School Walking and Riding Activities

If your school is unable to walk or ride in the local community for valid safety reasons then there are some options to still be able to achieve the Stride and Ride criterion.

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Set up a 'Travel Club' or kilometre challenge

Main idea

Invite children and their families and / or the local community to use the school grounds to walk/run/skip around a course and accumulate kilometres.

Details

  1. Allocate a "passport" to each person where their walking can be recorded.
  2. Motivate people with destinations, and have children map their progress to each.
  3. Allocate certificates of achievement to people who reach certain distances.
  4. Make links to other activities like daily PE, or literacy/numeracy.
  

Tips

Lauderdale Primary School 

  • operated their Travel Club before school every morning, at lunchtime and as part of their Wednesday lunch time walking group
  • provided classroom teacher information
  • distributed Travel Club cards from the office
  • circulated distance goals and regularly congratulated children in their newsletter.
  

Build a walk into daily physical activity

Main idea

Incorporate a walk as a pleasurable part of everyone's week.

 
  1. Consider making a link to daily fitness, or a regular activity that is already on the calendar.

Tips

Windermere Primary

  • set up "Walking Wednesday"
  • used their Daily PE leaders to take their class on a walk as the allocated activity for that week
  • included this into their Health and Wellbeing Policy to make sure walking is promoted as a regular part of everyone's week.
  

Wheels Day

Main idea

Organise a 'Wheels Day' where students can bring their bikes, scooters, skate boards, or
roller blades to school for some wheel fun. The focus of wheels day should be riding,
scooting or skating activities that provide all children with an opportunity to get active.

  
 
  1. Consider the safety aspects of this type of event and work out a way to
    communicate with families and students about safety on the day.
  2. Review the school grounds to decide where wheel activities could be set up.
  3. Set a date and promote to students and families through fliers or displays.

Options:
a) Incorporate Wheels Day into Daily Fitness and have a range of wheels
activities set up.
b) Have wheels activities at lunch time or other specific times during the day

Set up wheels activities that may include:
a) A track drawn with chalk that resembles a road with signs (the students may like to do this as a project).
b) Cones and markings for the students to ride, scoot or skate through.
c) Wheel relays.
d) Bike decorating and washing area

Tips

Sandy Bay Infant School 

  • had a safety briefing first, with a big focus on "left" and "right" and signals for "coming through"
  • set up parking bays
  • made signage themselves
  • combined with a free dress day
  • invited parents to walk all, or part, way to school on the same day with their children
  • linked with KidsMatter messages about cooperation.
  

Fancy Feet Day

Main idea

Organise a Fancy Feet day where students participate in a walk around the
school and then have the chance to decorate their shoes.

  

Details

  1. If the school is large and has ample walking space consider having
    the walk on site. If the school is small consider a walking route around the local
    community.
  2. Select a date for Fancy Feet Day and confirm where it will be held/the route.
    Promote to students and their families through newsletters, fliers and displays in
    the school foyer.
  3. Ask students to collect a range of materials that could be used to decorate shoes
    and/or have some available for them to use e.g. ribbons, mini pom poms,
    stickers, sticky tape, beads, pipe cleaners, goggle eyes etc.
  4. Plan to have Fancy Feet decorating at the end of the school/community walk.
    This will ensure that walking is the main focus of the event which will help you
    better achieve the "Stride and Ride" criterion.
  5. Set up an area at the end of the walk where students can spend some time
    decorating their shoes.
  6. Select a few teachers and parents to be judges and set up a catwalk area for
    students to parade their shoes.
  7. Prizes could be allocated to the best shoes and the overall winner could be also
    giveN a pair of canvas shoes to re-create their shoe design for display.

(Activity adapted from Fancy Feet event, Feet First New Zealand 2010).