Henry Gets Moving

Henry Gets Moving is a project born with the purpose to reduce childhood obesity. By teaching the importance of balanced nutrition and an active lifestyle, we can develop healthier habits at a young age that could potentially last a lifetime. For 4 years we have gone to several elementary schools and impacted over 700 students around Delaware County to pilot this program.

This semester we focused our efforts in a rural school system in Delaware County. We visited on three separate occasions. The first visit we focused on reading the book. The book Henry Gets Moving was read in both English and Spanish, as the book is bilingual. We then educated the elementary students on the importance of healthy eating and getting moving. The second visit was focused more so on nutrition and we worked together as a class (total of four classes in all) to make pumpkin pudding. The third and final visit we focused on getting moving and played a variety of games outside, and students completed an obstacle course. Charlie Cardinal made an appearance on the final visit which the students really enjoyed.

The addition of the Spanish department was a wonderful feature this semester as well as working with the Computer Science students as part of their capstone project to help us make a Henry Gets Moving website.

We had the opportunity this semester to have a visit to the Exercise Science 301 classes, the author of the book, Dr. Pierre Rouzier. We were very fortunate he was willing to make a visit to Ball State University and help us with areas we can expand our project in the future.