Active Choices Check

Overview

Today students compare their current physical activity, sleep, and sedentary time against Australia’s 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Young People. They will collect and represent personal data, then suggest realistic strategies for themselves and others to meet the recommendations.

Learning intentions

• Students will compare their self-reported activity, sleep, and sedentary time with the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines.
• Students will represent data using an appropriate display (for example, bar graphs or charts) and interpret what it shows.
• Students will design and justify strategies to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour to improve health and wellbeing.

Success criteria

• I can estimate my weekly physical activity, sleep, and sedentary time and record it accurately.
• I can represent my data in a clear way and explain how it compares to the Guidelines.
• I can identify at least one specific change I will make and explain how it supports health and wellbeing.
• I can suggest one change someone else (a friend or family member) could make to support healthy habits.

Curriculum links

• Health and Physical Education: AC9HP8M06 — design and justify strategies to increase physical activity levels to achieve health and wellbeing outcomes.
• Health and Physical Education: AC9HP8M06 elaboration — compare current physical activity, sleep and sedentary time with the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and suggest strategies for themselves and others.
• Data and decision-making through health contexts: students evaluate evidence from their own data to plan improvement (health and wellbeing focus).

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Hook: “Balance of a day.” Teacher shows three prompts on the board (Move, Sleep, Sit). Students quickly choose which part of their day is most different from what “healthy” might look like and explain one reason to a partner.

2. 5–12 min · Direct teach: What the Guidelines focus on. Teacher explains the intent of the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines (daily balance across movement, sleep, and sedentary time) and clarifies what each category means in everyday terms for Year 7 (for example, active time, screen/sitting time, and consistent sleep). Students note key points and ask one question.

3. 12–22 min · Data collection: personal snapshot. Students complete a simple “My 24 hours” checklist for one weekday and one weekend day (teacher provides a printable template). They estimate:

• minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (or “active time” they can recall)
• hours of sleep
• total sedentary time (especially screens/sitting) Teacher circulates to support accurate estimation and clarify categories.

4. 22–32 min · Representation: chart it. In small groups, students choose one representation method that suits the class tools (bar graph, stacked column, or table plus key totals). Teacher provides a quick model: using the same units across categories and showing the Guidelines targets as a reference line or comparison column. Students create their own chart in books or on a template.

5. 32–42 min · Comparison: “How do I match?” Students compare their chart totals against the Guidelines targets (displayed on a teacher slide/handout). They complete a short interpretation sentence frame:

• “I meet/exceed/fall short of the Guidelines for __ because __.”
• “My biggest opportunity to improve is __.” Teacher checks understanding by sampling 3–4 charts and asking students to justify one comparison.

6. 42–53 min · Strategy design: “Make it realistic.” Students write a plan with two parts:

• For themselves: one strategy to increase physical activity and one strategy to reduce sedentary behaviour.
• For others: one peer-friendly suggestion (for example, a social activity idea or a screen-time boundary). Teacher prompts justification: link each strategy to expected wellbeing outcomes (energy, mood, focus, physical fitness, and recovery through sleep).

7. 53–58 min · Share-out: Gallery Walk. Students rotate through stations (or share in groups) where each student posts their “Top 2 changes” summary on a sticky note. Peers leave one supportive question or suggestion.

8. 58–60 min · Exit ticket: commitment + reason. Students answer: “One specific change I will try this week is __. I think it will help because __.”

Resources

• Printed “My 24 hours” estimation template (weekday + weekend)
• Charting templates (bar graph or table) and ruler
• Coloured pencils/markers
• Teacher reference card showing the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines targets in student-friendly terms
• Timer and board/screen for prompts and examples
• Student books or clipboards

Assessment

• Formative: teacher checks during template completion (accuracy of categories and units).
• Formative: students’ charts and comparison sentences (can they explain matches/fall-short clearly?).
• Exit ticket: identifies one specific change and a valid health-related reason.

Differentiation

• Support: provide sentence starters for comparison (“I fall short of…”) and strategy design (“I will… by… at… for… minutes”).
• Support: offer a simplified chart option (pre-labeled columns for Move/Sleep/Sit).
• Support: provide simplified data collection sheets with clear instructions and examples; use visual aids like charts and graphs to help interpret data; offer guided questions to support reasoning.
• Extension for advanced learners: require a “barrier–solution” detail (for example, “If I can’t do it after school, I will do it in the morning instead”), plus an option that includes a friend-based strategy to increase social connection.
• Extension for advanced learners: challenge them to analyze data trends and make predictions; encourage use of more complex data representation methods (e.g., scatter plots, bar graphs); assign tasks that require justifying conclusions based on data reasoning.
• For students needing extra literacy support: allow oral rehearsal with a partner before writing, and provide a mini word bank (active time, sleep, sedentary, screen, realistic, plan).
• SEN/EAL: accept estimation methods that fit their needs; ensure visuals are used to reduce reading load.

Learning intentions and success criteria at each stage

• Students understand categories first (Move/Sleep/Sit), then demonstrate learning by comparing with Guidelines and producing a justified strategy for self and others.