<em>Imagine a school filled with physically active students engaged in fun standards-based curricular activities. Children of all abilities have a sense of belonging and accomplishment. Administrators champion health school environments. Parents and educators join the children in embracing physically active lifestyles. You can help create that school.

Active Transportation Alliance offers several programs targeted at elementary schools (grades 3-6). Our FREE health initiatives for schools include the curricular Walk Across Illinois School Fitness Program, non-curricular Mileage Challenge, and the Walk the Walk Challenge for teachers. We provide curricula, certified professional development trainings, incentives and a lot more.

If you know of a school that is interested in creating a healthy environment for students to Get Active & Get Going, contact Dan Persky at (312) 427-3325 Ext. 229 or .

School Fitness Program
Our Approach
The Walk Across Illinois School Fitness Program offers elementary schools a low cost, interdisciplinary approach to increasing physical activity in school and at home.
Participating students are motivated to meet weekly physical activity goals (15 miles) through Walk Across Illinois’ unique, grade-specific virtual walks, which take students to new destinations across the state as they log their weekly miles. Over the 25-week program, students complete a personal 375-mile walk, during which they learn about Illinois history in PE and the Classroom. Students earn their miles through exercise activities in schools, and through personal extracurricular and daily activities.
By completing a 375-mile route in 25 weeks, students meet the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Disease Control’s suggested amount of daily physical activity, which is sixty minutes, or three miles, for children and teens.
In the Classroom
The Walk Across Illinois School Fitness Program includes an interdisciplinary, standards-based classroom curriculum, which engages students in in-depth weekly lessons about each location on their virtual walk. Lesson plans and supporting materials have been designed to provide teachers with the tools necessary to easily and successfully integrate Walk Across Illinois into the classroom without taking away from instructional time.
Each week students are taken to a new location, where they meet math standards ranging from data collection and analysis, to language arts standards in writing focused on communicating to various audiences. In addition to a specific content area focus, each lesson features new vocabulary. Many lessons include important bicycle and pedestrian safety information, as well as healthy eating information, based on the USDA’s Team Nutrition program. The classroom curriculum includes five benchmark assessments and one summative assessment to gauge student progress across the 25-week program.
Classroom teachers encourage students to maintain a physically active lifestyle at home, and to track their weekly progress on their Walk Across Illinois. Teachers use our simple online mileage-tracking program to report their weekly classroom miles.
In P.E. Class
A highlight of the Walk Across Illinois School Fitness Program is the grade-specific PE curricula, which have been designed to meet all Illinois Learning Standards in Physical Development and Health during the 25-week program. Each curricula features weekly lessons, which are designed to engage students in at least 45 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, in order to achieve their daily 60 minute or 3 mile goal. Students complete two to three miles of physical activity each week with the activities provided in the P.E. curriculum.
The PE program features inclusive, non-competitive activities, which help students build important sports-related skills, while learning about character building, bicycle and pedestrian safety, and healthy eating.
At Home
To achieve the goal of 60 minutes of physical activity every day, students complete at least 12 miles each week outside of P.E. class by participating in fun activities like walking to and from school, playing on a sports team, or going for a walk with family. The Walk Across Illinois School Fitness Program engages families in the process of getting fit and active by providing teachers with customizable family letters and Walk Across Illinois Destination Cards to send home, which feature program information and practical tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Students track their physical activity at home and work with their families to meet their daily physical activity goal.

Mileage Challenge
Our Approach
The Mileage Challenge offers a flexible approach to increasing active transportation to and from school by giving elementary and middle schools the ability to select from a variety of unique virtual routes and choose the one that meets the needs of their students. Each route has a special theme and includes unique locations. Routes are of varying lengths, giving schools the option of choosing a longer or shorter one depending on how long they wish to implement the Walk Across Illinois Mileage Challenge.
Students track the miles they walk or roll to and from school each day. Schools have the choice of using our Passport to Illinois to record student miles each day, or they may opt to have students record their own miles on a mile log sheet or in a notebook. School staff or students then log on to our user-friendly website at http://www.WalkAcrossIllinois.org to report and track miles, and learn about the route locations they reach as they travel across the Land of Lincoln.