Fitness Fun Badge

After March Break, our first meeting back was spent working on the Fitness Fun Badge. As the girls arrived, each patrol made a list of ways they could be more active each day.

We then had our usual opening, followed by an active game. Everyone then created a 4-week fitness log, that we will complete over the next month. 

Once the logs were finished, we moved into the active part of our meeting. We started with stretching, learning about stretching different muscles and the importance of stretching before you begin physical activity. 

• Elongation Stretches - Stand as tall as you can. Take a deep breath while lifting your arms above your head as high as you can and stretching through to your fingertips.
• Hamstring Stretch - Sit on the floor and stretch both legs out in front of you. Reach for your toes with your fingertips.
• Quad Stretch - Place your left hand on the back of a chair or the wall while standing. Bend your right knee and bring your right foot up behind you, hold with your right hand. Repeat o the left side.
• Neck and Shoulder Stretch - Stand with your arms hanging at your sides. Tilt your head sideways to your shoulder. Gently push opposite hand down to the floor. Repeat on the other side.
• Back and Shoulder Stretch - Interlace your fingers with palms facing outwards. Slow lift arms above head, pushing up-ward.
• Arm Stretch - Gently pull right elbow across the chest toward the opposite shoulder. Repeat with left arm. 

Our next activity was to discuss the importance of warming-up before physical activity and the types of actions that make good warm-up activities. Each patrol then created their own warm-up routine - one for soccer, one for basketball, and one for swimming.

Now that everyone was warmed up, we played some more active games! 

• Popcorn Tag - All players hop around on both feet. When the person who is "It" tags a player, the two join hands. The two hopping "It's" go after another player, who when tagged joins them. When other players are tagged they also join the hopping chain. The last player left becomes the next "It".
• Back to Back - Players stand in pairs, except one player who is "It". When "It" calls 'Back to Back', players must stand back to back with a partner. "It" then calls 'Face to Face' and these partners must face each other and shake hands. On the next call of 'Back to Back' partners must run to find a new partner. "It" also tries to find a partner during the change. The player left out becomes the new "It".

The last activity of the evening was to discuss and try strength exercises - squats, lunches, push-ups and crunches. Over the next 4 weeks, the girls will try to increase their physical activity and include warm-up activities, stretching and strengthening exercises.