Students at Elijah Smith Elementary School were visited by Build Our Kids’ Success (BOKS) on Tuesday morning.

BOKS is a free physical activity program intended to give students from kindergarten through Grades 9 more physically active in order to have an impact on a students’ learning.

The program is a before school program for elementary and middle school students; BOKS Bursts keeps students active throughout the day and offers many other resources to support teachers and staff.

To help lead the students through a series of fun games designed to get them moving and have fun, Lauren Hutchinson, regional co-ordinator in Western Canada for Boks, was in Whitehorse.

Also on hand for the students was Yukon Olympian, Jeane Lassen and Melanie Tait, the physical literacy co-ordinator for Sport Yukon.

BOKS was started in 2009 in the United States and is a grassroots physical activity program. Last September, BOKS celebrated its fifth anniversary in Canada.

The program was inspired by a parent who believed their child’s school was not providing enough time spent being active.

BOKS’ website says kids today are the least active generation in history.

“This sedentary lifestyle is negatively impacting both their physical, mental and social health,” says the website. “BOKS is a physical activity program designed to reverse this public health crisis by getting kids active and establishing a lifelong commitment to health and fitness.”

Built on the science and research documented in the book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, BOKS provides free physical activity curriculum, training and support to communities looking to establish and maintain impactful fitness and nutrition programs serving the whole child.

This is the first time BOKS has been in the Yukon to meet with students and staff that are on the ground running the program day-to-day. BOKS will reach five schools while Hutchinson is in town.

Hutchinson will be helping out the kids and also teaching staff in a classroom setting but said she prefers being active with the students and teachers.

“We believe in experiential learning,” said Hutchinson. “We feel kids buy-in, staff buys in much more when they understand what the program looks like in action and we are able to just be silly and play games.

“We are giving them a taste of what it looks like and introducing it to some of the staff so they can see how easy it is to run in their classrooms.”

Tait said it is important to Sport Yukon to help students develop physical literacy.

“Sport Yukon funded through Sport and Rec are really trying to increase physical literacy across Yukon,” said Tait.

“When I heard about BOKS and their programming, it was nice to include them.

“There are lots of different resources on physical literacy and teachers can pick and choose which ones really work for them.”

BOKS Bursts gives teachers games to play during the day, outside of gym class and recess to get students moving and active.

“It’s intended to be completed in the classroom to give kids body breaks in the middle of their day,” said Hutchinson.

“We know teachers are being asked to include more elements of physical activity in their classroom so this is an opportunity to give them more of a toolkit to pull from when they are noticing their kids need body breaks.”

Lassen believes it is important to teach kids about physical literacy so they can grow up into a lifetime of fitness.

“Physical activity was my favourite part of the day,” said Lassen. “I believe it’s important to give those learners that are more kinaesthetic a chance to thrive.

“Even for people where it’s not their favourite thing I think it’s still useful for everyone. I think it’s important to have a toolkit of activities. Also, just the more children have a chance to build their physical capacities and literacy, the more you have opportunities to try new activities in the future.”

Hutchinson said when you develop the skills young it is easier to maintain physical literacy as one gets older.

“You use these things all the time and you don’t necessarily know,” said Hutchinson. “When you start establishing these habits young and get passionate about moving your body and getting active, it’s easier to maintain throughout your life.”

Hutchinson said they are about involving everybody in activity and it’s not about winners and losers in the games.

Tait said this philosophy is important to Sport Yukon.

“We are lucky to have that position to really promote that physical literacy is for everyone,” said Tait. “It is giving kids the confidence to get moving no matter where they are at in life.”

Lassen said building competence and confidence leads to cyclical growth.

“It’s a circular wheel of progress,” said Lassen. “When you build competence you create confidence and then you build the motivation. It’s so important to keep giving these opportunities and it’s not one-offs. It’s continuous engagement.”