School Specialty. Planning & Student Development

Monthly Theme/Calendar Pages

Each month, students are introduced to a new theme for coordinated school health. Students are then given strategies for personally connecting that theme to their lives.

Consistent themes throughout grade levels allows schools and districts to build consistent messaging on a month-to-month basis. Younger kids focus on the same messages as older students. This creates a district-wide program.

At the primary level, the goal of the planner is to introduce students to the main themes helping them build awareness and vocabulary and to create a healthy lifestyle early. This builds a foundation through positive experience.

Themes:

• AUGUST: Introduction to Active Living – Setting the tone for change, this first month builds a solid foundation for healthy and active living.
• SEPTEMBER: Benefits of Physical Activity – An active body leads to an active mind. This month concentrates on helping students learn about the overall health benefits of physical activity, while exploring more personal reasons for being physically active.
• OCTOBER: The FITT Principle – The first step in developing a fitness training program is to learn the rules. Frequency, Intensity, Type and Time parameters help define how students monitor their physical activity. This month's theme uses developmentally appropriate explanations of the FITT principle, while encouraging active play at all levels.
• NOVEMBER: Energy Balance – This month focuses on the equation of energy balance. Students become aware of the calories they consume through food and the calories burned through physical activity.
• DECEMBER: Breaking Barriers – Personal Wellness is a journey with set-backs and celebrations. Knowing challenges beforehand allows students to develop strategies to overcome them.
• JANUARY: In the Mood to Move – This month helps students learn strategies to motivate themselves and others to live a healthy and active lifestyle.
• FEBRUARY: Enlisting Social Support – Even the most focused individuals need a social support system. This month teaches students how to develop a circle of encouragement that reinforces their goals.
• MARCH: Making it Fun – Sometimes getting healthy is hard work, but it's important to know how to keep the pursuit of wellness fun.
• APRIL: Whole Foods vs. Empty Foods – Understanding nutrition and how foods affect the whole body are key elements of making healthy choices.
• MAY: Back on Track—Recovering From Setbacks – Nobody is perfect. Unhealthy food is sometimes hard to resist, and daily routines are sometimes broken. It is critical to living an active and healthy lifestyle to have strategies for getting back on track.
• JUNE: Adapting Activities to Meet Your Needs – When the school year ends, the planner teaches students how to find fun and fitness whenever and wherever so that their schedules continue to support healthy choices.
• JULY: Turning Sedentary Time into Active Time – Maintaining healthy routines can be a challenge. This month focuses on helping students recognize ways to be active with family and friends.

Monthly Theme/Calendar Pages

Each month, students are introduced to a new theme for coordinated school health. Students are then given strategies for personally connecting that theme to their lives.

Consistent themes throughout grade levels allows schools and districts to build consistent messaging on a month-to-month basis. Younger kids focus on the same messages as older students. This creates a district-wide program.

Elementary-aged students are keenly aware of issues that affect them, as well as those people closest to them. Building on the foundation developed in the primary level, elementary students are taught to become more aware of how they can impact their own environment -- through the options presented to them, choices they make and examples they set for their peers.

Themes:

• AUGUST: Introduction to Active Living – Setting the tone for change, this first month builds a solid foundation for healthy and active living.
• SEPTEMBER: Benefits of Physical Activity – An active body leads to an active mind. This month concentrates on helping students learn about the overall health benefits of physical activity, while exploring more personal reasons for being physically active.
• OCTOBER: The FITT Principle – The first step in developing a fitness training program is to learn the rules. Frequency, Intensity, Type and Time parameters help define how students monitor their physical activity. This month's theme uses developmentally appropriate explanations of the FITT principle, while encouraging active play at all levels.
• NOVEMBER: Energy Balance – This month focuses on the equation of energy balance. Students become aware of the calories they consume through food and the calories burned through physical activity.
• DECEMBER: Breaking Barriers – Personal Wellness is a journey with set-backs and celebrations. Knowing challenges beforehand allows students to develop strategies to overcome them.
• JANUARY: In the Mood to Move – This month helps students learn strategies to motivate themselves and others to live a healthy and active lifestyle.
• FEBRUARY: Enlisting Social Support – Even the most focused individuals need a social support system. This month teaches students how to develop a circle of encouragement that reinforces their goals.
• MARCH: Making it Fun – Sometimes getting healthy is hard work, but it's important to know how to keep the pursuit of wellness fun.
• APRIL: Whole Foods vs. Empty Foods – Understanding nutrition and how foods affect the whole body are key elements of making healthy choices.
• MAY: Back on Track—Recovering From Setbacks – Nobody is perfect. Unhealthy food is sometimes hard to resist, and daily routines are sometimes broken. It is critical to living an active and healthy lifestyle to have strategies for getting back on track.
• JUNE: Adapting Activities to Meet Your Needs – When the school year ends, the planner teaches students how to find fun and fitness whenever and wherever so that their schedules continue to support healthy choices.
• JULY: Turning Sedentary Time into Active Time – Maintaining healthy routines can be a challenge. This month focuses on helping students recognize ways to be active with family and friends.

Increased academic achievement.

Studies show that students who do better on fitness tests also do better on academic tests.

Supports coordinated school health programs.

By creating a healthier school environment -- one that fosters healthy eating, physical activity and consistency -- the entire goal of healthy school initiatives is supported.

Reinforces the PE teacher's message.

Because PE class time is limited, and student health is a priority of all educators, use this planner to reinforce physical activity and healthy eating on a daily basis by integrating it into all other subjects.

Action-oriented health and wellness.

This planner helps students develop personal goals for physical activity and overall wellness. Then, it outlines an action plan for reaching those goals.

Supported with educator tools.

To ensure our products are easy to use and provide the most impact possible, we provide extra resources that help educators integrate the program into the classroom. Learn more about our product support in the Online section above.

Planners are great tools for your students, but why not have them work a little harder for you. Customize them with your school's information, and use them as a continual communication piece between administrators, teachers and students.

School Handbook:

The most efficient and cost-effective way to communicate school policies, schedules and events is to add your important school information right into your planners. Learn more about school handbooks.

Handbook Resource Pages:

Add additional academic resources to your handbook. Choose from more than 100 resource pages. Our extensive library of helpful resource pages can assist students in a number of subject areas. View our complete library of resource pages.

Content Supplements:

Put a spotlight on important issues relevant to your school by choosing from our vast library of supplements. Advance school priorities with resources tied to current curriculum and standards, critical life skills, health and wellness, and more.

Cover:

Design your own cover that reflects school spirit, or choose from one of our templates that align with the goals you've established for your school. Incorporate your school name front and center, right on the cover!

Enhancements:

Add a few more features to make your planners truly inspiring to students. Planning stickers, pagefinders, trackable hall passes, planner tabs, student ID/CD/Home-School pouches, two-hole ruler attachments --choose the enhancements that raise the cool factor.