rock climbing a try!
PAGE 6 Eat Smart There are some great ways to help your Club members develop healthy attitudes about the snacks and meals they eat. The first part of that is to give them the knowledge they need to understand how to eat more healthy foods, and why it is important. The second part is to empower them with the skills to act on that knowledge and make healthy choices. There are some quick and easy ideas for recipes and activities included in the Back Pocket Guide for your staff. This page will provide you with some larger-scope ideas for how to incorporate Eat Smart messages into different areas of your program. Nutrition Basics - Canada s Food Guide Canada s Food Guide provides everything you need to know about what you should eat every day and how much! Below you ll find the information for 8-12 year olds: Food Group Portions/day Examples Grain Products 4-6 Bread, cereal, pasta, rice, pita Veggies and Fruits 5-6 Apple, broccoli, tomato sauce Milk Products Age 4-8: 2 Age 9-13: 3-4 Meat and Alternatives Milk, cheese, yogurt 1-2 Chicken, fish, peanut butter, nuts, tofu, eggs You can download a PDF version of the Food Guide from the Health Canada website at: www.healthcanada.gc.ca/foodguide Some Fantastic Program Ideas Have a Four Food Group Lunch Challenge Challenge your members to include at least one item from each food group in their daily lunch. Have a milk mustache contest Mix up some healthy smoothies or milkshakes and see who can come up with the best milk moustache! Be sure to take pictures and post them around the Club. Foods for Fun Involve kids in the process of selecting which snacks and meals they eat at the Club. Do some research in healthy cook books or on the internet. Some good websites are listed in the resources section. Host a food-themed game show Divide your group into teams and quiz them on Canada s Food Guide to Healthy Eating, and the food groups.
PAGE 7 Play Cool Play Cool is about increasing physical activity in the broadest sense of the term. We need to include play, non-traditional sports, and other activities that are fun to many children and youth even the most at-risk. For this reason, Play Cool does not measure how fast someone ran, how high he jumped or how much weight she lifted. Play Cool rewards the amount of time spent doing physical activity. This equalizes the achievements of the athlete and the non-athlete alike. Below you will find a guide for increasing physical activity, and some larger scope ideas for incorporating more physical activity into your program. According to Canada s Guidelines for Increasing Physical Activity in Youth, youth need to: Increase the time currently spent on physical activity starting with at least 30 more minutes per day. Reduce non-active time spent on TV, video, computer games and surfing the internet starting with at least 30 minutes per day. Build up physical activity throughout the day in periods of at least 5-10 minutes. Include moderate activities like brisk walking, skating or bike riding and vigorous activities like running, supervised weight training or soccer into daily physical activity. Go to www.healthcanada.gc.ca/paguide for copies of the guide and more! Some Fantastic Program Ideas Community Service Who says physical activity needs to be working out? You can make a difference in your own health and in your community at the same time! Encourage children to become involved in doing community service for others that involves physical activities. Begin by having them engage in activities within the Club and then suggest they do something in the neighbourhood or community. Some suggestions are: raking leaves, weeding and gardening, cleaning up the neighbourhood (ditches, fields, playgrounds etc.) walking pets or washing windows. Family Fun Day Encourage family fun and fitness by planning and hosting a series of family fun days. Plan a variety of activities for all ages, and host at different times, so that more families will be able to participate. Involve the children in the planning of the specific events making invitations and participating in the fun of it all. Some great activities might include: relay races, beach blanket volleyball, scavenger hunts and obstacle courses. Plan a Cool Moves Poster Campaign have a contest to design posters for healthy living that represent some of the activities that members can participate in to get physically active. Share them in your Club, and scan them.
PAGE 8 Motivate Participation. Measure Cool Moves has several tools built into it to help you record participation and progress and monitor the difference that the program has made in the healthy choices your Club members are making. Below, you will find some tips and tools for using the Cool Moves materials most effectively and the benefits of doing so. Cool Moves Journal The focus of Cool Moves is getting kids involved and rewarding their efforts no matter how big or small. Be liberal when giving credit and avoid judging how a child participates. Some participants may be very sensitive about their results and compare themselves to others. Use the journals to reinforce good behaviour and motivate continuing participation. Ask all program staff to help out by reminding members to use their journals to track their activities in each program. Ask parents, staff and volunteers to coach participants on how to use their journals what qualifies as an activity, what to write down and how to add up activities. Ask parents or other caregivers to review their child s journal at meal time or before bed. Make it a regular part of each month. Remember to give lots of praise and encouragement for good efforts! Keep a file for each participant with all their journals. Cool Moves Wall Calendar Keep the Wall Calendar in a highly visible area Try to review journals on the same day every month and do your best to post the results that day. Instant recognition reinforces good behaviours! Post journals near the wall calendar it s great recognition and helps participants share their ideas. Write down the results and keep a copy in your office just in case results are accidentally lost from the wall calendar. Cool Moves Certificate Recognize achievement at regular intervals and when you think someone might need a bit of motivation! Display certificates in a highly visible area. Share successes with parents. Send a copy of the certificate home with the participant.
PAGE 9 Progress. Reward Success! Measuring your Progress To figure out how far you ve come you ll need to know where you started. Take the time at the beginning of your program to create a baseline measurement. This will help you to assess how far your participants have come, and give you the ability to compare to see what is working well, and what areas need more attention. To establish a baseline, ask each participant to think back and complete a journal for the week before they began the program. This will give you a basis of comparison. With younger participants or if participants are having trouble remembering what they did a week ago, encourage them to focus on the previous two days. Measuring Knowledge and Attitude Measuring activities and choices is really important, but so is change in knowledge and attitude. As with activity, you can create a baseline for knowledge and attitude by creating a short questionnaire at the beginning of the program. It has to be fun and not too long. Have participants answer multiple-choice questions, circle the right picture or complete the sentence exercises. It is important to keep this fun and not feel like a TEST! Motivate participants to achieve higher goals by creating group goals. How long will it take your group to get 1000 Play Cool minutes or make 100 healthy Eat Smart choices? Sample knowledge and attitude questions: Circle three activities that build muscle and healthy bones from a list of several or from a group of pictures. List three reasons why it is important to be active. Using old magazines, cut out three healthy ingredients or cut out a food that fits in each of the food groups. Draw a picture of kids eating a balanced meal. Think about what you want to inspire most kids getting informed, forming good attitudes about an active and healthy lifestyle and starting to make better choices about how to use their leisure time and what they eat. This will help you pick questions that address the needs of your group! Other tips and reminders Cool Moves isn t about scientific measurement. When thinking about how to record participation, knowledge and attitude, remember that if it feels too much like school or looks like an evaluation of the participants fitness or health it will scare off the very kids you want most to attract. Decide what you can measure with the time and resources you have at your Club - if it s a burden for the kids or your staff, it likely won t get done. Reporting on activities and food choices that happened a few days ago is not always reliable, but don t worry over it...building an awareness, particularly in the beginning, is as important as changing the behaviour. Behaviour change will come with encouragement, role-modeling and practice. Make sure you and the kids are having fun - keep everyone coming back for more!
PAGE 10 Great Resources on the Web There are tons of great resources on the Internet to support your Cool Moves program take advantage of them! There are also many organizations that will send you free resources by mail. Check out some of the links below there are tons more out there so take a look! Health Canada Physical Activity Guides for Children and Youth Print off copies of the Physical Activity Guide or order copies for your Club. You ll also find info for parents, background information for funding proposals and other guides to support your active living objectives. Visit: www.healthcanada.gc.ca/paguide Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada This site has a Healthy Living section for children, including fun activities and recipes. There are also resources for parents and educators. Visit: www.heartandstroke.ca CAHPERD (Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance) CAHPERD encourages children and youth to live physically active and healthy lives. The site has many free, downloadable resources as well as great information on programs nationwide. Visit: www.cahperd.ca CAAWS (Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity) Background and resources for getting girls involved in sport and physical activity. Girls@Play site has resources for girls and young women. Visit: www.caaws.ca Kraft Canada Check out the Kraft Canada website for great recipe ideas, info for programmers and parents about nutrition and active living. There are lots of kid-friendly healthy snack and meal recipes too! Visit: www.kraftcanada.com Active Healthy Kids Canada This site contains great background information and resources about getting kids active. The Active8 program has curriculum used by some schools to increase awareness of and participation in physical activity. Visit: www.activehealthykids.ca
PAGE 11 KIDNETIC Kidnetic is a great site for kids, parents and Club staff to explore. On the kids side, it has great activity ideas, information and fun recipes. On the parent side it provides comprehensive information on raising healthy children. Visit: www.kidnetic.com Canadian Diabetes Association Dieticians Canada Check out the Dieticians Canada website for great instructional materials on making nutritious food choices. There are instructional sections about reading labels, making healthy meals, and food trivia and lots more! Visit: www.dieticians.ca Canada s Food Guide to Healthy Eating Here you can find Canada s Food Guide to Healthy Eating, guidelines for healthy eating, and information about food labeling. You can also place your order for lots of great materials for your Club including food guides. Visit: www.healthcanada.gc.ca/foodguide Check out the cooking programs and grocery store tours that the CDA has to offer along with how to use the Canadian Food Guide read food labels. You can also find nutritious and yummy recipes via their Good Health Food Guide. Visit: www.diabetes.ca National Eating Disorder Information Centre This site provides excellent information on eating disorders and healthy weights. Newsletters provide information on specific populations and related issues. www.nedic.ca Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Check out the Nutrition Action newsletter for good, reliable information and research on food and nutrition. This site also provides valuable documents on public policy for promoting healthy eating and physical activity. Visit: www.cspinet.org/canada ParticipACTION ParticipACTION works with partners and stakeholders to get Canadians more physically active. You will find great resources, news about what organizations are doing to get people moving and a place to share your own success stories. Visit: www.participaction.com Concerned Children s Advertisers CCA provides comprehensive resources for staff and parents about media awareness. Check out the Long Live Kids link for resources tailored specifically to healthy active living. The TV&ME section is also a great resource for other youth issues. www.cca-kids.ca
PAGE 12 Tips for your Cool Moves Program Eat Smart When you think snacks, think nutrition. Try fruit, vegetables and other healthy options. Champion nutrition at your Club. Fill your vending machines with water, juice and other nutritious options. Keep parents in the loop. Parents can play a large role in supporting what you do at the Club. Share tips for healthy and cost effective snacks and meals Help kids to find healthy recipes they love. Have kids bring in healthy recipes or find some on the internet. This can be a great way for kids to share their cultural traditions too! Empower kids to make healthy choices. Bring in a nutritionist or public health nurse to help kids learn about healthy alternatives and how to read labels. Maintain healthy messaging through rewards and prizes. Try some delicious fruits and vegetables or reward great work with sports equipment giveaways or extra time in the gym! Include a little activity in every program. Meetings, time in the computer lab and craft activities can all benefit from some physical activity. Start things off with an active icebreaker, or break up a long session with a stretching activity. Start with active icebreakers or warm ups before homework help. Not only is it a lot of fun, but it helps kids get their excess energy out and focus on their homework. Get outside! Take a walk to find craft materials or to pick up ingredients for cooking class. Act it out! Use active role play for life skills, anger management and leadership. Don t just sit there, get up and move! Waiting for a bus or for parents to pick kids up can be a great time to get active. Try some of the quick and easy activity ideas in the Cool Moves Back Pocket Guide every bit counts! Play Cool Need more information or ideas for your Cool Moves program? Want to learn how other Clubs are incorporating Cool Moves into their programs? Email the National Programs Team: programs@bgccan.com. Thank you to our generous supporters! Production of this guide has been made possible through a financial contribution from the Public Health Agency of Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada.