IWALK - International Walk to School Month

October is International Walk to School Month!

Officially, IWALK to School Week is the first full week of October and IWALK to School Day is the first Wednesday of October but you can choose any day or week in October to celebrate!

October 2 - October 6, 2023  is International Walk to School Week 
Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023 is International Walk to School Day
Or choose any day/week in October to celebrate!

IWALK gives children, parents, teachers, and community leaders an opportunity to get outside and discover their neighbourhoods or schoolgrounds. Getting children and youth outside to be physically active plays a key role in keeping kids healthy and focused– IWALK is a wonderful way to make this happen with your class.

Getting involved in IWALK

All schools/groups who register and complete the Feedback Form at the end of October will also qualify to win some great prizes!  If you’d like to increase your chance to win a prize, share your IWALK photos with us and your school/group will be entered twice!

Please register your school rather than your class so that we can send stickers for all students at one school in a single package. 

This year your school/group could win one of the following prizes:

a one-year school digital subscription to Green Teacher and a copy of Teaching Kids About Climate Change, donated by Green Teacher
six $50 off certificates, donated by Aerobics First
six $50 bike tune-up gift certificates from Halifax Cycles
a commuting backpack, donated by Decathalon
30 pedometers for your class, donated by Ecology Action Centre

It’s not just for walking and rolling students, it's for bussing students too!

Involve your bussing population at lunchtime for 20 minutes by:

Arranging a walk and roll around the school (bicycles, skateboards and roller blades welcome if permitted) 
Have a group walk in the local community 
Enjoy a hike on a nearby trail 
Walk around the gymnasium

Resources

Here are a few inspiring ideas from past events. Our How to Organize a Walk to School Event Guide or Guide des organisateurs has all sorts of suggestions to help you organize your event, so check it out! 

Promotional Pieces

This document has write ups, including a Tweet and Facebook postings, for you to use to help promote the event in your area.  

A copy of the IWALK logo can be found here with a white background or here with a transparent background.

IWALK Poster

The IWALK poster is available to download in English and in French. 

IWALK Health and Safety Protocol Recommendations

Your RCE likely has set protocol to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 which we ask all participating schools to respect and follow.  This document outlines the EAC’s recommendations for planning a safe walk given the challenges of COVID-19.

IWALK Class Active Transportation (AT) Participation Challenge

Here is a quick hands-up survey form to download that you can use to run a participation challenge at school among all classes in order to encourage more people to be active on the way to school during a whole week of your choice (Monday to Friday) in October.  Teachers ask how students travelled to & from school first thing in the morning each day and only write in the number of students who raised their hand for each of the columns (walked, walked part-way, biked, etc.) and the total number of students in class that day.  The estimated time to complete the survey is 5-10 min per day, depending on your Grade level.

An IWALK volunteer in the school can use these class surveys to find out the Total AT participation for each class that week and include the results in the school morning announcements or monthly newsletters.  Upper elementary teachers can use these surveys to integrate this AT Challenge into their math curriculum and have students calculate their daily averages too.