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Grade 2 students at Heloise Lorimer Elementary School have been rollerblading into the new year, thanks to a special physical education course offer at the east Airdrie school this winter.
With the help of Alien In-Line – an inline skating company based in Calgary – these young students are mastering new life skills that will help them become active adults.
“I'm a big active-for-life promotor. I think giving kids the necessary skills and competence when they're young makes a huge difference in being an active adult,” said Adam Pratt, the phys. ed. specialist at Heloise Lorimer school.
According to Pratt, when kids don’t have a chance to try activities like rollerblading or swimming, their fears about those activities as adults are often too set in stone to overcome. This is why it’s important to introduce new activities to students each year, he said.
“I think kids are so resilient and such quick learners that it’s [important] to get them to do these scary things in a safe scenario with other kids who are also in a similar boat,” Pratt said. “This is much easier than learning it by yourself, because 30 of your peers have never done it either.”
Pratt’s goal as a phys. ed specialist is to give kids the tools they need to pursue any activity they want, which means first developing the skills and the confidence to do so.
He noted that rollerblading is a great mid-winter activity that gets the kids moving around the gym – and it translates well to a few popular winter activities in Canada.
“If you can rollerblade, you're probably going to be much more confident at skating,” Pratt said.
Alien In-Line runs Canada’s leading school skating program, providing instruction to more than 100,000 students per year, according to their website. The company provides everything from safety equipment to certified instructors.
Roughly 100 students and five different classes at Heloise Lorimer school are participating in four rollerblading sessions this month.
“Slowly we develop that confidence in kids where even kids who have never put rollerblades on their feet, by the end are usually able to do the basics,” Pratt said. “Those who have done it before are pushed to learn new skills like turning or going backwards.”
The first day is spent learning how to put on safety gear, the importance of safety equipment, and how to fall safely.
“Kids fall all the time learning to do things like this. They don't seriously hurt themselves because they teach them to do it safely,” Pratt said.
By the end of the course, 99 per cent of the kids can stand and move slowly on their own, while some are learning turns, weaving through cones, jumping, or going backwards.
The course started on Jan. 12 and 13, and will finish on Jan. 19 and 20.
“I've seen every single kid with gear on and working away. So far so good – nobody is sitting out,” Pratt said.
Rollerblading is a yearly tradition for Grade 2 students that is part of a bigger learning structure where every grade at the school participates in a unique physical activity.
Grade 1 and 3 students go swimming, Grade 4 students typically go skiing or snowboarding, and Grade 5 students take off on mountain bikes down the trails.
