I am giving my classes (grades 5-8) a homework assignment for the entire 2nd marking period. I am having students perform push-ups, curl-ups, and flexibility exercises. They perform exercises during commercial breaks. For example, the students perform pushups for an entire commercial break of a television show. When the show returns, students stretch their lower bodies until the next commercial break. During the next break, students perform curl-ups for the entire commercial break.

I am asking students to do this 3-4 times per week. They record the results for 10 weeks and have their parents sign the chart before they return it to me. For students that do not watch television, I told them they could substitute the commercial breaks for 2-minute periods for the push ups and curl ups and a 5-minute period for the stretching.

If students are diligent about this, they should see an improvement in their spring fitness test scores.