Activity 4

    Stomp Out Bad Habits

    Healthy & Active
    Healthy & Active

    Participants decide which habits are healthy or unhealthy all while engaging in some physical activity.

    Materials

    • No materials are needed for this activity.

    Framing

    Begin by saying something like, “There are a lot of things that can get in the way of eating healthy and getting physical activity. What are some of those things?” Encourage participants to name a lot of examples, such as unhealthy food tasting good, TV, fast food, video games, boring, not enough time, etc.

    Instructions

    1. Have the participants spread out around the room. Announce a habit or activity. If the participants decide that the habit is unhealthy, they must stomp around the room. If they decide that the habit is healthy, they must skip and clap around the room. Some example habits:
    • Watching TV (stomp)
    • Eating salad (skip and clap)
    • Drinking water (skip and clap)
    • Eating fast food (stomp)
    • Skipping breakfast (stomp)
    • Playing outside (skip and clap)
    • Not eating vegetables (stomp)
    • Going for a walk (skip and clap)

    Play as many rounds you feel appropriate.

    Modify

    • If your group is older (10-12 years), create smaller groups and give each group a paper and writing utensil. Have each group develop a list of healthy habits and a list of unhealthy habits. Compile the lists into one long one. How many habits were named? Which list was easier to create? What can we learn from this?
    • Include more actions. For example: skip for unhealthy actions, clap for healthy actions, jumping jacks for healthy food, stomp for unhealthy food.

    Safety

    • Use this activity to increase the heart rate of your participants but avoid any action that may be too much for them.

    Wrap-up

    • Discuss with your participants the importance of moderation. No one thing is completely good or completely bad; it depends how much you have or do. Eating slice of cake is okay, but eating it everything is not the best idea and can be detrimental to your health. Bring the participants together and say, “This week, let’s stomp out the unhealthy habits, and instead make healthy choices that are worth skipping and clapping about!”

     


    Adapted from activity #7 of YMCA’s Raising Healthy Kids Activity Guide for Recreation Leaders.

    Tags: healthy-active