Duval County Public Schools
(DCPS) students across the district are tackling the serious issue of childhood obesity with First Coast News anchor Jeannie Blaylock through her ‘Fight the Couch’ program.
It has been reported that one in three children on the First Coast are overweight or obese, and Fight the Couch is an initiative to get kids moving. Students compete as a team, along with their teacher, to get the most activity minutes. The four classes in Northeast Florida with the most minutes win prizes, including tickets to Busch Gardens Tampa, a free day at Adventure Landing, tennis shoes for an entire class from 1st Place Sports, and $20 gift cards to Dick's Sporting Goods.
Anything off the couch, at school or at home, counts as activity minutes, including playing sports, walking the dog or walking with classmates outside.
Hyde Grove Elementary kicked off their participation in Fight the Couch with a Pep Rally. Students gathered together in the auditorium and received 30 activity minutes for dancing to songs such as the
Hokie Pokie and the Electric Slide.
On the stage of the auditorium, fifth-grade teacher Deidre Nelson had arranged an elaborate set to show students what not to do. Her husband, Mr. Nelson, sat on the couch watching t.v., surrounded by every type of junk food imaginable.
At John E. Ford K-8, fourth- and fifth-grade students, along with their reading buddies from a Pre-K/kindergarten class, launched Fight the Couch with special guests from Busch Gardens Tampa.
These representatives, along with a toucan, sloth, porcupine and iguana, visited students to talk about animals and conservation, as well as the importance of physical activity for both humans and animals.
New Berlin Elementary students are also working to Fight the Couch. The Kindergarten through fourth-grade students attended a kick-off assembly and were urged by school mascot "Champ the Bear" and second-grade teachers Lisa Blume and Megan Nooney to get off the couch. On May 11, second-grade students will log one "power hour" of exercise together during school.
Duval County Public Schools currently has 94 classes at 42 schools registered for the program.
Fight the Couch runs April 6 - May 22, and interested teachers can still register their class by visiting the First Coast News Web site. Student activity minutes will be tracked each week on the news station’s special tracking Web site, and winners will be announced at the end of May.
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