School division attempts planking record
By Greg Bobinec on February 3, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDgbobinec@lethbridgeherald.com Lethbridge School Division attempted to unofficially break the world record for a simultaneous one-minute plank, Tuesday morning.Every month, Lethbridge School Division works with a theme of health and wellness to bring some activity into the lives of students and staff. This month, around 3,000 participants worked on their planking to participate in the simultaneous challenge.
“Every month in our school division we have a theme with health and wellness, as you know the pandemic has been hard for all of us, and this last month in January we have been working on planking,” says Morag Asquith, associate superintendent of Lethbridge School Division. “we are making an effort to crack those Christmas blah’s and break a world record, unofficially of course because we can’t all simultaneously do it together but at 11 a.m. today, Lethbridge School Division is encouraging everyone to plank for a minute, of course there is different levels of ability, but just getting kids moving, getting them outside, as well as with our staff, it is just great for our wellness.”
Promoting more physical activity has been a strong initiative for the school division, especially since the pandemic began, to help spread more wellness to its students.
“I think that we can’t do enough around getting active, getting outside and connecting with each other, especially during the pandemic, so really this is just one initiative to showcase how important wellness is in our division as well as the community,” says Asquith.
From kindergarten to Grade 12, students in every school spread out inside and outside their institutions to participate in the one-minute challenge. Teachers helping organize the event say it was a lot of fun to see the way the students took on the challenge.
“They have been very good, every day in gym class we will lay out and practice either the elbow plank or just with our hands, and a lot of them are at home and trying there as well, they come back to school and tell us how they were trying it last night, so that is really exciting,” says Ellen Probe, Grade 1 teacher at Probe Elementary School. “I have noticed some independence with them, a lot of them didn’t know how to plank at the start, and now they know how and the right technique, not that we all have it mastered, but they are trying and them cheering each other on is just great. Physical activity is really important, I know a lot of the kids’ sports after school have stopped and so we have tried to encourage to get out, enjoy nature and fresh air and move your body.”
Although it was an unofficial record breaking activity, students from across the city collaboratively came together, Tuesday morning, to test their strengths for an initiative for better health and wellness. Follow @GBobinecHerald on Twitter 4
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