Although Valentine’s Day is over, keep your heart in mind! February is American Heart Awareness Month. This month’s observance draws attention to heart disease and encourages everyone -- adults and kids alike -- to take steps toward a healthier lifestyle and prevention year-round.
A way to get your heart in shape is cardiovascular (cardio) exercise or aerobics! Aerobic exercises strengthen the heart muscle and improve blood circulation. Some great activities include:
- jumping rope,
- dancing,
- gymnastics,
- swimming,
- yoga,
- and much more!
There are so many fun ways to incorporate cardio in the classroom. Try a jumping jacks spelling bee contest by asking students to do jumping jacks for each letter in the word they are challenged to spell.This activity is sure to get their brains working and hearts racing!
Another academic aerobic exercise incorporates movement into math lessons. During a recent Fit to Learn session, teachers played Jenga with math problems and different physical activities written on each of the blocks. As players pulled the blocks, they had to solve the math problem do the activity that many times. For example, "2 x 2 = 4 lunges."
Physical activity breaks enhance classroom culture by connecting activity and learning. Research shows that activity boosts recall and focus in the classroom!
For more physical activity tips, we also encourage you to check out the Go for the Gold campaign’s physical activity tip sheet [pdf].
Very Interesting. I agree that Aerobic exercises strengthen the heart muscle and improve blood circulation and the result will be maximized if combined with eating foods that are good for heart health such as avocado, soy protein, olive oil, oatmeal, or yogurt.
Posted by: health heart | December 18, 2013 at 02:06 PM