By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
    Now entering South Portland: it’s the ConKaz Physical Education Camp.
    With the first summer camp of its kind in Maine, Physical Education Teachers Phil Conley and Dianne Kazilionis hope to offer children– between the ages of four and seven– a positive introduction to exercise that will lead to a love of physical activity.
    “We have such a crisis in childhood health related illnesses and diseases,” Kazilionis said during an interview at the South Portland Community Center. “The obesity level, the Type II diabetes...you name it we’ve got it. You look in the media (and) everyday there’s something regarding that.”
    As physical education teachers in the city’s five elementary schools, Conley and Kazilionis recognize that more is expected of children at a younger age, yet some children enter kindergarten not knowing what those expectations are. Through games and activities, Conley and Kazilionis hope to offer their campers physical activities that will not only get their heart rates up, but also aid in the development of skills for the classroom.  
    Activities will include games with parachutes, balls, hula-hoops and relays. Campers will also learn how to skip, gallop and hop on one foot.  Through the games, campers will improve hand and eye coordination, throwing and catching skills and social skills. Participants will also learn about personal space and safety.
    “I think our number one goal is to have each student that participates in our Phys. Ed. camp to come away with, ‘Hey, physical activity is fun, it’s good for my body and I want to continue to stay healthy and be active,’” Conley said.
    Part of instilling that interest at a young age is to keep things simple, they said.
    “It’s things that they can do with their family,” Kazilionis said. “Little things that are very simple, that don’t cost a lot (and) that they can do in their backyard.” She said they might open up the final day of the camp to parents and invite them to go through the activities with their children.  
    At the end of the program, Conley and Kazilionis said they would like to give each camper a report card or some form of assessment to better illustrate to parents where their child is as far as motor skills and social safety awareness. Conley said it would be a positive assessment that will point out what each child does well and what they may need to work on.
    If all goes well, Conley and Kazilionis said they would like to expand their program and open it up to other recreation departments, daycares and nursery schools.
    “It could possibly become similar to pre-school,” Kazilionis said. “We send our children to pre-school so that they’re ready to enter kindergarten for all social purposes, academic (purposes)...all of that, so for me this is kind of like a take-off from that.”
    As they plan for their program, Conley and Kazilionis’s are encouraged in their efforts by their current students’ enthusiasm for Phys. Ed. class.
    “They can’t wait to come into our gym and start the activity,” Conley said. “Ninety-nine percent of the students love what we do. We just want to start it at a younger age– that’s why we have the four-year-old and five-year-olds-just so they have an understanding of what it’s like to be in our gym classes.”
    Kazilionis said she would like campers to learn the appropriate way to behave during gym class and in any environment with a large group of students. 
    “How do you appropriately enter into a space with a large group of kids, into a class and how do you follow that direction of sitting on a line (or) sitting on a circle?” she said of some of the camp’s objectives. In her own Phys. Ed. classes, Kazilionis said, she teaches students that although Phys. Ed. is meant to be fun, there is an appropriate way to behave when entering the gym or going outside to the field. She said establishing an expectation early on allows them to be productive throughout the school year.
    Currently, they see students once a week for 45 minutes. Kazilionis said elementary students, nationwide, should be participating in Phys. Ed. classes two to three times a week.   
    Although the students only have Phys. Ed. class once a week, Conley said he uses that time to involve the children in a fun and enjoyable activity so they don’t even realize that they are getting a workout.         
    “Instead of having them jog eight times around the field, we may play a game called Builders and Bulldozers,” Conley said.
    During the game, they set up cones around the gym and first the bulldozer team runs around and knocks all of the cones over and then the builder team runs around and picks up the cones or builds the houses. “They’re getting that aerobic exercise, not even knowing that they’re really working hard because they’re having such a good time.”
    Kazilionis said music is another way to get kids moving. During April’s “City Wide Jump for the American Heart Association” event, she said the kids were dancing while they were waiting in line at each fitness station, even though the fifth graders would have you believe that they were too old for such silliness.
    “They hate to do that stuff or they think they hate to do it- they want you to think that, but...while they’re waiting in line, they’re all doing the Macarena or the Chicken Dance,” she said. “They left there remembering that (and) they were involved in physical activity without even thinking...this could be hard (or) I don’t want to do this.”   
    Kazilionis said it bothers her that many people, herself included, don’t remember their elementary school Phys. Ed. classes.
    “I don’t have negative memories, but I don’t have any memories,” she said.
    If children, however, have an opportunity to participate in creative, fun and exciting activities, they will have fond memories of those classes.
    Kazilionis said she is thrilled when a 19 or 20-year-old approaches her to share a memory of a past Phys. Ed. class.      “I think that’s my ultimate goal,” she said. “I want kids to remember-not me-but what they did.”
    During the American Heart Association fundraiser, the five elementary schools combined raised more than $24,000 by participating in various cardiovascular activities. Students visited stations on fitness, jumping long and short ropes, jumping routines and tricks, cardiovascular work out and nutrition. Many of the same activities will also be part of the ConKaz experience.
    “We’re real big now on kindergartners jumping rope and double dutching so I’m sure that is going to be a part of our program,” Kazilionis said.
    During the event, she said, a three-year-old girl, who was there to watch the older kids, “hopped right in” and started double dutching.
    As Conley and Kazilionis would say, there’s no age limit for staying active.
    For more information or to register for the ConKaz camp contact the South Portland Community Center at 767-7650. ConKaz 1, open to four and five year olds, runs from July 16 to July 20, 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. ConKaz 2, open to six and seven year olds, runs from July 16 to July 20, 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. The program cost is $60 and all campers receive a t-shirt.