Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Part A: Why Get Fit?

10 minutes

Part B: Healthy Messaging

5 minutes

Part C: Literacy Break (optional)

15 minutes

Part D: What Is Fitness?

40+ minutes

Part E: How Do We Measure And Improve Fitness?

5 minutes

Reflection

Introduction

Step 1

If your students are collecting Volkswagen Footy Fit Challenge Tokens, inform them that they can collect tokens by completing the activities in this lesson. Refer to the Volkswagen Footy Fit Challenge Scoring Framework for details. There will also be some extension activities they can complete for extra tokens. They can refer to the Volkswagen Footy Fit Challenge Game Plan for more information. Provide each student with a copy of the Volkswagen Footy Fit Challenge Game Plan.

Part A: Why Get Fit?

Step 1

Write the question, “Why get fit?” on the board and invite students to share their ideas, creating a mind-map of various categories.

Step 2

Explain to students that fitness and wellbeing is an important topic worldwide. Even the United Nations has something to say about it. In fact, they have something to say about a lot of important issues. Play this video:

The World’s Largest Lesson Part 1 HD (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8ozBBMMjtw)

Step 3

Read the following introduction to students:

The Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere. The 17 Goals were adopted by all UN Member States (including Australia) in 2015. This means Australia is committed to improving the living conditions of Australians and our neighbours in a variety of areas.

Display the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 and Target 4.

Source: https://www.globalgoals.org/3-good-health-and-well-being

Safety first: Be aware that some students may have family members who are sick or are battling non-communicable diseases. Consider if these discussions are safe for your students and how you can help those students cope with their feelings about the topic.

Step 4

Read the following to students:

Goal 3 is: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Target 4 of this goal is to, by 2030, reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being.

Step 5

Play this video:

Noncommunicable Diseases and their Risk Factors (animated video) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK1_SH3X2ek)

Learning support: You may wish to play the first 30 seconds of this video and then stop to clarify students understand the content. Continue the video if you want to discuss the various factors influencing public health and contributing to non-communicable diseases. If not, continue to Step 6.

Facilitate a whole-class discussion to interpret Goal 3 and Target 3.4 based on the information they have so far. You might like to use the following prompts:

What is a non-communicable disease and how can you prevent them?
Possible answer: Type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease are diseases we can get from lifestyle factors, rather than by catching them from others. These types of diseases can be prevented by eating healthy food, keeping fit and avoiding pollutants.
What social, environmental or economic factors are negatively affecting our health in Australia?
Possible answer: Junk food advertising during prime time TV and kids programs; healthy food can be expensive; busy parents don’t feel they have time to cook; some remote communities don’t have easy access to fresh foods.
What positive health initiatives have you already noticed?
Possible answers: Food labelling laws, reduction of sugar in soft drinks, changes to canteen menus.
How do Goal 3 and Target 3.4 relate to fitness and nutrition?
Possible answer: By getting fit and being careful about what we put in our bodies, we can work to prevent getting non-communicable diseases like type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease.

Step 6

Play this video that explains the wide-ranging benefits of exercise:

What happens inside your body when you exercise? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWGulLAa0O0)

Invite students to discuss how they can see exercise being able to prevent non-communicable diseases.

Part B: Healthy Messaging

Step 1

Read the following:

The video you just watched was created by the British Heart Foundation. This is a charity committed to promoting healthy lifestyles and preventing heart disease. Governments and other organisations also work to educate and support the public to make healthier choices.

Invite students to conduct a Turn and Talk on the financial and social benefits of community health education. You might like to use the following questions as prompts:

When someone goes to hospital, what other parts of their life are affected? Does it affect their family, income, work, social contribution, or their mental health?
Why might the government be interested in our health? Why does it pay for advertising to inspire us to take better care of ourselves?

Step 2

Play this video from the Victorian Government:

Go For Your Life Victoria Ad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqX4dS2XVTw)

You might like to stop at 0:28 as this video is a collection of similar ads.

Facilitate a class discussion using the following questions as prompts. You might like to use a Popcorn Share method.

Who is the audience for this ad?
How does it make us feel?
What is this ad trying to influence us to do?
What is meant by the term preventative health?
Why is it better to tackle an unhealthy habit rather than treat it in hospital once it becomes a health issue?
Do students undertake any preventative health measures in their daily lives, even if they’re not actively aware of it?

Explain that these kinds of ads help the government address their responsibility for Global Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Extension opportunity for Global Goal 3: In small groups, students plan, storyboard, write and film a health and fitness ad for the government. It should be aimed at the average person, with the purpose of encouraging them to make improvements towards a more healthy lifestyle. Students should consider making calls to action about exercise, mental health, diet and other healthy habits. Students could include ‘Tips and Tricks’ about how to get healthy in fun ways or with small efforts, such as this Swansfit balloon challenge. Award one Healthy Habits token to each group member upon completion.

Part C: Literacy Break (optional)

Step 1

Have students summarise the lesson content so far by asking them the following question:

Why is it important to get fit?

Invite them to respond briefly with answers like: to prevent non-communicable diseases, to save money, to make sure we can keep healthy for ourselves and our family, to achieve our personal goals, to feel good, etc.

Learning support: To check comprehension for all students, you might like them to write their answer or complete a THINK PAIR SHARE before a class discussion.

Step 2

Explain to students that it’s important to start with the 'why' when looking into a new topic - and we’ve just done that… but there are also other ‘W’s to explore. Remind students of the 5 Ws and an H:

Why?
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
How?

Ask them which Ws they think are most relevant to this topic. Guide them towards ‘What?’ And ‘How?’.

Explain that the rest of the lesson will look at:

What is fitness?
How do we measure and improve fitness?

Part D: What Is Fitness?

Step 1

Show students the following image:

Explain to students that many people equate fitness with thinness. But this isn’t always the case. There are some sports where the body benefits from extra weight and muscle, such as boxing or weightlifting. Swimmers, for example, need to float, so they are likely to have higher body fat levels than a high-jumper. They both might need to have strong shoulders and arms, but they would train and eat very differently.

Athletes often have to monitor and control their weight in order to meet the demands of the sport they participate in. They do this by measuring and altering their inputs (food and water) and balancing their outputs (exercise). This helps them control whether their body absorbs and stores fat and muscle, or whether it expends additional energy and fluid already stored in the body, thus losing weight or muscle.

The average person, however, doesn’t have to worry too much about controlling their weight or muscle development on a day-to-day basis. The Volkswagen Footy Fit Challenge lessons focus on fitness for normal, healthy people. Healthy people come in all shapes and sizes, and there’s no one right way to be fit; but we can apply some general principles such as Healthy Habits, Healthy Mindset, Body Knowledge, Physical Skills.

Step 2

Display a blank Stadium Scoreboard. Invite students to think about the four following areas and why they might be important to fitness and wellbeing:

Healthy Habits
Healthy Mindset
Body Knowledge
Physical Skills.

Drive home to students that fitness is about much more than just being thin and muscular. All four components are essential to fitness and each person will have their own strengths. You will have the chance to explore each of these throughout the Volkswagen Footy Fit Challenge lessons.

Step 3.

Play the following video, explaining that it is about muscle growth. This is an important measure of fitness for many athletes:

What makes muscles grow? - Jeffrey Siegel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tM1LFFxeKg&t=1m25s)

Step 4

Play this video of Sydney Swans players sharing the kinds of resistance training they do to build muscle:

Resistance Training (https://vimeo.com/674280174)

The types of exercises listed were:

Weights - lifting or pushing heavy items
Band work - pulling or stretching against tension created by elastic bands
Core - moving your body against gravity whilst tightening muscles in the torso and pelvis.

These exercises help train strength, stability and reduce the risk of injury.

Extension opportunity for Global Goal 3: Have students work independently to create a community education poster or radio ad explaining the importance of exercise with increasing resistance, a diet providing nutrients for body growth and repair and sleep for rest and recovery. Award one Body Knowledge token to each student upon completion.

Part E: How Do We Measure And Improve Fitness?

Step 1

Play the following video, explaining that it is about building endurance, which is an important fitness strategy for Aussie Rules players and other athletes:

Fit for Fit: How to Build Endurance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUVW39YTGDY)

Now play this video of Sydney Swans players sharing the kinds of cardio training they do to build endurance:

Cardio Training (https://vimeo.com/674280054)

Step 2

Invite students to stand in a circle. Introduce a dynamic (moving) stretch and have students copy the stretch. Invite students to take turns, clockwise around the circle, to make their own dynamic stretch and copy others.

Safety first:

Ensure each activity is slow and doesn’t strain the muscles. It should activate one or more muscles, but also be easy to complete from a stationary position. There should be no impact (such as jumping) and movement should be controlled so as to avoid injury.

Learning support:

You might prefer to use this Swans TV workout (warm-up 0:00 - 1:40) or lead your own dynamic stretching routine if you are worried about students choosing inappropriate or potentially harmful stretches.

Invite them to reflect on how it felt to do moving stretches instead of still ones. Explain that static stretches are more often used these days AFTER working out.

Step 3

Play this video that explains how AFL players are assessed and assigned to positions based on their strengths:

NAB AFL Draft Combine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLYW2bDT4Tc)

Invite students to ask any questions they have about the fitness assessments. Explain to students they will now conduct their own fitness assessments, but they will be a bit different than the ones the AFL players go through.

Safety first:

It is important that students understand they are not to compare their results with each other. The purpose of this fitness assessment is to establish a baseline so they can later measure their own improvement. The only person they should compare themselves with is themself. If you have any students with sensitivities about their bodies, weight or fitness, reassure them that their weight and physical measurements won’t be taken.

Step 4

Allow students to find a partner they trust. Provide each student with the Draft Combine Fitness Worksheet and send them off in pairs to complete the activities. Observe and support students to make sure they are taking care of their muscles.

You might want to set up the testing areas and have students rotate between them so they can go at their own pace and there is less downtime between activities. Make sure students stretch afterwards.

Step 5

Invite students to celebrate their hard work by patting themselves on the back or giving someone a high five.

Award one Physical Skills token to each student upon completion.

Step 6

Show students this Activity Pyramid and talk through the ‘do less often’ and ‘do more often’ activities:

Invite students to work independently to create their own Activity Pyramid. They should consider the areas from their fitness baseline that they would like to improve on and include strategies to help them. They also should make sure to include healthy activities that they most enjoy doing to help them stay motivated.

Things they should be doing lots of and quite often go at the bottom of the pyramid, things that are okay in small amounts go in the middle section, and things they should try to limit or reduce go in the top section.

Encourage students to use pictures, words and colour to create an eye-catching poster they can stick on their wall at home to remind them of activities they can do to keep them healthy.

Extension opportunity: You might like students to include activities for each of the four Volkswagen Footy Fit Challenge categories. Regular activities could include:

Eat five vegetables and two fruits every day (Healthy Habits)
Smile and say hello to teachers around the school (Healthy Mindset)
Get plenty of sleep (Body Knowledge)
Go for a bike ride (Physical Skills).

Activities to avoid might be:

Drinking sugary drinks (Healthy Habits)
Saying negative things about yourself or others (Healthy Mindset)
Not washing your hands after using the toilet (Body Knowledge)
Watching TV all afternoon (Physical Skills).

Award one Healthy Habits token to each student upon completion.

Step 7

Encourage students to stick the poster up somewhere they will see it every day (such as the bathroom mirror or the refrigerator door) and try to do more healthy activities over the next two weeks, at which time they will complete the Draft Combine Fitness Worksheet by doing another self-assessment. Then they can see if there are any changes in their results.

Reflection

Invite students to complete the following in their Volkswagen Footy Fit workbook, or using the Student Worksheet:

What is an area I could improve my health in the short term?
What is an area that will take a longer-term effort to improve?

Differentiated Learning

Extension - Watch Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise Explained (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSJLQ-GtJM4&t=15s). Create a video or poster which explains and targets aerobic and anaerobic fitness, complete with exercises. Earn one Body Knowledge token AND one Physical Skills token.

Provisions for Learning Support

Some activities in the Draft Combine Fitness Worksheet may need to be adapted for students with special needs. Make sure you speak with any learning support staff who might need to assist you with preparing for this lesson well in advance. If you have students with mobility issues, you may need to create alternative activities altogether. It would be a good idea to have an additional staff member (or two) present to assist with the fitness assessment.
Some classes may not have the social safety needed to conduct a fitness assessment. If this is the case in your class, feel free to skip the Draft Combine Fitness Test. You may prefer for students to complete this Compare The Fitness Worksheet instead.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching practice today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Footy Fit - How Do I Get Fit?

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