Sanjay and April are kids just like you. Although they are cartoons. I guess they're not exactly
just like you now are they? Maybe I'll give them jetpacks. Why not?
You know what? Maybe jetpacks are a bad idea. My bad.
Now, we really want Sanjay and April to be happy kids. For that to happen we want them
to have fun being active and to learn to make healthy choices. But to do this, there are
skills they have to learn first.
Yeah! Skills! Watch this. Sanjay, let's have you run a race. We'll draw a track here,
and give you a really tough opponent to run against. How about a cheetah? They're pretty
fast.
And let's put April on a baseball diamond. She can be playing against someone tough too.
How about a team of elephants who use their trunks to hit the ball?
Now, in order for Sanjay and April to get better at their activities, they have to learn
some basic skills first. Think about it. If Sanjay hasn't learned how to run properly,
he won't be able to run a race very well. And April won't really be ready to play baseball
until she learns to catch.
To be active, and to have fun playing lots of games and sports, there are a lot of basic
skills you should learn. Things like how to dodge, skip, jump, kick, overhand throw, catch
and run.
If you learn skills like these, you'll end up using them in sports and physical activities,
and you'll be confident playing them. This is called being physically literate.
If you become physically literate and learn these basic skills, then you'll be able to
try more activities, and activities are fun! If you can run, you can take part in soccer,
basketball or hiking. If you can throw you can play baseball, cricket or wheelchair bocce.
If you can balance you can do yoga, gymnastics or even shark riding.
OK. You got me. I made shark riding up. But imagine?
Now, not only do we want Sanjay and April to be active, we also want them to learn to
make healthy choices. There are skills you have to learn for that too! But instead of
running and catching, these are thinking and doing skills! Things like saying kind words,
listening to each other, and knowing what you're feeling. Learning these help you make
healthy decisions, like eating well, wearing your bike helmet and making smart life choices.
This is called health literacy.
If you learn the skills of health literacy, you might choose to do fun activities like
read a book, go outside and be active or draw instead of only playing video games. And you
may choose to eat more fruits and vegetables, instead of mostly candy.
I know, Mr Cheetah! But being healthy is just as important for Cheetahs as it is for kids!
So if Sanjay and April can learn health literacy and physical literacy, they'll really be on
the right track!
Then Sanjay and April will feel good about participating in those activities. And they'll
want to try more activities because they know they have the skills to be good at it! They'll
also have the skills to make choices for their health and wellbeing!
And, in the end, they'll be active, happier and healthier!
