Register your school for Walktober 2019

Walktober, previously known as International Walk to School Month, is an annual event for the month of October where schools across Manitoba celebrate walking to school as often as possible. Walktober celebrations are unique to each school, and you can participate for a day, a week, or the entire month! Your school and/or individual classrooms can host activities to encourage students to walk and how their school community can be more walkable. We have ready-made resources and event ideas to make it easy for coordinators to find something that suits their school.

REGISTER here!

Activities you can host at your school

• Host a school walk during physical education classes, at lunchtime, or after school
• KidMode design contest to talk about urban design and traffic calming
• Create a “Walk a Block” Zone
• Participate in Kids Play Here, a fun and educational outdoor event about active transportation and road safety. RSVP here! 

Learn more

Other ideas for your school’s Walktober

• Carry signs that display pedestrian safety messages.
• Have a nutritious breakfast before or after the walk.
• Incorporate a walking theme into a physical education class.
• Invite the school mascot or wear school colors while walking.
• Use the Walkability Checklist or make a list of problems spotted along the walk.
• Take disposable cameras on the route and document possible pedestrian hazards.
• Carry colorful balloons during the walk.
• Play walking songs.
• Ask the mayor to sign an Official Proclamation for Walktober.
• Invite local celebrities to participate.
• Have kids design promotional materials for the event.
• Hold a safety coloring contest.
• Have community leaders greet and congratulate kids as they arrive at school.
• Make and hang posters promoting the event at school, along the walking route and throughout the community.
• Provide parents with maps of safe routes to school.
• Use the school PA’s system to announce pedestrian and bike safety tips and make reminders about the event.
• Hold a pedestrian safety assembly or “question and answer” session for the kids along with the walk.
• Use the concept of a walking school bus
• For schools that are too far or dangerous for walking, use the event to kick-off a year-round walking-at-recess program.
• Have older elementary students use the walkability checklist and present the results to the city council.
• Use the day to showcase safety changes that have already been made to build support for future improvements.
• Work with your local health department to promote physical activity.
• So that children who live further away can participate and to reduce traffic congestion at school, designate an area for parents to Park and Walk.
• Student walkers and cyclists collect “stamps” for “passports” which are redeemed for pencils, pencil cases and other small gifts.
• Provide an area where children can store wet walking shoes and change into dry ones.
• Create a student “Walk to School Committee” responsible for calculating, posting and announcing statistics about the number of walkers, miles walked or any other related goals.
• Create a “5-minute Walking Zone” around the school. Assign students the task of measuring and promoting it.
• Invite parents and grandparents for refreshments at the school on the first Walking Wednesday of every month.
• Parents or students write songs and have them sung by the school choir.
• Choose a motto that captures the reason for walking or biking to school, like “spare the air, save a bear.” Give out gummy bears as treats in keeping with the theme.
• Set a unique school- or class-wide mileage goal like climbing Mount Everest, walking the Nile or walking the Great Wall of China. Daily reports calculated by students chart the progress. For a week-long event, use Friday to present a certificate at a school assembly to recognize the accomplishment. Study the target destination and plan a party based on the local culture for when the group “arrives.”
• Plan a school-wide event to recognize the day, such as a picnic, an assembly, an awards ceremony or a pizza party for the class with the most walkers.
• Designate the first Wednesday of the month, or every Wednesday, as Walk to School Wednesday.
• Reward the class that has the greatest percentage of students walking to school at least three days a week, and the one that collectively walks the greatest distance. Also reward the class that increases their percentage of walkers the most over the month, semester, or year.
• Have students list the top ten ways they got parents to walk with them, top ten funny things they saw while walking, top ten reasons to walk, top ten things that must be improved, top ten walking songs or poems. Have monthly contests or votes to pick the best ten school-wide.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Encourage walking and bicycling by incorporating related topics into the classroom.

Art, Computer Class
Create posters promoting Walk to School Day and safe driving and walking messages.

Geography
Explore urban geography with the KidMode contest to re-design Winnipeg streets. Email denae@greenactioncentre.ca for details.

Health
Use pedometers to measure steps, or simply measure walking time accumulated by students; study health benefits of physical activity.

Physical Education
Do some physical conditioning. Learn walking warm-ups and stretches and do some progressively longer walks in class to prepare for Walk to School Day.

Mathematics
Keep logs of walking time or steps; calculate speeds and distances, individual and group averages, trends and statistical analyses (do boys or girls walk more?)

Physics
Study the biomechanics of walking. For example, measure stride lengths-do they vary with height, weight, age, leg length? How does walking speed depend on you step speed and stride length?

Biology
Look for specific plant or animal species, or inventory indigenous species along walking routes. Catalogue seasonal changes in the flora and fauna.

English
Write press releases and public service announcements to promote Walk to School Day. Write essays or keep a diary about your experiences walking.

History
Study historical locations in your community by walking to them.

Social Sciences
Photograph important things about your community observed while walking to school. Anything you’d like to change? What can you do about it?