Encouraging youth to stay active when school is not in session and opening further communication with parents are focuses for the Marshalltown Physical Education Team. So, they sent Marshalltown Area Youth Recreation Opportunity Spring/Summer 2024 brochures home with their students, listing organized activities children can engage in during the summer months.

Team member Nicole Boliver, who teaches physical education at Rogers Elementary, said when parent teacher conferences occur, PE instructors are not usually on the list for a visit. They decided to partner with community organizations such as the city Parks and Recreation Department and the YMCA to spread the word of activities.

The brochures contain QR codes for sign-up for sports such as soccer, tennis, baseball, golf, swimming and more.

Even though Boliver has not directly heard of the most popular activity so far, she knows they are being used. Soccer and swimming are generally what has attracted the most interest in Rogers. Fellow team member Sarah Murphy, who is the physical education teacher at Woodbury Elementary, said parents have expressed the most interest in soccer.

“A lot of girls have also asked about volleyball, baseball, swimming, dance and gymnastics,” she said.

Encouraging activity during the summer is especially important as both Boliver and Murphy have seen a higher number of students engaging in sedentary behavior. Murphy attributes that to increased growth of interest in gaming.

“We want them to see it is important to get physically active every day,” she said.

Boliver agrees the reason for the decreased exercise in children is increased screen time.

“There has been an increase in the number of kids who are more sedentary because of electronics and video games,” she said. “COVID didn’t help, and we have been working hard post-COVID to navigate students back to normal.”

One way the team is doing that is utilizing more technology in their curriculum during the school year.

“We try to make everything more engaging and innovative for the students,” Boliver said.

She said some of her students hate leaving their Chromebooks behind when PE rolls around. So, one way they are using technology is turning activities into Four Corners-type games. If a student correctly identifies a GIF or a digital image, they move to the corresponding corner. Then, they determine whether the image is cardiovascular, muscular or endurance.

“We know they like video games, and they then use their motor skills,” she said. “We can keep them active that way. The kids respond very positively to that. ”

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Contact Lana Bradsteam at (641) 753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.