About Walk Across Texas!
Walk Across Texas! is an 8-week program designed to help our youngest Texans establish the habit of regular physical activity using a fun and motivating team approach.
The goal of Walk Across Texas! is for youth to develop the habit of being active regularly.
Youth are registered on teams using a free Howdy Health account. Each team can have an unlimited number of participants and can be based on teacher, classroom, grade level, or school.
Youth can engage in a variety of physical activities that are converted into ‘miles walked’ and entered into the program website to track and monitor progress. Additional resources are available for free, which include teacher lesson plans that coordinate with Texas TEKS for kindergarten to 10th grade students. These quick activity breaks provide fun ways for students to be more physically active.
Program Components
- About 20 lessons per grade level. Subjects vary per grade level
- Access to the Howdy Health platform to track progress
- Printed maps are available to help visualize the ‘walk’ across Texas
- Other events or activities to make program specialized
To host a program that involves the lesson plans, schools will need:
- Many activities include paper, colored pencils, markers, crayons, or chalk. See this website that includes resources for every grade level by activity
Alignment with TEKS
A full summary of the TEKS by lesson is included in the lesson plans. Please refer to this website that includes resources for every grade level by activity as well as the TEKS alignment.
Additional Resources
Interested educators should connect with their county AgriLife Extension office for more information. Find their contact information here: https://counties.agrilife.org/
Find the full program website here: https://howdyhealth.tamu.edu/programs/walk-across-texas-youth/
Evidence supporting Walk Across Texas!:
- Students that participated in Walk Across Texas! walked more than double the amount of miles per week by the last week of the program compared to the first week.
- Children that were in Walk Across Texas! significantly increased the amount of time they were active with their parents.
