Weekly Walk to School Days
Pick one or two days a week to promote active transportation to and from school (walking, biking, rolling, etc.) to students. Some ideas include:
- Trekking Tuesday
- Walking/Wheeling Wednesday
- Phys. Ed. Friday
School staff are encouraged to keep track of the total number of metres walked to school and enter it into our new Trip Counter app! This information is then displayed in a variety of ways, including by school and board comparisons.
Kilometre Club
Create a Kilometre Club at your school where students can get together during recess or lunch and walk or jog around the school yard.
- School staff first have to determine the distance of one lap around the yard, so that students know how many laps are required to reach one kilometre.
- Popsicle sticks (or something similar) can be used as a method to track the number of kilometres completed by students. Each student receives one popsicle stick for every kilometre completed.
- Back in the classroom, students count the popsicle sticks collected by the entire class to get the total kilometres traveled.
Each week, total the kilometres completed by all participating classes for the school total.
Setting Distance Goals
Create distance goals to get students excited about staying active. Some popular distance goals include:
- Walk across Halton 45 km
- Walk across Ontario 2,100 km
- Walk across Canada 4,828 km
- Walk around the Earth 40,000 km
- Walk to the Moon 384,400 km
Golden Shoe Award
One way schools can encourage participation (and add some friendly competition!) is by making a “Golden Shoe Award” out of an old sneaker that is spray-painted gold. This prestigious award can go to the class with the highest percentage of students who use active transportation to get to school, the class that reached their distance goal first, etc.
Share Your Activities!
We would love to hear about how your school encourages active transportation! Share your story and photos with us by email everymetrecounts@gmail.com or Twitter @EMCHalton.