URI student has Wyman students doing `Cupid Shuffle'

By Tessa Roy
Posted 4/13/17

By TESSA ROY Wyman students have been getting more active thanks to Jackie Woodside. Woodside, who is from Jamestown, is a senior nursing student at the University of Rhode Island and is completing her community clinical at the school. For the past six

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URI student has Wyman students doing `Cupid Shuffle'

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Wyman students have been getting more active thanks to Jackie Woodside.

Woodside, who is from Jamestown, is a senior nursing student at the University of Rhode Island and is completing her community clinical at the school. For the past six weeks, she’s been helping out school nurse Bernadette McDowell and teaching kids about the importance of physical activity by taking them out for some dance breaks. Physical activity reduces the risk of diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, plus the Department of Health recommends kids get 60 minutes of activity per day, Woodside said, adding that it’s important for kids to keep moving as childhood obesity has tripled in the past decades.

“I always reiterate that you don’t have to know the dance moves, just keep active,” she said.

McDowell said kids are sometimes shy about showing off their dancing skills, but the two make it special when they reveal some of the dances they learn from Woodside – like “Cotton Eye Joe,” the “Cupid Shuffle,” the “Chicken Dance” “YMCA” and the “Cha Cha Slide” – are all ones they’ll be doing at their middle school dances when they’re older. Woodside also joked that the kids asked if they could do the “Whip” and “Nae Nae,” but that they had to teach her that one.

McDowell and Woodside both said stimulation from the dancing also helps the kids focus better in school, plus they sometimes get a sticker for their hard work.

“They really get into it. They get very excited by it,” McDowell said.

Indeed, the kids seem to enjoy taking a break after lunch to get moving – on Tuesday, Woodside’s last day at the school, a small crowd of third graders flocked to where she stood on the blacktop during a recess. They busted a move to the “Cha Cha Slide” and followed her lead. Some also recalled learning the “Macerena” in previous weeks, so they practiced that one between songs.

Woodside also tutors at URI and will graduate in December. Although she loves working with children, she thinks she’d like to pursue geriatrics. She hopes to stay in Rhode Island for now and perhaps eventually make a move to the South where it’s warmer.

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