Walking the new track at Holly Springs Elementary STEM Academy serves a dual purpose: Students can now get in their steps and increase physical fitness while working on literacy skills at the same time.
Thanks to support from the Cherokee County Farm Bureau, the PE department, teachers and the media center staff, the Canton school recently unveiled a quarter-mile, gravel track that circles a grassy field. But it’s also lined with poster-sized pages of a book that invite walkers and runners to pause and pick up the story. That distinction gave the track its name: Story Walk.
On one side of each sign is the narrative. “So as you’re walking, you’re reading,” said Principal Ashley Polito. “Our media specialist knows the most-loved stories and picked one people will enjoy.”
The opposite side of each sign has an exercise suggestion. PE coaches came up with a list of ideas such as burpees, lunges and jumping jacks. The current signs feature 20 pages and 20 exercises. Plans call to have the stories changed out about once a month so the experience changes and so more people will be encouraged to use it.
Already, the Story Walk has seen a good bit of activity, said Polito. It’s been integrated into course curriculums for the 800 students in pre-K through fifth grade, and it’s well used by the after-school program. And Polito, who lives near the school, has also seen families walking the track after school hours and on weekends.
“All the pieces we tried to put together in a good lesson came together with the walk,” she said. “It’s literacy based and fun to do. I’ve seen teachers using it for lessons, even if it’s just reading the stories. It’s very cute that everyone uses it in different ways.”
The idea for the Story Walk grew from the school’s need for a new track, said Polito.
“The edges of the old one were beat up, and the wood was bowed and torn up. We didn’t want anyone to get hurt. So we asked the district for the money to replace the gravel and wood, and I was able to surprise the school with a new track at the beginning of the year, and then with the Story Walk in September.”
The Farm Bureau, a school partner, worked with teachers to create and donate the walk’s signs.
“They want to inspire kids to do more outside, and they loved the idea of using the outside area for something instructional,” said Polito. “I was happy that we could surprise the school with it.”
Information about Holly Springs Elementary is online at cherokeek12.net/hollyspringses.
SEND US YOUR STORIES. Each week we look at programs, projects and successful endeavors at area schools, from pre-K to grad school. To suggest a story, contact H.M. Cauley at hm_cauley@yahoo.com or 770-744-3042.
