Each day, students learn one key word that correlates to the Step of the Week, totaling 312 new concepts that a student will learn and discuss throughout the course of one year - this includes words such as hope, sympathy, diligence, discernment and grace. In this section we present thoughtful questions that prompt response and discussion as well as a meaningful or inspirational quote. Learn more about the Keala messages here.

This section provides greater details to a coach or other program leader about how to facilitate conversation about the daily message. This section summarizes correlating passages from two outside sources that are referenced by date in the chronological series from “Each Day a New Beginning” by Karen Casey and “Daily Reflections” from Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. Program leaders implementing the Keala Curriculum would benefit to add these resources to their course materials and personal reading.

Typically, the section for middle and high school students will offer at least a skill or strength component to the daily workout. Skills are typically low-intensity, technique-focused instructions on high-skill exercises such as double-unders, inversions, gymnastics movements or preparations for barbell exercises. Workouts programmed under the Strength component, as implied, are focused on muscle hypertrophy, physical awareness and/or relative strength training such as through power lifts, Olympic lifts or structural exercises. Attention to mechanisms of breath awareness may also be articulated under these sections. Program leaders implementing the Keala Curriculum would benefit from resources about the role of breath in health and performance, such as “The Oxygen Advantage” by Patrick McKeown.

This section typically details a metabolic conditioning, or “cardio,” workout that is intended to be performed at a high-intensity and with low to moderate weights. Although some workouts will offer a prescribed weight according to our expectation for teen age groups, a program leader should utilize discernment and intimate knowledge of their own students to assign the proper weight that achieves the intended stimulus of any given workout. These workouts may always be modified in any manner that the instructor deems necessary for their students and group, or according to constraints of time, space or equipment. Over time, you will notice that Thursday workouts are a tribute to the support of this organization from CrossFit by providing either mainsite workouts, CrossFit Open repeat workouts or benchmark “Girls” or “Hero” workouts.

This section details the necessary equipment to be able to facilitate any given workout, including all components of skills, strength and conditioning segments. Of course, any program leader may make modifications or adjustments according to equipment available in this regard. Furthermore, this section provides details that advise how to focus a warm-up or cool down, as well as how to achieve the intended stimulus of each component according to the variability of athletes. These details are intended to help guide and empower a coach and may be interpreted by the individual in the best interest of a unique program.

Typically, each fitness session for elementary-aged students begins with a game or fun skill-learning activity. The purpose of Keala Games is not only to make fitness fun, but to help regulate the energy of young students as well as to teach skills of teamwork, honesty and sportsmanship through physical activity. These sessions can be considered a “warmup” for these age groups prior to the primary workout of the day. Keala Games are an excellent way to introduce any movements and exercises that will be used in the primary workout. These games are detailed in Exhibit A.

The primary workout for elementary students is provided in workouts “formats” that are detailed in Exhibit B. What we have found in the development and implementation of this curriculum is that Elementary age students require a fluidity of the facilitator to adapt to the group on any given day. Depending on the specific age group, demographic or experience of the group, this age level can vary broadly in skills of listening, information processing and execution of direction. Because of this observation, most of the Elementary programming in the Keala Curriculum is a manner of template rather than precise rules and strict boundaries. This is also designed to stretch the facilitator to apply empathy and sensitivity to the daily activities of an independent program by working within a managed framework and creatively adapting to the needs of their own program. The Keala Curriculum will make prescriptions to the style used for any given day’s program with recommendations of exercise integrations, but the practical application of these formats should be at the discretion of the facilitator. Any programming or exercise recommendations provided within the framework of these formats is subject to the integrity of the facilitator, where some sessions may articulate a more precise prescription of repetitions and workout structure whereas others will only provide a list of possible movements to be included.