By

Leisa Prasser,   Meredith Nicholson Elementary School

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We had a major campaign push this school year to get more of our students to log on to the Fuel Up to Play 60 website and document their activities, accept and complete challenges, and become familiar with the site in general. We created a process, which although a little labor intensive for adults initially, is working quite well. Our students are second and third graders and many don't have access to computers at home, so we decided that we would make things easier for them to log on here at school. Here are the steps we took: 1) Adult advisors created a username and password for every student in our building. A roster with all of this information is kept by the advisors and also provided to each classroom teacher. 2) Permission forms for under 13 permission were sent home with every student. Students and parents were incentivized to complete and return the information by random drawings in December and January for those students who returned the form and those who logged onto and accepted/completed challenges on the website. This proved to work quite well! We had a great return rate. 3) All forms were faxed to the Fuel Up to Play 60 national ambassador email, so that students would be connected to our team and our school. The national team was excellent at providing the support and help we needed to get this accomplished. 4) Our Student Ambassadors - two appointed from each class - were shown how to log on to the website, navigate it, accept and complete challenges, and familiarize themselves with it during two of our monthly meetings. These Student Ambassadors serve as our cheerleaders and examples for the program. 5) ALL students were allowed time during PE at a laptop station to log on to the website. 6) Prizes were drawn randomly for those who returned their permission slips and for  those who logged onto the website and documented their points. 7) As an additional bonus, one of our students has already achieved enough points to be recognized nationally as an ambassador for FUTP 60 and she received a certificate of recognition from the national level and a pack to promote the program. Another of our students who logged her challenges in December was drawn from a national pool and received a prize pack from both national Fuel Up to Play 60 and our state Dairy Council. 8) Now as part of the enrollment process, whenever a new student arrives or transfers to our school, the school nurse not only checks immunizations and health history, but also creates a Fuel Up to Play 60 user name and password and sends a letter and permission slip home to parents.

How do you plan to make this Play last during the school year and beyond?

By making this a part of the enrollment process and through the oversight of the school nurse who is also a Program Advisor, logging into the website is made a priority and we can continue the steps we took this year for the coming school years.

What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

Our biggest challenge is that we are a second and third grader school; many students don't have computer access at home. We created a username/password for every student and kept a roster. The parent permission form allows students to log on, accept challenges and be tied to our school. A cover letter and prizes enabled a higher return rate. As a rotation during their PE time, all students are at least given opportunities to become familiar with the website.