Learning Links
Self-discipline / Genetics / Alcoholism/Drugs / Aging / Environment / Health Care / Nutrition / Safety and First Aid / Food Preparation / Stress / HIV/AIDS/STDs / Personal Hygiene
Related Concepts
Nutritional Practices / Physical Fitness / Personal Health Habits / Disease Prevention and Control / Self-assessment / Safety and Emergency Measures / Lifestyles / Stress Management
Demonstrators should be read from bottom to top, but need not be demonstrated sequentially.
Elementary Demonstrators
• Evaluate and select actions which can enhance growth, development and wellness.
• Identify preventative safety procedures for the home, school, and community.
• Develop awareness of the interrelatedness of body functions and the impact of lifestyle choices on body systems.
• Explore measures for preventing and controlling disease.
• Investigate nutritional practices which enhance health.
Middle School Demonstrators
• Demonstrate basic physiological principles of exercise (e.g., intensity, duration, frequency).
• Evaluate dietary practices.
• Select behaviors and make lifestyle choices to prevent or minimize the risk of disease.
• Recognize the benefits of self-assessment of health status.
• Describe the interrelationships of and physiological changes in body systems.
• Analyze procedures for emergency situations.
• Apply preventative safety measures for the home, school, and community.
High School Demonstrators
• Apply wellness concepts to health maintenance.
• Assess and design strategies for improving and monitoring health- related physical fitness (cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, body composition).
• Apply nutritional practices which promote wellness.
• Select behaviors to prevent or minimize the risk of disease.
• Analyze impact of personal behavior on body systems.
• Demonstrate first-aid and safety procedures.
Sample Teaching/Assessment Strategies
Collaborative Process: Cooperative Learning • Community-Based Instruction: Field Studies • Continuous Progress Assessment: Self-assessment • Graphic Organizers: Mapping/Webbing, Matrix • Graphic Representations • Problem Solving: Role-play, Interview, Creative Problem Solving, Future Problem Solving • Whole Language Approach • Writing Process
These sample strategies offer ideas and are not meant to limit teacher resourcefulness. More strategies are found in the resource section.
Ideas for Incorporating Community Resources
• Visit community hospitals/clinics to learn about and assess services for disease control and prevention.
• Invite a resource person to explain wellness behaviors and give examples of self-monitoring.
• Invite a nutritionist, registered dietitian, or home economist to speak on nutrition, healthy diet, or nutritious snack choices.
• Visit a local fitness center or YMCA to practice relaxation exercises with an instructor.
• Invite a pharmacist to class to discuss healing with drugs.
• Invite a local person informed about the medicinal qualities of plants to discuss healing with home remedies.
Core Concept – Physical Wellness
Sample Elementary Activities
• Develop a physical fitness, self-improvement plan identifying areas of weakness. Plan simple, realistic goals for improvement; keep a progress chart and incorporate healthy rewards. P
• Design a balanced menu for one week including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Prepare one meal from the menu. PE
• Record, in a journal or log, lifestyle habits which impact immediate and long-range health. P
• Propose preventative safety procedures for home, school, and community .PE
• Create posters showing ways to reduce the spreading of germs. PE, OE
Applications Across the Curriculum
Variations on a theme: Healthy Habits -Personal Fitness
Language Arts
• Construct a "Healthy Me" journal and document daily activities/behaviors used to maintain a healthy, clean body. P
Science
• Record pulse and respiratory rates before, during, and after exercise over an extended period of time. PE
Mathematics
• Display data about personal physical fitness. PE
Social Studies
• Playa game, from another culture, that requires physical activity. PE
Arts and Humanities
• Produce an exercise video. PE
Vocational Education
• Observe and record the physical activities required of teachers in your school. Design and present to the teaching staff a program for maintaining physical fitness. PE
Reflections
Fitness, exercise, and nutrition are the battle cries of the '90s. Students are faced with decisions regarding health issues each day-drug and alcohol abuse, HIV/AIDS/STDs, environment, disease control, and nutritional practices. As part of their schooling in self-discipline and physical fitness, students must take responsibility for their own health and well-being.
While health and physical education has a/ways been a part of the traditional curriculum, the focus today goes beyond the classroom/ gymnasium and permeates every aspect of the students school day. Healthy decision making dictates a problem-solving approach that is personal and different for each student.
To equip students with the know-how to take responsibility for maintaining their health-within the school program and beyond the school walls-schools must orchestrate programs that emphasizes understanding, achieving, and maintaining physical wellness. This is perhaps best done as part of an encompassing program that requires students to be partners in a process that analyzes, prescribes, implements, and evaluates their physical needs.
Sample Middle School Activities
• Compile a portfolio of your fitness program including personal physical assessment, goals, improvement practices, and evaluations procedures. P
• Use a computer program to evaluate menus in the school cafeteria for nutritional value. PE
• Use multimedia to create and implement an advertising campaign showing the healthy behaviors that can help prevent major causes of death (e.g., heart disease, cancer, stroke, accidents). P
• Interview family members and friends to identify present practices for assessing, maintaining, and improving health status. Predict future health status of each person interviewed based on his/her present health practices. P
• Design and implement a plan to make your home safe for young children. PE
Applications Across the Curriculum
Language Arts
• Observe school cafeteria behaviors (e.g., table etiquette, food consumption) for one week. Based on your research, design a campaign to promote pleasant dining environments. PE
Science
• Chart physical descriptors (e.g., height, weight, age) of family members; discover trends and chart correlations between physical descriptors and personal habits (e.g., smoking, sleep requirements, diet, stress). P
• Interview physical wellness experts to determine habits that encourage optimal growth and development. Develop a personal physical wellness plan that will include weight management, exercise, nutrition, and rest. Monitor your progress. P
Mathematics
• Estimate the distance for a walking/jogging course around the school building. Determine how long it actually takes to walk the course. Compute individual walking/jogging pace. PE, P
Social Studies
• Survey, char1, and graph the average physical wellness of the school population and compare it to the standards of the Presidents Council on Physical Fitness. Create a school-wide plan for addressing areas that need improvement. P
Arts and Humanities
• Design health and nutrition posters for a senior citizens center, child care center, nursing home, and school cafeteria. PE
• Research a number of artistic styles that illustrate the human form. Compare current standards of physical wellness to the time period of the works of art. P
Vocational Education
• Investigate additives in processed food and the diseases caused by food additives. Develop a poster which communicates findings. OE
• Design a plan for forming, recruiting, and marketing a fitness group. PE, OE
• Evaluate dietary habits of peers; prepare bulletins designed to facilitate change in unhealthy eating habits. P
Sample High School Activities
• Design a brochure for health club members outlining recommended exercise that incorporates physiological concepts necessary for safe workouts. P
• Plan and implement a health fair that includes health screenings. Analyze participants' results and assist in setting goals. PE, P
• Use a Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) chart to plan a week's menu for a family of four on an average food budget. Modify your plan to allow for one family member with diabetes. P
• Analyze a family life tree. Search for hereditary and lifestyle factors that may have contributed to deaths. PE, OE
• Simulate emergency situations (e.g., heart attack, choking, drug overdose, drowning, suicide attempt) and demonstrate appropriate responses. PE
Applications Across the Curriculum
Language Arts
• Create a "Staying Healthy Self-Help Guide for Adults" including a nutrition, hygiene, and physical fitness plan. Present this at a faculty or parent meeting. PE, OE, P
Science
• Analyze a meal to determine the biochemical components and nutritive value of each food on the menu. PE, OE, P
• Investigate factors that might have affected human life spans over the past 200 years. Chart and correlate findings. P
Mathematics
• Record your physical activities for a given period to determine the number of calories burned on an average day. Calculate the caloric intake needed to maintain your present weight. PE, OE, P
Social Studies
• Examine the influence of poverty on physical wellness by interviewing an employee of an agency established to serve the indigent. PE, P
Arts and Humanities
• Select and research a variety of examples of "the ideal human form" in history, literature, and art. Compare and contrast the examples and project what the "ideal" might look like in a hundred years. PE, OE
Vocational Education
• Debate pros and cons of raising tobacco as a cash crop in Kentucky .PE, OE
• Research importance of "green" spots in urban areas. Analyze findings relative to specific environments. PE, P
• Design a business proposal/plan for a health/fitness center in your community .PE
• Devise a personal wellness plan and a system to maintain that plan. Monitor progress. P