Fri, Oct 31: Gossiping & Bullies

What do you call a ghost that bullies other ghosts? Answer: A boolie. Okay so it’s a corny joke, but that leads into our lessons from last week on Gossip and Bullying. Before the girls took part in the lesson they had to get by an ugly scary witch (Coach Connie) and a creepy Darth Vader (Coach Tanya), both lurking in the Ronald McNair Elementary Library on Halloween. We had a great time getting in on the Halloween fun, but first down to the business about learning how harmful gossip and bullying are to other people.

Coach Jennifer led the discussion and the girls talked about why people gossip and bully other people. They also discussed how it harmful gossip and bullying are to kids and communities.

Coach Connie, decked out in her full witch regalia, led the telephone game which illustrated gossip. The girls worked in teams and were given a statement from Coach Connie, they then had to run to another girl and whisper the same statement to her, that girl ran to another girl and whispered the statement. Finally, the last girl came back to the group and told the group what they heard. Well, you guessed it, what was repeated to the group, was not what Coach Connie initially whispered to the first girl. The girls got the idea that they should not repeat gossip and if they want to know something to go straight to the source.

Coach Bill and Darth Vader (Coach Tanya) were busy preparing a Halloween Scavenger Hunt for the girls. The girls kept their same teams from the Telephone Game and were given a Scavenger Hunt sheet with items to find, activities to do (i.e. find a coach and do crazy eights) and cheers to make up. There was a lot running, laughter, Crazy Eights, jumping jacks and jumping rope. After the Scavenger Hunt the girls turned in their bags and Scavenger Hunt sheets for a trick or a treat. They did a great job, so Darth Vader saved the tricks and handed out Halloween bags with orange and black Spooky Straws and orange juice boxes.

As we packed up to go back inside…Coach Bill had disappeared…where was he? We walked into the cafeteria and heard, what? The sound of bagpipes, Coach Bill was welcoming the girls back in playing the bagpipes..pretty cool, and a good way to end the session.

We hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween.

Tues, Oct 28: Drink Water, Brush Your Teeth, Get 8 Hours of Sleep?

What on earth do all those things have in common?

They are was we can take care of our physical health! A few lessons ago, we discussed positive and negative behaviors that affected the way we feel and the way we think. Yesterday morning, we concentrated on those behaviors that help our bodies be strong and healthy. We talked abouot drinking plenty of water each day; we agreed that brushing our teeth twice a day was necessarily; we all laughed about washing our bodies daily (why is bathing such a funny topic!?!); and we understand the importance of washing our hands regularly, including before we eat. (If washing hands isn't possible, hand sanitizer is a convenient alternative!)


The weather toyed with us, and we were too sure we should go outside to do our workout. Finally, we agreed that in order to be ready for our upcoming 5k race, we must run. So we headed out the door...into the cold and into the wind! Whew! We all lost our breath as we exited the building. Coach Bill split us into teams and we demonstrated our food group knowledge in a relay race. (We are still trying to figure out where peppermint falls into the food groups!)

Everyone was anxious to run (including Coach Connie, who was shivering) so we began to run around the blacktop. Each lap earned us a card that listed a healthy habit. our goal was to find matching "healthy habit" cards. Most every girl ran 7-8 laps! Quite impressive for our girls! Once again, the girls proved they are indeed ideal "Girls on the Run."

We end with some indoor stretching. We'd say it was a cool down...but in our case, it was a warm up!

We continue to be impressed with the enthusiam and energy that our girls give us each time we meet. Their passion is incredible, and makes our coaching job that much easier. We coaches thank you parents for giving us just a few moments of time with your daughters!

PS....We are just about three weeks from our 5k Fun Run. How's YOUR training coming along? Have you signed up for the race yet?

Friday Afternoon's Practice will be changed

Due to the events planned of Halloween afternoon at school as well as the events planned for Halloween evening, we have decided it was best to reschedule our Friday afternoon lesson.

We will instead meet at 8am on Friday morning. Same place (in front of the office).

We apologize if this causes you an inconvenience. We are trying to accomodate as many as possible (including the coaches!) If you won't be able to make it Friday morning, please let us know.

Register now for the Fun Run (Nov 22)

The Girls on The Run 5k Fun Run registration has begun! Click here to register for the fun run if you plan to run with your daughter. We'd love to have each girl have an older (adult) buddy to run with. So sign up soon!

Registration will close November 12 or when the maximum registrations has been reached. Each person who registers for the 5k prior to 5pm Friday, October 31 will be guaranteed a T-shirt.

There is no need to register your daughter; her registration is included in her GOTR registration fee.

There will not be any registration the morning of the race. This is a change from previous fun runs!

Parental Progress

Hi parents. How's the training coming along for the GOTR 5k Fun Run? You're finished with your first week of training. Congratulations on your first 7 days! Let us know how your training is going and if you have any questions about the training plan or about running in general.

Remember, we still have our poll about Halloween vs. GOTR Friday afternoon. Let us know your preference on what adjustments we should make if any!

This Tuesday morning promises to be a chilly one. Make sure you daughters dress in layers that they can remove as they warm up. If you're not doing anything, come join us for a few laps around the ball field!

How do you spell GIRLS?

Give me a G!
Give her your time and attention regularly.

Give me an I!
Inspire your daughter’s interests and talents to strong toward self –esteem.

Give me an R!
Recognize good behaviors and praise your daughter

Give me an L!
Love but limit. Set expectations and clear boundaries

Give me an S!
Stress is a big deal. Stay in tune with what’s going on in your daughter’s life.

Tues, Oct 14: Drugs Hurt Your Chances

Wow! Are we fortunate or what! We received yet another welcome gift -- an unseasonably warm day, perfect for running. First, we reviewed last weeks’ lesson on healthy emotions and then Coach Bill introduced today’s topic: Drugs and how Drugs hurt your chances. Coach Bill asked the girls what behaviors could hurt their chances for a having a great life. After a few interesting answers, we arrived at drugs, specifically, alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes.

Coach Bill talked about the dangers of alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes. He pointed out that consuming too much alcohol leads to poor decision-making (drinking while driving) and serious health problems, marijuana is illegal and bad for your health (and could lead to taking other more dangerous drugs), and that cigarettes contain nicotine which leads to addiction and diseases, such as lung cancer. The girls also provided reasons why kids would take drugs; to fit in, to be cool, because other kids are doing it. Many of the girls concluded that you would have to be stupid to take drugs.

We had some great role-playing by Coach Bill and Coach Connie to demonstrate the type of situation where girls could be invited to take drugs. Coach Bill described the scene; he was a good-looking popular boy at school and Coach Connie was a shy girl, unsure of herself [...okay we did say that it was role-playing.] They were both at a party. The popular boy has a beer in his hands and begins paying a lot of attention to the shy girl. He invites her to see a movie with him. The shy girl responds to his invitation by saying that she would have ask her mom.(good for her!) He then offers her a beer and tries very hard to convince her to drink it. The shy girl, responds that she is not interested and after additional attempts by the popular boy, the shy girl responds with a firm and loud, NO, I DON'T DRINK. That got the girls laughing but they got the point that it is important to stand up for yourself, with a firm, NO to drugs.

Coach Tanya then had the girls stand in the middle as she called out different statements. The girls had to decide the answer (alcohol, drugs or cigarettes) and run to that sign. Some statements had more than one answer....which meant the girls had to run to more than one sign. There was a lot running, seeing how other girls answered the question and some girls who made up their own minds, no matter where the other girls went (You go, Miss Independent Mercedes!) We learned that there are risks to your health and safety with drugs and that there are harmful consequences when taking drugs.

Coach Tanya then challenged the girls with some dynamic stretching, as Kylin said, “stretching while moving “. And move we did…the girls did walking lunges, skipped, and shuffled while yelling out positive phrases like, “ I don’t do drugs”, “I respect myself and others”. Before long they were huffing and puffing, ready to move to the workout for the day.

We had so much fun that we ran short on time. For the workout, Coach Connie had the girls read scenarios from the “Drug Cards” and run the laps indicated on the cards. Each girl needed to collect 4 lap counters. After a cool down stretch and some final comments about drugs, the girls turned in their lap counters for a snack. If it’s Tuesday, it must mean it’s Coach Tanya’s turn to bring the snacks. Todays’ snack, drumroll please…………APPLES! Crisp, juicy, delicious apples. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

A big GOTR cheer [PASTA!!!] for Brianna and Martina’s mom for joining us today. We love it when the parents join us, it’s fun, just ask them. Come on out when you can, the more the merrier and the girls get a kick out of seeing their parents SWEAT!

We missed Shannon and Samantha today. We look forward to seeing everyone next Tuesday, Remember, no school on Friday (yeah) which means no GOTR (booo!)

Parents for more information on Drugs and talking to your kids about drugs check out the following websites: Parents are the ANTI-DRUG

http://www.theantidrug.com/
www.kidshealth.org/kid/grow/drugs_alcohol
http://www.health.org/

Fri, Oct 10: Emotions are healthy

It's ok to cry.
It's ok to shout.
It's not what you do.
It's how you get it out!

Our lesson Friday concentrated on emotions. Coach Jen led our girls through a healthy discussion about expressing emotions. Parents, you might think this was a heavy topic for our young ladies, but they really surprised us with their grown up attitudes in dealing with their emotions. Of course, we had plenty of laughter and joking around during the discussion! It wouldn't be GIRLS ON THE RUN without laughing, now would it?

Coach Jen helped us put our acting skills to the test while we demonstrated (silently) an emotion and let the others guess what it was. Boy was that hard. What? You don't think so? Well, you try to get someone to guess LONELINESS or EXCITED. See what we mean?

You'll see in our pictures that the girls were writing during this lesson. Part of our expression lesson was to have them answer questions about how they dealt with their emotions. [You may want to ask them what they do when they need to express themselves!] With a little warm up running, the girls hustled to one end of the playground to hear a question from Coach Jen and Coach Tanya and then quickly wrote an answer at the other end of the playground. Seems the answers started getting longer and longer.... could be that they weren't running when they were writing, now could it?

We also played BINGO! ... yeah, BINGO! As the girls ran a lap, Coach Connie pulled out a BINGO emotion the girls then mark on their BINGO card. With this game, four in row was a winner....and Carolyn was the first to get BINGO!

During our cool down we enjoy some cookies and did our group cheer. "Girls on the run is so much fun. Girls on the run is number one.....PASTA!"

Hope you have a PASTA day!

PS - Let us know how the 5k Beginner training is going. Marty's mom joined us in the running on Friday. Will you be the next to come out for a few laps?

Want to run with your daughter on Nov 22?

We are happy to provide you with a 5k Beginners Training Plan so you can enjoy the Girls on the Run 5k fun run on Saturday November 22 with your daughter! The plan was developed by our very own GOTR Executive Director, Eve Mills. In addition, to be a mom and a wife, Eve is also a successful distance runner and experienced certified running coach.

You'll find the training plan listed on the right hand column. Even though you may not be a runner, we hope this plan helps you move forward and gives you the boost you need to make healthy decisions for you and your family. Should you have any questions about the plan, feel free to contact one of us or Eve!

1. This plan is uniquely designed for non-runners. It incorporates a combination of running and walking without an emphasis on speed. Slowly building a distance base also helps prevent injuries.
   


2. It involves physical exertion and may not be appropriate for you, depending on your health, physical condition and other factors.
   


3. All running and walking should be done at a conversational (no loss of breath) pace.
   


4. You will need to run with a watch, and a well-fitting pair of running shoes. Be sure to warm up with some active stretching before each workout.
   


5. According to the plan, running/walking takes place twice a week with at least one “off” day in between. The weekend “long” run is designed to increase aerobic capacity, and the optional hill work is designed to increase strength.

[Who's that in the picture? ....Well, Coach Connie of course...showing you that running can be fun!]

Fri, Oct 3: Changes for the Good

What a great fall afternoon we had for GOTR. All of our twelve lovely girls attended our lesson where we concentrated on making changes. We enjoyed a spirited conversation,; the girls offered lots of examples of behaviors that weren't so good...things that could be changed and improved. Are you interested in what they listed? Well, here are few:

• I don't try my hardest on my homework
• I don't clean my room
• I am mean to my sister (or my brother)
• I have a bad attitude sometimes
• I am forgetful
• I am impatient with others
• I don't like waiting
• I talk too much (in the hall, in class, at home)
• I watch too much TV
• I ignore my dog
• I don't go to sleep on time and/or I don't get up on time
• I don't clean up after myself

How did we remember all of these examples? The girls recorded their negative behaviors on index cards. As we ran our laps they tossed them, one by one, into the "Munch Monster," a specially made box with the ugliest face. (After the "Munch Monster" ate up all the bad habits, we retrieved them to share them with you!)

We talked quite a bit about how to make changes in their lives and emphasized small, incremental adjustments. The girls began to brainstorm how they could adjust their behavior (listed above) to be more positive behaviors. In fact, they documented these ideas on a sheet a paper, which they should have brought home to you.

Our running was wonderful. Every girl seems to enjoy the challenge of each lap. We wished we had the camera to capture their expressions, but we unfortunately left it at home. :( We also talked about the incremental changes that our lap running brings. We reminded the girls that they started running just a few laps and were now up to completing 6 laps. We explaned that these incremental changes were helping them to prepare for the Nov 22 GOTR 5k race.

Speaking of races, parents, later in October is the Darcars Young Run 2008. This is a great "warm up" event where your daughters can run a mile in a race atmoshere. And if you are up to it, Darcars will allow you to run with your daughter! Fun runs are great way for the girls to get some running confidence; everyone is rewarded with some type of finisher's medal or ribbon. Often, there are fun runs (of one mile or less) integrated into larger community 5k and 10k races.

Next Tues: We had planned to cover healthy habits and nutrition at our next session; but we think we should instead do our lesson that addresses being a good listener. Our group of girls is full of energy, and sometimes that energy (talking) causes disruption during our discussion time. We are postive that once we help the girls understand the importance of listening we'll have even more effective disucssions in the future!

One last note....Don't forget to send your daughter with a water bottle. As our running distance and time increase, it will be even more important to have plenty of water on hand.

Shoes, Shoes, and More Shoes

Boy, oh Boy! Do we coaches love shoes! OK, Coach Bill likes shoes, but we lady coaches LOVE shoes! We love heals, we love flats...and we love running shoes! Why do we bring this up? Because having the right pair of supportive running shoes is important for Girls on the Run!

We've noticed that some of our girls are wearing shoes that are fashioned to look like athletic shoes, but are not really the best for running. You want to make sure your daughter is wearing a shoe that will support her and help her to avoid any injuries. It's not necessary to invest a lot of money into the shoes. Most local sporting good stores (like Dick's and Sports Authority) will provide an ample shoe selection that are both stylish enough for your daughter and inexpensive enough for your wallet.

When shopping for shoes, try to hit the stores at the end of the day when your daughter's feet have expanded the most. You'll want to measure both feet and allow for a half-inch between the end of the foot. Go with the larger foot for the size.

Also, make sure you have her try the shoes on with the socks that will be worn most often with the shoes. Look at the heal grip and ensure it doesn't slip as she walks or runs in the shoes. (Yeah, it's OK to jog through the store isle to see if the shoe fits right! This is one time that running in the store is allowed!)

Please don't be tempted to buy those really cool looking shoes with an elevated heel or sole. They may make Hannah Montana look great in jeans, but these elevated tennies are dangerous for sporting activities.

Just like with any other shoes, you'll want your daughter to break in the new running shoes. Break them in gradually by wearing them a few hours each day. And be sure to keep an extra supply of laces around, both the right length and in good condition so that your daughter can always keep their shoes tied properly. If trying a snug knot is difficult, try the elastic curly laces. They turn the shoes into slip-ons and result in a snug fit.

If your daughter really, really, really enjoys running, you may want to look into having her foot evaluated by someone at a local running shoe speciality store, such as Fleet Feet in the Kentlands. The biomechanics of a foot are different for everyone; so finding the right shoe to meet your daughter's structural needs is very important -- especially if she will be running more than just Girls on the Run.

If buying a pair of shoes is challenging for you (especially now with the price of gas and the overall inflation of everyday items!), let us know. One of the GOTR corporate sponsor is New Balance, and they have generously provided new pairs of shoes for our GOTR participants who may need some assistance!