TRAIN

TRAIN@School

TRAIN@School meets the need for nutrition and physical education to be accessible to schools. It consists of nutrition and adaptive physical education lesson plans based on the TRAIN Assessment program. These lessons are aimed towards elementary students with intellectual disabilities, but can be used for any student through twelfth grade in a special education, inclusive, or general education classroom. These lesson plans can easily incorporated nutrition and physical education into the classroom; they include curriculum connections in order to correlate these lessons with other classroom material. The nutrition lessons focus on topics such as various food groups, healthy snacking, the importance of water, and what a healthy plate looks like. The adaptive P.E. lessons cover the seven sports skills, giving students information and fun activities for each one.

According to research done by Special Olympics, nearly 33% of youth athletes (under the age of 21) are obese, and nearly 17% of youth athletes are overweight. Unfortunately this trend is becoming increasing popular with all American youth. According to the CDC, youth who are obese have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease (such as high blood pressure and cholesterol). These individuals also have a greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social/psychological problems (such as poor self esteem). Finally, children who are obese have a much higher risk of being obese as adults which leads to higher risks of health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, strokes, and cancer.

TRAIN@Schools purpose is to promote a eating healthy and being physically active for all students. Teacher should set an example of a healthy lifestyle in the classroom. Encourage students to drink water throughout the day, healthy snacks, and daily physical activity of some sort. Teachers are encouraged to download lesson plans that they could easily incorporate into their classroom to promote a healthy lifestyle for their students which could lead to them performing better in the classroom environment.