{"id":2458,"date":"2015-12-18T16:52:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T21:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/?p=2458"},"modified":"2026-06-12T14:28:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:28:45","slug":"la-quinta-middle-school-gets-active","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/la-quinta-middle-school-gets-active\/","title":{"rendered":"La Quinta Middle School Gets Active!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/letsmoveschools.org\/\" class=\"broken_link\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2462\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/health-fair-61.jpg\" alt=\"Let's Move! Active Schools\" width=\"1023\" height=\"673\" \/><\/em><\/a>It&#8217;s so great to see schools encouraging physical education and teaching students the importance of getting active.\u00a0We love to share amazing success stories of schools raising the bar for physical education. Laura Spradlin, a teacher at La Quinta Middle School in La Quinta, California, was happy to share her story and encourage others to join the movement!<\/p>\n<p>La Quinta Middle School keeps kids active with a school wide focus on health and fitness.\u00a0Principal Janet Seto says, \u201cLa Quinta Middle School\u2019s Fitness School of Champions has transformed our school\u2019s culture. The wellness\/fitness theme permeates the entire school program, from curriculum in the classroom to activities throughout the school day. It includes nutrition awareness, the need for physical movement, and incorporates the \u201cfun\u201d component. All students and staff participate in healthy choices, and it is a known fact that if you are well, all things in life are better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2465 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/race-21.png\" alt=\"physical activity in schools\" width=\"764\" height=\"426\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For the past two years, La Quinta Middle School has been a <em>Let\u2019s Move!<\/em> Active School award winner and participant. While they are busy every day with organized sports and activities, their signature event consists of four school-wide 2K runs. The P.E. department prepares the students weekly with practice runs, endurance training, and lessons on proper running techniques. Then once a quarter throughout the year, the school hosts a special bell schedule which includes a dismissal for all students and staff to \u201ctake their mark.\u201d When Principal Seto gives the signal, exuberant 6th graders lead the way, followed by coordinated staggered starts with the 7th graders and then 8th grades.<\/p>\n<p>The races include a \u201cRace to the Start,\u201d \u201cTurkey Trot,\u201d \u201cRun for Your Heart,\u201d and \u201cColor Run Finish.\u201d Top finishers for each race receive medals, while all students celebrate their participation with a wellness lunch time activities event at the conclusion of each race. For the LQMS students, the payoff is tremendous. They know they are doing something good for their bodies and overall well being.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-2467 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/health-fair-e14504712842341.jpg\" alt=\"Let's Move! Active Schools program\" width=\"1383\" height=\"805\" \/><\/p>\n<p>La Quinta Middle School also encourages\u00a0physical activity with their <a href=\"https:\/\/fuelup.org\/sunset\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fuel Up to Play 60<\/a>\u00a0team. Karissa Gonzales from the school newsletter shares a bit about this team:<\/p>\n<p>The LQMS Fuel Up to Play 60 team have been busy this year running tournaments during lunch, writing health and fitness articles for the newsletter, and planting and maintaining a school garden. They also helped with many of the activities at the health and fitness fair this past month. Currently, the Fuel Up to Play 60 team is working on a Super bowl game between the top two lunch tournament teams, and then will be running lunch time soccer intramurals. As usual, we are always busy during lunch selling healthy smoothies and checking out athletic equipment so that all the Bull-dogs can stay active. Keep playing&#8230;60 minutes a day! The Fuel Up to Play 60 team organizes and runs the lunch time intramural tournaments. Our goal is to keep kids active. We do all kinds of sports like football, wiffle ball, basketball, and soccer.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2468\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Fuel-Up-To-Play-60-LQMS1.jpg\" alt=\"schools get active\" width=\"1278\" height=\"847\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Congratulations La Quinta Middle School students and staff!<\/p>\n<p><strong>For more Active Schools success stories, visit <a href=\"\/blog\/tag\/lets-move-active-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.ssww.com\/blog\/tag\/lets-move-active-schools<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>About Active Schools:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.activeschoolsus.org\/\" class=\"broken_link\">Active Schools<\/a> is a sub-initiative of Michelle Obama&#8217;s <em>Let&#8217;s Move!<\/em>\u00a0campaign. They announced the 2015 National Award recipients which included 525 U.S. schools, recognized for their efforts of increasing physical activity for their students and creating an Active School environment. They are truly School Champions, making a difference in the world of physical education.\u00a0S&amp;S Worldwide joined <em>Let&#8217;s Move!<\/em> Active Schools to support their goal that Active Kids Do Better.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.activeschoolsus.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"broken_link\">Want your school to become an Active School? Join the movement.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Author:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2485 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Laura-with-students-e14504748654761.jpg\" alt=\"La Quinta Middle School \" width=\"262\" height=\"201\" \/>Laura Spradlin is a 6<sup>th<\/sup> grade English Language Arts and Journalism teacher at La Quinta Middle School in La Quinta, California.\u00a0Laura Spradlin has been a teacher for 31 years, 23 at the high school level and a middle school teacher at La Quinta Middle School for the past eight years. She has always been an advocate for athletics, including 20 years of coaching sports and most recently serving as her school&#8217;s Wellness Director and Sports Coordinator. Ms. Spradlin is proud of the recognition her school has earned including California Department of Education Healthy Kids School, Fuel Up to Play 60 Touchdown School, Alliance for a Healthier Generation Bronze Award School, and Let&#8217;s Move Active School Award.\u00a0Principal Seto\u00a0shared,\u00a0\u201cMs. Spradlin continually goes out of her way to promote the school\u2019s wellness\/fitness\/nutrition program.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s so great to see schools encouraging physical education and teaching students the importance of getting active.\u00a0We love to share amazing success stories of schools raising the bar for physical education. Laura Spradlin, a teacher at La Quinta Middle School &hellip; <a class=\"read-more-btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/la-quinta-middle-school-gets-active\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[411,322,413,410,412,405,20],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>La Quinta Middle School Gets Active! - S&amp;S Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/la-quinta-middle-school-gets-active\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"La Quinta Middle School Gets Active! - S&amp;S Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s so great to see schools encouraging physical education and teaching students the importance of getting active.\u00a0We love to share amazing success stories of schools raising the bar for physical education. 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