Classroom-based Physical Activity Breaks

This is an emerging strategy for increasing daily participation in physical activity in schools. Classroom physical activity includes all activity regardless of intensity performed in the classroom during normal classroom time. It may include play and games. Play is a free activity that involves exploration, self-expression, dreaming, and pretending. Play has no firm rules and can take place in the classroom. Children’s play often involves physical movement. Games are forms of play that have greater structure and are competitive. Games have clear participation goals and are governed by informal or formal rules. Games involves planning and strategising and may also involve competition and result in “prestige or status.”

AHI advises adopting somatic education as the main practice in this activity. Somatic education is defined as the use of sensory-motor learning to gain greater voluntary control of ones physiological process. It is "somatic" in the sense that the learning occurs within the individual as an internalised process. Teaching greater self-awareness to schoolchildren may increasingly free them from unconscious restraints of the brain. Somatic education consists of movement patterns, which could be performed by school children at classrooms, aiming creating awareness of their own body sensations to guide them toward self-improvement and the positive changes we seek.

The major barrier to implementing classroom physical activity breaks is competition for time during the school day, arising from the need for schools to meet academic requirements. Intriguingly, using innovative curriculum change, such as classroom-based physical activity breaks improves academic performance. AHI HPS model supports including three physical activities breaks of 10 minutes each every day, accounting for 50% of the 60 minutes minimum of vigorous- or moderate-intensity physical activity per day.