All Children Exercise Simultaneously (ACES)
10 a.m. Local Time

At 10 a.m. (your time), your students will join millions of children, teachers and parents around the world in walking, jogging, biking, dancing, doing aerobics, jumping rope or a combination of all of the above. Each school organizes its own participation activity which usually lasts between 15-45 minutes. It is EASY. Here are some east steps to organize your ACES (www.projectACES.com) event.

• Ask the principal to allow the entire school to come to the playground, tennis courts or the gym during the time scheduled for the ACES event.
  
  
• Invite local politicians, celebrities and athletes to your event. Ask one of them to make a proclamation related to National Physical Education and Sport Week. Click here for a sample proclamation.
  
  
• Call the local newspaper and television stations to come and take pictures and interview some of the participants.
  
  
• Energize the students by displaying an attractive bulletin board announcing your ACES event. Tell the students they will be exercising with millions of other children around the world.
  
  
• Enthusiastically discuss the upcoming ACES event with your classes.
  
  
• Invite parents to come and exercise with their children or to encourage their children during the event.
  
  
• Select an appropriate, fun activity. Remember, it is not a competitive situation, but a time to get everyone involved.
  
  
• Don’t forget to have a backup plan in case of inclement weather.

Put on your thinking hat and get some heart pumping activities planned for your ACES event. Here are some ideas from teachers and the state AHPERDs around the country:

• The entire K-8 school population heads outdoors to complete a .4 mile walk around our town green (Lisa Damren, NH)
  
  
• Indoors we have played music on the morning announcements while the kids performed a movement/rhythm/chair aerobic activity of choice they had learned previously in physical education class (Cindy Lins, MD)
  
  
• We also had a fifth grade class make a video of classroom aerobic and flexibility exercises and broadcast it through the school’s television system. (Cindy Lins, MD)
  
  
• Over 1200 fifth graders from central Indiana participate in a field day at a local track stadium from 9 am to noon. (Audrey Satterbloom, IN)
  
  
• For the first 20 minutes of physical education class we have about 150 students doing a Tae Bo workout, using the big screen projector and blow it up about 10 x 12 feet on the wall so all can see. It’s good fun! (Joe Carchedi, WA)
  
  
• We do a school-wide morning announcement and work out with our older kids as a “trained” exercise leader in each classroom (Cathy Hill, MA)
  
  
• One day during May we do a Community Games Day where we bring together five of our elementary schools. It was so successful that our community people asked us to repeat it again this year. (Susie Wiebers, CO)
  
  
• The Pennsylvania State AHPERD distributes over 2,000 ACES Day brochures to schools around the state encouraging everyone to participate in an activity that day. (Linda Huber, PA)
  
  
• To promote National Physical Education and Sport Week, Dr. Charles Morgan of the University of Hawaii, Don Weisman of the American Heart Association, and I talk on a local television show that is simulcast on the radio. (Shelley Fey, Hawaii)
  
  
• Kentucky AHPERD works closely with the American Heart Association and visits legislators to outline the need for more physical activity and better nutrition in Kentucky Schools. (Lonnie Davis, KY)
  
  
• When the bell rings every morning at Independence Elementary School students, staff and community start the day with movement, dancing, team building activities, signing, stretching, brain gym, aerobics and singing, followed by morning announcements and the Pledge of Allegiance. We end with a daily affirmation (I’m ready to learn!) that gets everyone excited and connected for learning. TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) lasts about 15-18 minutes. (Meg Greiner, OR)