The mission of the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie
The mission of the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie is to encourage young (and not-so-young) people to adopt healthy lifestyle habits. To achieve this goal, the Grand défi works to mobilize the school community to encourage young people to choose a healthy lifestyle on a regular basis, so that these habits become the norm for tomorrow’s generations.
Get moving, for fun!
By taking part in the Energy Cubes Challenge, you will be mobilizing change. You’ll be supporting and motivating young people to get moving for the fun of it!
Who knows, maybe you’ll introduce a child to a new way of moving that will become his or her favorite?
In the classroom, you have the opportunity to provide students with an environment conducive to the development of healthy lifestyle habits, including physical activity.
Why not join forces? Pair the Cubes Challenge with your students’ academic subjects!
Plastic arts
Using paint, papier-mâché, pastels, recycled materials or another medium, create an Energy Cube to decorate the school during the Challenge!
Mathematics
In small teams or as a class, make Energy Cubes a fun math exercise. Want more? Create a math situation in which students have to calculate the total number of Energy Cubes collected by a fictitious student on the move for a day!
French and English
Use the world of Energy Cubes to write, read and learn! Examples:
| 1. | Cubes accumulated at home are entered by the students and their parents in the Student’s Logbook, while Cubes earned at school are entered by the class leader and the school principal. |
|---|---|
| 2. |
Chaque semaine, la personne responsable de classe compile les Cubes énergie amassés par son groupe. Pour ce faire, il compile les Cubes faits à la maison inscrits dans le Carnet de l'élève et ceux faits en classe*. Il transmet ensuite son total de Cubes au responsable de l’école en complétant sa section dans le Calcul-o-Cube ou en lui disant. * Total of sports activities initiated in class (e.g.: active break with our active video, afternoon soccer activity in class, etc.). Other activities, such as recess, physical education classes, daycare and special events, are left to the school principal. |
| 3. | Each week, the head of the school compiles the Energy Cubes collected by his or her school. To do this, he or she compiles the Cubes collected by all the groups in the school (Calcul-o-Cube automatically does this calculation) and those made by the whole school outside the classroom (e.g. recess, physical education classes, daycare, special activities). He then makes sure to manually enter his school’s Cubes total on the Planète Cube site before May 26th, 2025, in order to transmit his results to the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie. |
Using our Calcul-o-Cube, you can keep track of the number of Energy Cubes you’ve accumulated directly online. In short, it’s a dynamic digital spreadsheet. Here’s how to use it:
The Challenge Leader duties include registering the school in the contest to the Challenge and entering the accumulated Energy Cubes on Planet Cube. The Challenge Leader must also communicate the contest Challenge rules to other teachers, students and parents. The person in charge encourages physical activity throughout the Challenge. It is also encouraged to initiate sports activities at your school to increase the number of Energy Cubes collected.
Regarding the calculation of Cubes, please refer to the question How are Cubes compiled? Who compiles the cubes?
This person encourages the students to get moving and participates in the class Cubes calculation. Here's the technique we suggest to make Cubes easy to calculate:
1- Cubes accumulated at home
The class leader is responsible for totalling the home-made Energy Cubes of each of his/her students each week. To do this, it will be necessary to ask students to bring their Logbooks back to school.
2- Cubes accumulated in class
He is also responsible for totalling the Energy Cubes earned in class by all his students.
Example: the whole class dances during a 15-minute active video capsule in the morning.
Example: the whole class goes out to play dodgeball for 30 minutes in the afternoon in the schoolyard with their teacher.
*School-wide activities (recess, physical education classes, daycare, special activities with the whole school) are left up to the school principal.
3- The class leader then goes to his Calcul-o-Cube.
He writes his 2 totals (total cubes at home AND total cubes in class) in his class group.
Need an organized worksheet to compile Energy Cubes in your classroom? Check out our Class Manager worksheet in our toolbox.
Any group or individual activity that requires physical exertion or raises the heart rate counts toward the accumulation of energy cubes. Examples include soccer, basketball, mini-basketball, jump rope, skateboarding, biking, swimming, diving, relay racing, hiking, skating, playing ball, gymnastics, Frisbee, badminton, flag football, hockey, track and field, tchouk-ball, golf, judo, skiing, curling, horseback riding and active video games such as Kinect and Wii Fit games.
Group and individual activities requiring little physical exertion are not counted toward the accumulation of energy cubes. These include passive video games, card games, board games, pool, fishing, driving a quad and minigolf.
For the energy cubes accumulated by the family to be counted, the activity must be done with the participating child. Each immediate family member earns 1 energy cube for every 15 minutes of physical activity performed with the child.
Please note:
Trainers, sports team members, extended family members (uncles, aunts, godfathers, godmothers, etc.), pets (!) and others cannot accumulate energy cubes. They are, however, welcome to move to encourage students in their challenge.
For students without a hard copy of the logbook, a version is available in Student logbooks will be sent free of charge to registered schools in Quebec. Shipments to schools will begin in April, while supplies last. The Student Logbook can also be downloaded in the Toolbox section by the school or parent.
The Energy Cubes Challenge provides compiling tools for schools, including a printable Student logbook, the Class Leader's tally sheet and the School Leader's tally sheet. These tools are optionals but strongly recommended, and each school can modify them as needed. These tools can be downloaded from the Toolbox section. The Class Leader's tally sheet must be printed and distributed to each class. The Energy Cubes Challenge School Leader must fill out the School Leader’s tally sheet as well.
For more information on how to record Energy Cubes, please see the Challenge rules.
Here's the technique we suggest to make calculating cubes easier. Responsibility is divided between three people.
At home, students record the Physical Activity Cubes they accumulate in their own Logbook. These are then validated by a parent. An adult signature is required for the activity period(s) to be eligible for Energy Cubes.
At school, the class leader calculates the Cubes accumulated in class during sports activities (e.g.: the class decides to go and play 30 minutes of soccer, or the class dances an active video capsule in the morning, etc.). To this figure, he adds the Cubes accumulated at home by each student. Each week, he writes his 2 totals (total Cubes at home AND total Cubes in class) to his class group in his Calcul-o-Cube.
*If you don't use Calcul-o-Cube, you can send your Cube totals orally to the school principal using the class principal form.
At school, the person in charge of the school calculates the Cubes accumulated at school outside the classroom (e.g. recess, physical education classes, daycare, special activities). To this figure, he adds the total Cubes accumulated by each class (entered by the class leader in the Calcul-o-Cube). Next, the school principal enters the total number of Cubes accumulated by the school into Planet Cube by May 26th, 2025.
Note that an Energy Cube must never be compiled more than once.
Calculating the average number of Cubes per student enables a fair comparison of results between registered schools, regardless of the number of students in the school.
Average cubes per student:
Total number of cubes accumulated by your school ÷ Total number of students in your school
Winning schools are chosen by a random draw based on the average number of Energy Cubes accumulated by students. The school gets 1, 2 or 3 chances. The draw is automatically done with all schools that have entered their Energy Cubes total on the Planet Cube platform by May 26th, 2025.
*As soon as students get moving, they have a chance of winning the Grand Prize. Don't forget the essence of the Challenge: the aim is not to create a competition to accumulate the highest number of Cubes, but rather to promote physical activity in a healthy and FUN way.
How the prize draw works
| Average cubes per student | Number of entries in the draw |
| 200 to 299 cubes | 1 chance |
| 300 to 449 cubes | 2 chances |
| Over 450 cubes | 3 chances |
Calcul-o-Cube is a digital tool designed to facilitate communication between class and school leaders.
Each class teacher is responsible for entering the total number of Cubes accumulated for his or her class in the class group section at the end of each week. This is an efficient way for the school manager to get the figures for the whole school quickly. This is a numerical spreadsheet only.
The Calcul-o-Cube is NOT linked to the Planet Cube site.
The Planète Cube website is a Web platform that allows the school principal to report the total number of cubes collected by the school to the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie.
At the end of the Challenge (i.e. by May 26th, 2025), the school leader must manually enter the final total number of Cubes (calculated using Calcul-o-Cube) on the Planet Cube website.
As we all know, when we're forced to do something, it's rare that we have the pleasure and motivation to do it. Some students may be less motivated to get moving. Physical activity doesn't take the same place in everyone's daily life.
Instead of encouraging our students to accumulate as many Energy Cubes as possible, why not adopt the PLEASURE technique?
When you're having fun, you're more motivated!
Introduce students to different physical activities on a special field day or in physical education classes;
Create an after-dinner gathering of parents and students in the schoolyard to get moving in good company;
Create a Grade 6 squad ready to get kids moving during recess. They can lead fun, active games and motivate kids to get moving.
We are counting on the good faith of the people in charge of each establishment to pass on their results fairly and equitably. In case of doubt, the organizers of the Grand défi may require a proper verification.