Our friends at PECentral offer a variety of lesson plan ideas for winter activity. Here are some physical activities that you can include in your school day.

Everyone seems to know the "Twelve Days of Christmas" song. Here is a twist on that theme with Twelve days of Fitness! It's a great way to teach students about different types of exercises, and how they relate to the different components of fitness.

Children love to look after animals. So, why not have students involved in a game that has them look after Rudolph? Purpose: Students will practice sequencing, eye-hand coordination, underhand tossing to a target, and general-space awareness while moving at different levels and directions.

The Grinch may have tried to steal Christmas, but your students can certainly try to stop him from stealing the fun from their activity. Check out this Grinch activity. Purpose: Students are encouraged to move safely about the entire gym on scooters, picking up bean bags one at a time, placing them in a basket. This is a good warm up activity to be used for the first 5-10 minutes of class. Students are practicing movement in general space, as well as body awareness while balancing on the seat of the scooter.

Frosty is a popular winter character for most children. So, why not have your students participate in an activity of freeze tag with Frosty? Purpose: To allow students to improve their chasing, fleeing and dodging skills in a cooperative, fun, holiday atmosphere.

If your students enjoy tag games, here are some other winter and holiday themed activities that can keep your students active

Snowman Tag: The purpose of this activity is for students to have fun using a variety of locomotor skills, while dodging and fleeing "taggers." Also, cooperation and teamwork play an important role in this tag game.

Reindeer Tag: This is a theme-based holiday activity. It should only be used after moving to "open spaces" and proper dodging and fleeing skills have been taught.

North Pole Tag: Students will practice cardiovascular fitness while performing various locomotor skills. Freeze and Thaw: A winter warm-up activity to increase the heart rate, and warm-up the large muscles using holiday story characters.

If you want to have your students involved in winter activities, but it is just too cold to go outside, here are two lesson ideas that involve indoor winter style activities just for you! Check out Winter Wonderland Stations and Winter Holiday Stations.

For lots of other lesson ideas that range from warm-up activities, through activities that could fill a whole lesson, check out these Holiday Lesson Ideas.

Providing suggestions for students to stay active over the holiday season is something we can all do, and even suggest in our newsletters. Check out the links below to see what ideas you can share with your students and their families.

At times, it is really helpful to recommend child friendly websites that develop an understanding of healthy living to our students. Here are a few to get you and your students started on the road to making healthy choices!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human services. It created the BAM! Body and Mind website to provide students aged 9-13 access to all the information they would need to make healthy lifestyle choices. The BAM! Body and Mind site also provides a classroom section for teachers, with interactive and educational activities that are linked to the national education standards for science and health.

Providing accurate answers about health and health issues is something that we are all called upon to do occassionally, be it questions from students, parents, or even colleagues. At times, these questions may test our personal level of understanding. Thankfully there are several sites that can help us understand more, and they can also be provided to others to ensure that we all have the most up-to-date and accurate information.

When considering the health of children, KidsHealth is one of the largest and most-visited sites on the Web. The site provides doctor-approved health information about children from pre-birth through adolescence. On any given day, over 500,000 visitors access the site for information! The site is designed with separate pages for parents, kids, and teens.

Ever wondered what could be achieved if the whole school considered the issue of health? The Healthy Schools Healthy Youth! site provides ideas for the promotion of healthy behaviors among youth, and a basis for a coordinated school health program.

Although good health is vital for children in many ways, parents are often concerned that students will suffer academically if they spend time participating in health based activities. Read an article that addresses this issue, and suggests that healthy students do better in their academics!

Regular physical activity has been associated with many positive health benefits including strong bones. Calcium intake is certainly something to remember when considering healthy bones, but so too is physical activity. For example, weight-bearing physical activity early in life is important in reaching peak bone mass.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that "incorporating weight-bearing physical activity into an exercise plan is a great way to keep bones healthy and meet physical activity recommendations set forth in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans."

Osteoporosis is a disease that affects the lives of approximately 10 million people in the United States. Osteoporosis can be defined as porous bone. Although the majority of people who suffer from osteoporosis are older, research has shown that increasing bone density in elementary aged school children may be one of the best ways to help reduce or prevent the onset of osteoporosis later in life. Therefore, physical education teachers can play an important role in helping children increase their bone mass.

The following is a list of activities and ideas to help teachers provide opportunities for children to develop stronger bones.

	Provide weight-bearing activities - For example, simple activities such as jumping, hopping, galloping, and skipping.
	Provide a variety of weight bearing activities that develop the entire body - Activities such as rope climbs, balances, and animal movements involving weight bearing on hands and arms help to strengthen the upper body and develop strong bones in the upper body.
	Provide a variety of developmentally appropriate activities - A variety of activities will provide the necessary breadth to your physical education classes for developmentally appropriate weight-bearing activities and the accommodation of the individual needs of each child.
	Incorporate the importance of bone development into other subjects - In health, learn about the roles that calcium, diet, and eating habits play in bone development.

Neuroscience for Kids - Explore the Brain and Spinal Cord. Intended for elementary and secondary school students and teachers who are interested in learning about the nervous system and brain with hands on activities, experiments and information.

Youth overweight increases risk of bone fractures, muscle and joint pain - Children and adolescents who are overweight are more likely than their normal weight counterparts to suffer bone fractures and have joint and muscle pains, according to a study conducted at the National Institutes of Health.

The researchers also found that overweight youth in the study were more likely than non-overweight youth to develop changes in the knee joint that make movement more difficult. Read more.

Less Milk Means Brittle Bones - Children and adolescents today are more likely to break a bone than their parents were. Because dietary choices early in life can have serious health consequences, experts are urging parents to provide children with the recommended three daily servings of bone-building milk and dairy products. Read more.

14 year-old battles rare condition - Although a rear condition, this condition happens often enough that we're posting this for reading. This article is about a life-threatening condition involving the spinal cord. Here is a good article, very information, that is a response to someone's question in regard to backbone 'popping.'

Spinal Cord Injury More Frequent In Children with Seat Belt Injuries - Ill-fitting seatbelts raise the risk of serious injury to children involved in car accidents. And seat belt injuries should alert physicians to look for signs of more serious consequences, particularly spinal cord injury, which is not always immediately apparent. Read more.