National Heritage Academies Teachers Encourage Kids to Keep Moving During Winter Months

It may be cold outside, but that doesn't mean you have to become a 'couch potato.'

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Feb. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A hot bowl of salty popcorn eaten while wrapped in a warm blanket can be a comforting remedy for a cold winter day. For students at Grand River Academy, popcorn is synonymous with moving during harsh conditions that make it easy to become a couch potato.

Hally Johns, the school's physical education teacher, runs wellness challenges each month that students take part in to stay active and create healthy habits, and they know they're on the right track when their heart is "popping like popcorn." To document their progress, students send in pictures and videos of themselves in a jumping jack challenge or a look at their dinnerplate to show they are staying healthy in the long months of winter. The winners are posted online along with the weekly wellness newsletter, incentivizing them to keep exercising. Johns said 50 to 75 students each month track their numbers.

"We talk about the difference between playing a video game and then actually working and strengthening your heart," Johns said. "Parents have been really great about checking in with me and making sure that I know they were doing it, so it's been cool."

Ready to enroll your student? National Heritage Academies operates 100 schools in nine states. Use our school finder to locate one near you: NHA School Finder.

Keeping children active is especially challenging during the cold winter months in Michigan, when outdoor time can be limited because of the lack of daylight or off the table when temperatures hover around zero degrees. Brad Agee, Cross Creek Charter Academy achievement and behavior support specialist and athletic director, combats the doldrums of winter by riding a stationary bike during his spare time. He stresses small increments of movement at minimum to himself and to his children.

"I told my kids, 'it's so much easier to do 10 minutes a day than to try to do 60 minutes on the weekend because you're going to lose half of what you gained in that time,'" he said. "If you can do 10 to 15 minutes a day of just something, especially if you're going to play a winter sport coming up, you're going to be way better off than saying, 'it's Sunday before we go back, I haven't done anything. I better go for a run real quick.' Then you're just going to be sore and miserable."

For parents seeking space for their kids to exert their pent up energy, Cross Creek offers open gym period so kids can play volleyball and basketball and also has indoor ultimate league with about 300 kids.

"We encourage the kids that are getting ready to come into sports to get some sort of activity going daily to make sure that they don't come into the first week of basketball and just fall on the floor because they've been sitting down for two weeks playing video games," Agee said.

Ridge Park Charter Academy Physical Education Teacher Steve Mercado stresses that if you do choose to get some fresh air while exercising in the winter, make sure to bundle up, take breaks, and hydrate. He offers some outdoor activities that can get the heartrate up for both kids and parents:

• Snowball building
• Snow tag
• Fort building
• Sledding (walking up the hill is a great workout)
• Follow the leader
• Shoveling (not as fun but great exercise)

Want to learn more about how NHA supports teachers and students to achieve at National Heritage Academies partner-schools? Visit nhaschools.com.

About National Heritage Academies:
National Heritage Academies (NHA) is a network of 100 tuition-free, public charter schools across nine states, serving more than 68,000 students in kindergarten through 12^th grade. For more information, visit nhaschools.com. To find the nearest charter school near you, use the NHA school finder.

SOURCE National Heritage Academies