How to Teach Health in the Classroom
Health may sound like a dry topic to teach, but with a little creativity it can be enjoyable for your students. Avoid giving lectures about healthful eating and exercise. Use activities that students will enjoy, such as games and art. Make each lesson relevant to your students' lives. They will pay more attention to a talk about healthful snacks than one about how muscles work. If you can make children excited about being healthy from a young age, they'll be on their way to being healthy adults.
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Instructions
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Hang posters in the classroom that cover different health topics. For instance, hang a poster next to the sink that shows students the correct way to wash their hands. Hang a picture of the food pyramid over the area where the children eat snacks. You may be able to buy these posters or get them free from your local health department. You can also make them with your class as a group project.
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Exemplify good health habits every day of class. Wash your hands frequently. Eat fruits and vegetables during school hours. Keep a bottle of water on your desk and avoid drinking soda or too much coffee.
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Bring in books about health, nutrition and exercise to put on the class bookshelves. Read a book to the class each day during story time. After the reading, ask the children what they thought about the book. Start a discussion about each topic. Answer questions the students have or encourage them to investigate the answers themselves.
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Bring in healthful and unhealthful foods. Or, just bring in empty food containers or cutout photos from magazines. Ask students to sort the foods into "healthful" and "unhealthful" piles. Show them where the calories and ingredient listings are. Ask them to make a healthy meal plan for one day using the foods, food containers or magazine photos.
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Explain what germs are and how they can make people sick. Tell children that washing their hands properly will help get rid of germs. To help them visualize this concept, fill a shallow box with flour. Have children press their hands into the flour. As they play, they'll be able to see how they leave traces of flour everywhere, just as they leave germs everywhere. This activity is messy, so do it outdoors. Finally, have each child wash his hands for 30 seconds to wash away the flour and real germs.
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Show students the correct way to do indoor exercises such as sit-ups, jumping jacks and push-ups. Lead five minutes of exercise each day. If the weather is nice, take children outside for exercise each day. Even a five-minute walk around the school will show them that exercise should be a part of daily life.
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Give each child paper and markers. Ask him to make a book about "how I am healthy." On each page, he should write a sentence and draw an illustration of a healthy behavior that he does. This exercise will show you how much each child has learned about health and what you still need to teach.
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References
- Photo Credit health image by Aleksandr Popov from Fotolia.com
