Grayslake's Woodview School using Wii in PE classes
Video fitness games are being used in Grayslake Elementary District 46 as a way to get children more engaged in physical education classes.
At a meeting Wednesday night, a gym teacher at Woodview School in Grayslake told District 46 school board members about his year-plus effort to get children moving through use of Nintendo's Wii Fit products.
Jeff Knapp, principal of the kindergarten-through-fourth-grade Woodview building, said the Wii games are just one component of an overall wellness program for the students.
“Things should never be done in isolation,” Knapp said Thursday. “Wii should not be used to solve the problem of childhood obesity.”
Woodview physical education instructor Steven Feldman said at Wednesday's meeting that grants from Lake Forest-based Trustmark Cos. paid for the school's Wii system with controllers and 30 step-aerobics boards.
Third- and fourth-graders have been using Woodview's Wii games. A video “instructor” provides feedback to the children on their techniques for various exercises.
“Basically, the problem at our school is not all the kids are enjoying fitness, along with most other kids in the U.S.,” Feldman told the District 46 board. “So, when I incorporated the Wii Fit ... and the kids actually get to play a video game in school, there is not one kid that doesn't participate. They absolutely love it.”
Woodview is among schools nationwide that are turning to video games in an effort to entice children to exercise. Ivy Hill Elementary School in Arlington Heights is one of the latest to start using Wii during PE.
As part of the fight against obesity, the National Institutes of Health is funding research on children's use of “exergames.”
Bryan Haddock, associate professor in the kinesiology department at California State University in San Bernardino, is leading the study. His stated goal is to find effective ways to encourage child physical activity to prevent and treat obesity.
Haddock's research on middle school students showed 2.7 calories per minute are burned with Wii Sports' tennis game, and 4.3 for boxing. Wii's bowling zaps 2.2 calories per minute while Just Dance burns 5.3.
Wii golf sheds 1.6 calories a minute, according to Haddock's research. Baseball eliminates 2.7 calories per minute.
Meanwhile, Woodview recently held an inaugural event as part of the school's fitness initiative.
Knapp said Feldman hosted wellness night at Woodview. About 100 visitors checked out what's believed to have been the first such effort in the seven-building district.
“It was a family event,” Knapp said, “where the families rotated from station to station. We had our district nurse do a station talking about healthy eating. (Feldman) talked about childhood obesity and the need for physical fitness. And then we also had kind of a karate-kickboxing instructor that took families through it.”