BMS Girls on the Run Newsletter

We’re so excited that your girl has chosen to be part of Heart & Sole, a Girls on the Run program, for the next 10 weeks!

Heart & Sole is so much more than a running program. Through fun, activity-based lessons, girls build confidence, healthy habits, friendships, and a positive sense of self—all while incorporating running and walking.

And your girl is part of something BIG! 🌟 Our Girls on the Run council serves 13 counties across Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, with more than 900 girls participating this season!

We can’t wait to see our Heart & Sole girls move, grow, laugh, and shine together over the next 10 weeks! 💕👟✨

Your Heart & Sole coaches this season will be Dr. Couch, Mrs. Jelley, Ms. Nolan, and Mrs. Parker—and we are SO excited to spend the next 10 weeks with your girls! 👟✨

We want everyone to feel prepared and know what to expect, so here are a few helpful things to know before we get started!

Heart & Sole means moving, running, walking, and having fun! Please make sure your girl comes ready for physical activity each day.

• Comfortable running/walking shoes + socks
• Dress for the weather
• Warm days = shorts and a T-shirt ☀️
• Cooler days = layers 🍂
• No jeans, please!
• If the weather keeps us inside, we’ll still keep moving!

Please send a water bottle with your child each practice. Staying hydrated is especially important when we’re active!

💦 Bottled water will be available at our first practice.

🍎 A healthy snack will be provided at every lesson.

If your child needs medication that must be readily available, such as an EpiPen or inhaler, please send it with her.

If possible, we ask that you provide an additional one for our Heart & Sole first-aid kit, as we may not have access to the nurse’s office after school hours.

Every practice is an important part of the Heart & Sole journey! Each lesson builds on the one before it, and practices are where girls build friendships, connect with coaches, and grow as a team.

We want every girl to feel prepared and confident for our end-of-season 5K! For that reason, participants who miss more than four lessons may not be eligible to continue in the program.

Please make every effort to attend both lessons each week. 💗

Absences related to illness will be excused.

The BMS Heart and Sole coaches will send weekly e-newsletters throughout the season with helpful program information and important details about the GOTR 5K as they become available.

Have a question? Feel free to reach out to our head coach:

Mrs. Margo Parker
📞 513-732-9534
📧 parker_m@bataviaschools.org

The team established group expectations so that they can ensure everyone has an enjoyable, safe, and supportive season. For their first workout, they discussed what giving their full effort means to them, and they gave their full effort for ten minutes, whether that was running, walking, or a combination of the two. After the workout, the girls explored the Girl Wheel and its five parts, Body, Brain, Heart, Spirit, and Social, through a card game where they shared a little about themselves. Every practice ends with a Take Home Challenge. This lesson’s Take Home Challenge was to share about the Girl Wheel and what they learned about Heart & Sole.

Questions and Conversation Starters:

1. What is the Girl Wheel?

2. Why do you think becoming a team will take time, effort and support? (Share an example from your life.)

The girls made an initial self-assessment of how ready they are for the physical and emotional challenges they will face over the season and discussed their hopes and dreams for the next nine weeks. As a group, they delved deeper into the Girl Wheel and identified examples for all parts of the Wheel. The Girl Wheel represents living a balanced life, helps the girls identify personal goals and emotions, and teaches the girls how to understand and empathize with others. The Take Home Challenge for this lesson was to set a goal, using the Girl Wheel, that they would like to achieve by the end of the season.

Questions and Conversation Starters:

1. Let’s each name parts of the Girl Wheel where we feel we have strengths. Why do you feel these areas are strengths?

2. Tell me about your Take Home Challenge. (And possibly set your own goal as well.)

We will explore the importance of collaboration and how the girls can use their knowledge of each other to help them accomplish a task. Overall, the girls are beginning to find commonalities among the team and also finding what makes each one of them special. This helps them build trust with one another. The Take Home Challenge for this lesson was to make a connection with someone outside the program and expand the Social part of their Girl Wheel.

Questions and Conversation Starters:

1. What makes you unique? What do you think makes me unique?

2. Tell me something you learned about one of your teammates. How does this knowledge help you better appreciate her?

After defining obstacles and strengths/supports, the girls will participate in a workout where they are faced with obstacles towards achieving their lap goal for the day. Some obstacles the girls will be faced with includes: waiting for three girls to pass them before they can run again, doing jumping jacks, and holding a plank. Fortunately, the girls have strengths and supports to help them overcome these obstacles! The girls will make choices about how and when to use these strengths and supports over the course of the workout. At the end of the lesson, the girls will reflect in their journal about their own strengths and supports that they feel can help them when they face internal and external obstacles in their life. They also will share the areas of their Girl Wheel where they feel they might need more support when obstacles come their way. The Take Home Challenge for this lesson was to ask someone how he or she reached an important goal, what obstacles they had to overcome and the strengths and supports they used to help them.

Questions and Conversation Starters:

1. Would you like to share some of the obstacles you wrote about in your journal? (Share some examples from your own life and how you overcame them.)

2. Let’s talk about some strengths and supports we have in our Girl Wheel (Brain, Body, Heart, Spirit, and Social).

All practices end at 3:45 pm, unless otherwise noted, and girls must be picked up by 4:00 pm.

Monday, October 12th

Saturday, October 25th Practice 5k at 1:00 pm with BES Girls on the Run

Monday, October 26th

Monday, November 2nd

Monday, November 9th

Monday, November 16th

Saturday, November 21st Girls on the Run 5k (more information to come)

Registration is now open for the Girls on the Run 5K! Click here to help guardians, 5K buddies, and anyone from the community save $5 with early bird registration through Oct. 21. Shirt sizes cannot be guaranteed after that date.

Girls, coaches, and helpers are automatically registered for the 5K. All others must register to participate. We are open to the public and welcome all family members and community participants!