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KAMLOOPS – School District 73, in collaboration with the City of Kamloops is hosting a Health Literacy Forum on Oct. 28 for 600 grade 6 students and their teachers at the Tournament Capital Centre Fieldhouse. Keynote Geroy Simon will kick-off the day with the big idea: Movement as a Gateway to Wellbeing: What makes us move is also what makes us think!

As a result of consultation with teachers, community partners, and Interior Health, physical literacy and mental health emerged as big ideas. Dr. John Ratey of Harvard Medical School states “exercise is the single most powerful tool that we have to optimize the function of our brains.” Many studies show that moderate to vigorous physical activity stimulates brain function and creates the physiological conditions for students to be ready to learn.

Grade 6 students and their teachers will participate in four interactive workshops and leave with some strategies that they can use in their schools and in life to leading a healthy lifestyle. These workshops will focus on a combination of curricular competencies in self-awareness, self-management, physical literacy, and functional fitness.

Fifty Peer Mentors from Valleyview Secondary will welcome schools to the TCC and guide them through workshops, be their host, spirit leader, and participate in activities. Twenty-seven Human Performance students from Sahali Secondary will co-facilitate Inclusive Games and functional fitness workshops. 

The Health Literacy Workshops include:
- Self-Regulation-Wired for Learning: Relax, Re-focus, and Re-energize
- Boks Kids: Active Kids = Active Minds. How and why?
- Mindfulness-FUNctioning: Engaging the whole brain and the whole body for the whole child
- Inclusive Games and Functional Fitness-Self-Inquiry into Physical Literacy: A journey not a Destination

Although this is a one-day event, teachers can participate in evidence-based methodology in practice with their students and will have the opportunity to attend in-service for these concepts throughout the year. The workshop topics are research based to promote pro-social behaviour and physical literacy inquiry into a life long journey of wellness strategies. The Health Literacy Forum supports curricular competencies for Active Living, Healthy Choices, and Personal and Social Development.  

The purpose of the Health Literacy Forum is to provide a learning opportunity for students and teachers so that they can explore and develop competencies needed to be healthy and active citizens. Are you Healthy? How do you know?

Community partners include Pacific Sport, Boks Kids, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops Adapted Sports, Interior Health, and Save-On Foods.

News from © iNFOnews, 2015