Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi
Güçlü Çocuklar Projesi
Extensive Information on the Project Outcome
Why sports and movement?
We are all aware of the toll it takes to live the lifestyle offered up by modern societies. Our children have less opportunities for movement. City planning is one of the factors leading to this immobility. Play areas where children can freely be are becoming less and less. This in turn is causing a transformation in the leasure activities they take part in. Nowadays children prefer computer games, mobile phones and chatting over the internet to actually going out. Newer generations are growing hooked to the computer. This sedentary lifestyle brings many problems along with it. Obesity is in the forefront of these problems.
The Turkish "Childhood Obesity research Report" from 2016 states a raise in obesity among the agegroup. The children with obesity has unfortunately increased from 8.3% to 9.9% since 2013. This, indicates that 1 in 10 children are obese. The percentage of children classifed as "overweight" has also increased from 14.2% in 2013 to 14.6% in 2016, the year of the latest pubblication. 75% of children are within the "normal" weight range while 1.5% can be classified as underweight. The weight epidemic has proven to impact the childrens physical and mental health as well as their oscial learning skills in an adverse manner. No effective strategy to combat this epidmic has been established as of yet.
Movement is a natural instinct for children. Children move to test themselves, learn their bodies and to entertain themselves. An active lifestyle especially during early childhood is very important for the proper development of the child. Not only does the childrens active lifestyle behaviour influence their emotional-physical development but their social progress too. Mental development is also spurred along in early childhood thanks to movement and perception education. Internaional research has proven the link between sports and the positive impact it has on the childrens learning capabilities.
Children learn a lot through movement. This type of learning progress might be more difficult to track than "the new amount of English words learnt" or "mathematical formulas learnt" but this shouldn't void the importance of sports education completely. Why? Because children gain awareness of their bodies and its workings in physical education classes. The children compete with others and learn new movements, all which contributes to a healthier lifestyle. If you do not provide adequate space to the child, how can you expect it to learn to fall? In contrast the child will learn to tuck and fall, use their hands, and discover ways to fall without getting hurt. They will climb and gain self esteem through achieveing something they thought was previously impossible. Children play with their friends in p.e. classes, this provieds them with cooperation and sharing skills, the concept of team work and introduces them to the feeling of what really winning can be like. These are some of the traits we'd like to see our children develop. Sports and movement training are tow of the principal cornerstones of this kind of development. What is it that makes movement and sports so instrumental in development?
The undertaken research indicates joining activities that exercise the small and large muscle groups, helps children take significant stredes in their motor capabilities. Because, their bodies are the first tool used by children to explore and get to know their surroundings. Activities children do naturally such as walking, running, jumping, climbing, pushing, turning constitute in a way their personal portfolio of physical activities. Physical work is multi faceted; comfort, breathing, contracting, relaxing, being aware of thie movements, developing knowledge on usng both sides of the body, balance and awareness are all part of physical education. The experiences and lives of children of the preschool age show strong signs of influence on the rest of their lives.
Strong kids project
It is for these reasons that we created the Strong Kids Project under the "presentation of equal opportunities in sports (sports for all)" slogan. The project was financed under the European Union Erasmus + Program and the University of Çanakkale 18 Mart. the project that begun in january of 2017 is to conclude in June 2018. We worked in partnership with colleagues from Belgium, Germany, Latvia and Italy during the project.
Two pilot exercises were implemented in scope of the project. The first of these was done within the Çanakkale 18 Mart University ÇABA Multi Functional Early Childhood Education Centre (ÇABAÇAM) with a group of children with ages varying between 4-6. ÇABAÇAM is an innovative model implemented to enable access to early childhood education for socioeconomically disadvantaged families and their children in risk. ÇABAÇAM which was founded in 2008 with support from and in coordination with the university, local government and NGO's and the Çanakkale Kepez Municipality has provided access to education for 156 children and their families aged 4-6 as well as instructing 276 trainee teachers.
The second pilot applicaiton took place in "İstiklal ilkokulu", one of the oldest schools in Çanakkale with children aged between 6 to 8 years. We soucht to find the best application strategies for early childhood education by attempting different tools and methods. Both the pilot applications were undertaken with the participation of experts from our partnering countries, The directorate of national education of Çanakkale and of ÇABAÇAM, based within the Çanakkale 18 Mart University.
We attempted to diversify our prgrams by adding variedareas to it. We integrated tools such as sports and gymnastics, outdoor pedagogy, music, dance and social learning into the program. International experts assisted us by drawing from their own personal experiences and we attempted to apply these experiences into our local practice.
Classroom teachers applied the "5minutes of sports a day" activity to ther curriculum. The activity included games and exercises, relaxing, activating, motivation increasing and paierd up activites that supported socal learning. All the exercises were designed to require minimal tools, and use what was already available in class when possible. The activities were a series of exercises for which the children could take a break to complete. We sought to investigate how these short intervals would impact the concentration and learning abilities of the student group. More than 100 children aged 4-8 took part in the sports acivities throughout the pilot projects. We are very happy of the outcomes of this 8 week applicaiton.
The results of our project and the motor development amplitude tests undertook at ÇABAÇAM indicated the eight week program had resulted in improvement in the participants flexibility, hand-eye coordination, speed and flexibility. The children jumped higher and faster, threw balls better, were more flexible and were more coordinated when participating in group activities. All the children were more motivated and willing to participate in class, were more open to group tidying and helping eachother out, an overall pogres was noted.
The outcomes of the program undertaken at the İstiklal Primary school were transformed into a play put on by a group of pupils aged 6-8. The class programs and weekly activities were evaluated by a group of teachers and the strong kids project group. The evaluation concluded the project had a strong positive effect on the primary school learning environment. The participants were positively happy with the outcome of the classroom activities. The teachers indicated they were able to use the different methods to get the participants to relax, get them moving, etc.
Weekly sporting programs also yielded very sucessfull results. The children displayed high motivaton, developed better motor skills and were able to discuss skills contribuiting to social learning in class. Families, the school principal, the teachers, even more significantly the classroom teachers all supported the project very strongly. This helped the sucess of the project greatly.
References
Örnek:
https://www.yumpu.com/de/document/view/17114028/kampagne-kinderturnen-deutscher-turnerbund
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Sport and movement |
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Better condition and more power |
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Learn and follow rules |
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Release stress/ relax |
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Gain confidence/be proud what you learned /understand your body |
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Social interaction with others /cooperate, compete, learn to win and to loose |
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Be more focused and concentrated |
23 Nisan Etknliğinden Kareler 
23 Nisan Etknliğinden Kareler 
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