Category: Ages

Know What Matters to You

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how finding balance between their values and what they do can help them feel healthier and happier. The youth will complete a Values Circle Chart and compare the most important things to them with how they spend their time.

Instructor Notes

Before facilitating this lesson, you may want to review the following information. This can be shared with young people during your discussions.

What are values? Why are they important? Why is it important for us to be clear about our own values?

A lot of people talk about “finding balance” in life. For adults, it’s usually work-life balance. For kids, it usually means having a good mix of school, activities, time with friends and family, and time to just relax.

What sometimes gets missed in this conversation is talking about values. Values are really the foundation for how we can find balance in life. If we know what’s important to us and make decisions about how to spend our time based on that we’ll be more likely to feel at ease, successful, happy, and well.  Most would agree feeling healthy or positive is better than feeling unhealthy or negative. This is true for people of all ages.

Another way to say this is that life balance does not mean equality, it means knowing what’s most important to you and doing the best you can to reflect that in how you live your life.

Introduction

Ask the young people if they have ever been caught between two things that felt really important to them. See if there are a few volunteers willing to share examples.

Explain that every day we have to make choices. Sometimes decisions are really clear and we know right away what we want to do. Other times we are conflicted between two or more good things, not a bad thing and a good thing. These are conflicting values. We are dealing with these all of time, often without us even realizing it, such as when we decide between a sweet treat we really love and something that we know would be healthier for us.

On a larger scale if, for example, participating in a sport I really love means I don’t get to do the after-school club that my two best friends are in, how do I make that decision and feel good about it, not make a decision and feel guilt or regret?

The answer for how to make decisions we feel good about all the time is to become more aware of our own values.

Activity

Distribute the Values Circle Chart worksheets and explain how they will use them. The instructions are provided on the worksheet.

Offer examples of common important values: family, exercise, health or career. Point out that more often than not people don’t ever show up themselves on the list.

Then explain to them that they should identify how much time they actually spend on these. Debrief using the following questions:

  • What did you notice during this activity?
  • What do you notice about how your values compare with how you spend your time?
  • Are you happy with what you discovered by doing this activity? Why or why not?
  • What’s one thing you’d like to do differently in order to have your life more in balance with your values?

Conclusion

We can feel happier and healthier if we choose to spend our time in ways that are more in line with our values. Remind the youth to think of the important things they wrote on their charts as they decide how to spend their time over the next few days. Suggest that young people hang their Circle Chart somewhere they can see it each day to remind them of their most important values.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes these tips, so that families can continue discussing goal setting based on their values at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Knowing what matters can help you destress

Additional Instructor Resources

ChangeToChill.org by Allina Health

It’s All in the Breathing

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand the link between their breathing and how they feel. The youth will practice focused breathing techniques to help their bodies and minds relax. Optional activities allow young people to further explore mindful breathing.

Instructor Notes

Before facilitating this lesson, you may want to review the following notes about mindful breathing. This information can be shared with young people during your discussions.

How you breathe can make a difference in how you feel. When you are stressed, nervous, frightened, worried or angry, you may notice that your breathing gets low and fast. Your breath will come from higher up in your chest when you are upset. In calmer times, your breathing will be slower and deeper. Your breath will come more from your stomach and underneath your ribs.

You can learn to slow down your breathing, making each breath longer and deeper. This will calm the rest of your body and your mind. If you practice doing this you can become good at staying calm or return to feeling calm quickly in very stressful situations.

Introduction

Ask the youth this question: How are our bodies and our minds connected? Be patient if it takes a while for them to start answering. Younger people may have much simpler answers. You may want to start with an example of kicking a ball: If we want to kick a ball our minds have to send a signal to our legs telling them what to do. Young people may also be able to understand things like:

    • Our brains are inside our heads so our skulls can protect them.
    • If we think (or believe) we can do something we are more likely to be able to do it.
    • If we are worried or upset or unhappy our bodies might feel sick or tired or uncomfortable.
    • If our bodies are sick or hurt or very tired it might make us feel unhappy or frustrated.

Activity: Focused Breathing

Explain that breathing well is good for our bodies and can help us change negative things happening in our minds to more positive ones. In other words, we can learn ways to use our bodies to help us feel better in our minds.

  1. Ask the youth to get into a comfortable position. Explain that you are going to practice a type of breathing they can use any time they want or need to calm themselves down. Ask them to be quiet during the exercise. Then lead them through the following steps. For younger people, you may want to simplify the instructions by jumping right to Step 2.
  2. Pay attention to your body. What are you feeling in your body? What are your different senses noticing: smells, sounds, sights, tastes? Are you comfortable? If you aren’t comfortable adjust your body so that you are.
  3. Notice what’s happening with your breathing? Is it fast? Slow? Moving through your nose or your mouth? Is there a noise when you breathe in or breathe out? Don’t try to change it…just notice.
  4. Practice a type of breathing that can help ease your mind and calm your body: Begin breathing in through your nose and breathing out through your mouth. Breathe in twice as long as you breathe out (try counting to two as you breathe in and count to four as you breathe out). Keep breathing like this for several minutes.
  5. Now talk with the youth about the breathing they just did: What do you notice now after a few minutes of breathing like that? How do you feel? What do you see, smell, hear, taste? What is on your mind? What was that like to focus on your breathing?

Optional Activities

If time allows, try these breathing exercises with your class or group.

  • Mindful Breathing: Breathing is an automatic reflex. You don’t even have to think about it–it just happens! But being aware of your breath can help you feel more relaxed.  An easy way to be more mindful is thinking about when you smell your favorite scent.  Smelling is actually taking in a deep breath on purpose. Ask the youth to close their eyes and imagine smelling their favorite scent. Have them breathe in for the count of two and breathe out for the count of four.
  • Shape Breathing: This deep breathing technique uses your imagination. Imagine your favorite shape. As you breathe in, imagine your breath ‘drawing’ one side of the shape as you count to 2. Breathe out and draw the next side as you count to 3. For example, if the shape is round, breathe in from top to bottom, breathe out bottom to top. Continue until you draw your whole shape. You can use a picture of a shape as a guide. Trace a finger along the side of the shape while you count. You can also draw a shape in the air. Move your head and neck a little as an added stretch.

  • Birthday Balloons and Candles: Sit with your legs crossed (feet flat on the floor if you are sitting in a chair) and your back straight. Breathe in deeply through your nose, filling your lungs like a balloon. Imagine seeing your birthday cake with all of its bright candles. Blow them out by breathing out strongly through your mouth.

  • Breathe In, Bubbles Out!: Take a deep breath in through your nose. Fill your lungs full of air! Hold your breath for 1 to 2 seconds. Put the bubble wand up by your mouth and blow! Repeat 3 to 5 times, trying to blow more bubbles each time. After the exercise, ask the youth where in their bodies do they feel the stress or anxiety being released.
  • Belly Breathing: This exercise can help you get more air into your body. Place one hand on your upper chest and one hand on your belly. Slowly breathe in through your nose. You should feel your belly press into your hand. Keep the hand on your chest as still as possible. Breathe out. Tighten your belly muscles to breathe out all the air. Wait a little bit and do it again. Repeat 2 more times.

Conclusion

Remind young people that if they ever feel like they need to calm down, focused or mindful breathing is something they can do anywhere, at any time, and no one will even know that they are doing it.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, including additional mindful breathing activities, so that families can continue discussing ways to manage stress at home.

Additional Instructor Resources

ChangeToChill.org from Allina Health

For other ideas about how to help kids management stress see these two books:

Fighting Invisible Tigers: Stress Management for Teens by Earl Hipp (Free Spirit Publishing, 2008)
The Stress Reduction Workbook for Teens by Gina M. Biegel (New Harbinger Publications Inc., 2009)

Stress! No Body Needs It

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand the causes and effects of stress and learn some techniques for dealing with it. The youth will identify physical symptoms of stress and list some situations that may bring them on. They will learn some skills for managing stress and make their very own stress ball.

Introduction

Introduce the young people to the topic of stress. Let them know that we’ve all had times when our bodies react to stress and we can feel it. It’s the sensation also known as “flight or fight.” Our bodies’ natural way of coping with being frightened or challenged is to release certain chemicals into our bloodstream that provide extra short-term energy and alertness. Our instincts take over and “tell” us that we are facing danger and we either need to defend ourselves (fight) or get away (flight).

Sometimes when this happens we do things we didn’t think we could, such as run very fast or lift something heavy. We may also notice that our hearts beating harder and faster, our hands getting sweaty and cold, or our faces feeling flushed and hot.

Chances are everyone will have had many experiences of this. Ask for a few descriptions of what that looks and feels like. Young people might also describe feeling “butterflies” in their stomachs or having dry mouths.

Then explain that when this happens the options for what a person can do to respond become very limited because instinct takes over and we lose our ability to fully use the part of our brains that makes rational decisions.

Fortunately, by understanding what triggers our “fight or flight” reaction and learning skills to deal with it, we can learn to prevent some stress responses and calm ourselves down from those that do happen.

Activity: How Do You Know if it’s Stress?

Distribute the handout: Your Body Under Stress

Ask young people to each draw or write images on their “body” of where they feel stress and how they know they are having a stress response.

Don’t give examples right away, but if they need a little help you can offer these ideas:

  • heart pounds harder and faster
  • hands feel sweaty and cold
  • face flushes (gets hot and red)
  • “butterflies” in your stomach
  • dry mouth.

After young people finish the handout ask them the following questions:

  1. How easy or hard was it to think of ways your body reacts to stress?
  2. What are some of the ways you thought of that your body reacts to stress?
  3. Does everyone respond the same way?
  4. Are there good kinds of stress? What are some examples? (Examples of positive stress might be a performance of some sort, a physical challenge, speaking in front of a group about something important to you, and so on. Positive stress creates feelings of excitement, anticipation, like right before going over a big hill on a roller coaster.)

Activity: What brings stress on?

Complete the Stress: What Brings it On? worksheet.

There doesn’t need to be a lot of discussion about this worksheet as long as you process it at the end of the session as described in the conclusion. Do point out, however, that one way of both avoiding stress and getting better at dealing with it is to become more aware of what brings it on for you personally. This worksheet helps people think about and identify their own personal stress triggers.

Activity:  Make a stress ball

Introduce the stress ball as a way to help deal with stress. These objects are popular because squeezing the ball in your hand helps reduce tension throughout your body. It may be even more effective if you pay attention to your breath as you squeeze: breathe in as you squeeze the ball, breathe out as you relax your hand.

Let each young person make a homemade stress ball. Instructions:

    1. Take two or three balloons and cut the tops off just above the rounded area, so that all is left is the round part of the balloon. You will also need one uncut balloon.
    2. Take the uncut balloon and stretch the opening over the narrow end of the funnel. Have young people work in pairs so one can hold the funnel while the other fills it the balloon.
    3. Slowly and carefully pour about half a cup of millet seed into the funnel. The amount with vary depending on the size of balloon you use. Make sure it all goes into the balloon. Add more if necessary.
    4. Once the balloon is full to the top of the rounded part, without stretching the balloon, stop filling.
    5. Remove the funnel and tie a tight knot just above the round part of the balloon. Do not cut off the end of the balloon.
    6. Take one of the cut balloons and stretch it over the tied millet-filled balloon. Make sure the tied end is covered first.
    7. Continue adding more cut balloons, always covering the open end of the previous balloon first until you have several layers. This way if one layer breaks the seed will not spill out.

Tips:

    • The number of balloons you will need will depend on how strong and thick the balloons are. If you use good quality, thick balloons, you should only need three in addition to the filled balloon. If you use weaker balloons, you may need to use four or more.
    • With use, your stress ball will become dirty, so you can either clean carefully with very mild soap and water, or remove the outer balloon and add a new one.

Conclusion

Talk about how young people can learn to make choices that help them avoid negative stress, the kind that makes it so they have a hard time making decisions, the kind that feels uncomfortable and maybe even a little bit scary. Ask the youth what kind of activities will help them deal with de-stress. Some examples include:

  • taking a walk
  • talking to a friend
  • listening to music
  • meditation.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish so that families can continue discussing stress and healthy ways to deal with it at home.

Additional Instructor Resources

Guided Imagery: Create the State You Want

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand the negative effects of tension and stress, and how you can use your imagination to help you relax. The youth will draw pictures of their minds under stress. Then the instructor will lead young people in a guided imagery exercise.

Introduction

What is guided imagery? How can guided imagery be helpful to us? How do you do it?

Explain to the youth that guided imagery is a simple, powerful technique that can have many health-related physical and emotional benefits. It can help people feel less nervous or upset, be less bothered by pain, or achieve a goal such as an athletic or academic achievement.

Through guided imagery you can learn to use your imagination to “Create the State You Want,” meaning that you can actually change how you are feeling and what you are focused on.

Activity: Picturing Stress

Complete the Create the State You Want worksheet as a way to think about the power of images and how we create pictures in our minds based on how we are feeling.

Activity: Guided Imagery

Read aloud the Guided Imagery script to your class or group. When everyone has had time to come back to full awareness of the present, allow young people time to talk about their experience.  Do they feel more calm and relaxed after the guided imagery experience? Remind them that our brains are very powerful and can impact our positive and negative thoughts.

Conclusion

Encourage young people to take time to practice guided imagery. Let them know it can be done almost anywhere at any time and can be done to help them face a particular challenge (such as an upcoming test), or just because it’s healthy and feels good.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes directions for guided imagery, so that families can practice “creating the state they want” at home.

Additional Instructor Resources

Visualizing Your Special Place

Pedometer Fitness Challenge

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how to use a pedometer to measure their daily activity levels. The youth are introduced to the pedometer, learn how to operate it and test its accuracy. In the subsequent days or weeks, young people can track their steps on the provided forms. Challenge your group by adding up enough steps to reach Minnesota landmarks or make it all the way to Disney World in Florida!

Introduction

  • Provide young people information on the positive health benefits of physical activity.
    • It helps your body maintain overall good health.
    • It helps build and maintain healthy bones and muscles.
    • It increases flexibility and aerobic endurance.
    • Ask the youth for more ideas on the positive health benefits of being physically active.

Activity: Introduce Pedometers

  1. Introduce young people to the pedometers. Here are some things you may want to say:
    • A pedometer is a small device that counts your steps. It runs on a battery and is breakable.
    • It is worn on your clothing (pants/shorts/skirt) at waist level, straight up from either knee cap.
    • “If you shake it, you may break it” or “if you shake it, I may take it” are good phases to share with the youth when you introduce these devices.
    • It may be a good idea to number or put young participants’ initials on the pedometers to help keep them straight and accountable.
  2. Distribute Pedometers
    • Allow young people a few minutes to examine the unit and various buttons.
    • Have them locate the reset button. Tell them to push the reset button until the numbers all return to zero. This is the number they should start at each morning.
  3. For the pedometer to measure steps accurately it needs to be positioned correctly. Follow these three steps for proper placement.
    • Place a finger on your knee cap and draw an imaginary line straight up to your waist.
    • Secure the pedometer to your clothing.
    • Make sure your pedometer is level and not tilted.
  4. Test the pedometers
    • In a long hallway or gym or on a sidewalk, set up a starting line and finish line.
    • Have each young person put on their pedometer, push the reset button, and walk from start to finish.
    • Have each young person count how many steps they are taking (silently to themselves).
    • At the finish line compare the number they counted to the number on the pedometer. Tell the youth that the number should be within five steps. If it’s not, have them try it a second time and if it’s still not accurate try a different pedometer.

Activity: Introduce the Challenge

Pass out and explain the Pedometer Fitness Challenge Worksheet or the Pedometer Fitness Challenge Step Tracking Spreadsheets (see What You Need). These will be their method for tracking daily and weekly totals.

  • Tell the the young people to write the days of the week at the top of the step log. Have them start with the day of the week that the class is held. (For example, if the class is held on Wednesdays, have them write Wednesday, Thursday…all the way to Tuesday.)
  • The goal of the pedometer fitness challenge is to work as a group to simulate walking from the Mall of America in Minnesota to Disney World in Florida. The group will need to take about 3,290,000 steps to get from Minnesota to Florida.
  • Track your classes’ weekly progress on the spreadsheet and a map of the USA, if possible.

Pedometer tips

  • Reset your pedometer to zero each morning.
  • Wear your pedometer each day, all day long.
  • Record the number of steps you took each day at the end of the day.
  • Add up your step totals each week.
  • One mile equals about 2,000 steps.
  • Determine your individual daily step goal.
  • See if you can find new ways to add steps to your daily total!

Conclusion

Track your classes’ weekly progress on the spreadsheet and a map of the USA, if possible. Note progress toward the goal of adding up enough steps to reach Disney World in Florida. If that goal is reached quickly add other elements to keep it interesting, such as making the trip back, or calculating the number of steps needed to reach other landmarks and aiming for that many steps. Also encourage young people to work on increasing their own personal steps-per-day or steps-per-week. Help them identify challenging but realistic goals.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes these tips, so that families discuss the Pedometer Fitness Challenge at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Are you getting 10,000 steps a day?

Additional Instructor Resources 

10 Thousand Steps video

It’s Mealtime! Relax and Enjoy

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how to eat slowly and mindfully. The youth will practice by paying close attention to smells, texture and taste while eating a healthful snack.

Instructor Notes

Before facilitating this lesson, you may want to review the following information about mindful eating. These facts can be shared with young people during your discussions.

Research points to at least three good health reasons to eat slowly and mindfully. These are:

  1. Healthy weight. There is good evidence that eating slowly leads to eating less which leads to a healthier weight.
  2. Better digestion. It takes our bodies time to break down and absorb the food we have eaten. Start the process off for better digestion by chewing your food well, which in turn leads to slower eating. More time between bites also gives our bodies’ time to react to what we’ve already consumed.
  3. Less stress. Eating slowly and paying attention to our eating, can be a great form of relaxation and mindfulness. When we are in the moment, breathing deeply and fully, rather than rushing through a meal, we are taking good care of our whole selves, not just our bodies.

Activity

Give each young person a sample of one of the snacks you brought, but tell them not to eat anything yet.

  1. Ask them to look at the food item and describe how it looks, such as bright, foamy, and red.
  2. Now ask them to smell the food. How does it smell? For example, sweet and fragrant.
  3. Tell them to take a normal bite of the food, but hold it in their mouths without chewing. After about 15 seconds, have the young people start to chew, but ask them to chew slowly.
  4. How does it taste? For example, sweet or tart.
  5. What does it feel like in their mouths? For example, soft or crisp.
  6. Repeat above steps for each snack item you brought food so the youth can see the differences in look, smell, feel, and taste.
  7. Explain that when we eat very quickly we miss out on a lot of what’s good about food, such as the taste, texture, smell, and enjoyment of the food we are eating.
  8. We may even discover that we enjoy or like a food that we hadn’t eaten before.
  9. Let the youth finish the snack, encouraging them to enjoy it slowly.
  10. Ask them at the end what they noticed during the exercise, this will help them process their thoughts better.

Conclusion

It takes our bodies time to break down food and take from it what we need. Remind young people to chew their food well and eat slowly. More time between bites gives time for our bodies to react to what we’ve already consumed, so we can digest and absorb our food better.

Encourage young people to practice eating slowly at home using the tips in the Healthy Families Newsletter.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes these tips, so that families can continue discussing healthy eating habits at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Relax and enjoy your food

Additional Instructor Resources

Safe Food is Good Food

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how handling food safely will help them avoid becoming sick from food poisoning. Youth will gain interest in the topic by reading a story and solving a mystery.  They will learn tips for keeping food safe and test their knowledge with a quiz.

Introduction: Food Safety Story

Without introducing the topic of food poisoning, tell the young people that there is a mystery you need them to solve. Distribute copies of Food Safety Story. Have the youth work in small groups to read through it and identify the reasons they think the catastrophe might have happened. After a while debrief as a group, perhaps asking each group to share one idea, one at a time, until all ideas have been shared. Write their ideas on a flipchart or whiteboard. Then introduce the topic of food safety, assuring young people that you will come back to the story at the end of the lesson.

Activity: Learning about Causes and Consequences of Food Poisoning

Introduce food poisoning by explaining that it is an illness that can happen when we eat foods that have harmful bacteria, viruses and parasites or their toxins. The effects can range from barely noticeable to extremely unpleasant.

1. Ask the young people if they know what symptoms these harmful germs may cause.

Symptoms of food poison may include:

  • upset stomach

  • nausea

  • vomiting

  • diarrhea

  • fever

Tell the youth that mild cases of food poisoning are actually common and we may not even know we have it because we think it is just a stomach flu or virus. We can’t get rid of all bacteria and some bacteria can even be good for us. There are many things we can do, however, to prevent us from getting sick from the foods we eat.

2. Most of the germs that can cause food poisoning (also known as food borne illness) come from animals, such as meat, eggs, milk, shellfish, or unwashed produced. Raw or undercooked foods are also more likely to cause food poisoning because the process of thoroughly cooking often kills unhealthy germs. Sometimes the germs are transferred from work surfaces or hands that haven’t be properly cleaned after touching contaminated food. So cleanliness and proper cooking are two of the most important ways to prevent it.

3. Ask how many help their families cook at home. What kind of things do you or your family members do to keep things clean while cooking?  Make sure the following are mentioned:

  • Wash your hands before and after handling food.

  • Don’t use the same cutting board you use for raw meats. It needs to be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized after each use.

  • Wash counters and food preparation areas with soap and water before cooking.

  • Wash fruits and vegetables before eating. For example, was the outside of melon before cutting into it.

4. Imagine that you are looking in the refrigerator for a snack. What kind of things do you do to make sure food is safe before eating it?

  • Only eat foods that are cooked right – if it doesn’t look done, don’t eat it.

  • If a food smells or looks different than it normally would, the food might be spoiled and you shouldn’t eat or drink it.

  • Keep leftovers only 3 to 4 days in the fridge and heat them up well before eating.

  • Check expiration dates and use the food before it expires. Don’t eat if it is after the expiration date.

  • Germs grow best at room temperature, so cover and refrigerate food right away to keep the bacteria from growing out of control.

 Activity: Myth or Fact?

Introduce the Myth or Fact quiz explaining that it focuses on ways we can keep our food safe. Use the interactive whiteboard lesson or the worksheet located in the What You Need section above. Have the youth work in small groups or as a large group to complete the activity and see how “food safety savvy” they are.

Conclusion

Now that you have learned more about the potential causes of food poisoning, ask the youth to revisit the list of things they think could have caused the illness in the half of Ms. Carey’s class. Be sure to include the following:

  • Preparing raw meat (the turkeys) in the same place as the sandwiches were being made could have contaminated the sandwiches.

  • The tuna sandwiches might have contained mayonnaise and both tuna and mayonnaise need to be kept chilled.

  • Suzy’s apples weren’t washed.

  • Tou’s salad may have gone bad even though it smelled okay.

  • Victor’s chicken may have been undercooked since he rushed it.

Answer to the activity: Students may not have cleaned their hands after visiting the petting farm.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes these tips, so that families can continue discussing food safety at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Keeping your food safe

Additional Instructor Resources

 

Safe and Fun, In the Sun!

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how to keep their skin safe in the sun. The youth will identify signs of melanoma and take note of any moles to watch on their own bodies.

Introduction

Start by telling the youth that everybody needs some exposure to the sun.  It is our body’s main source of Vitamin D which makes our bones stronger and healthier by absorbing calcium. Most people do not need a lot of sun exposure to get the vitamin D that they need, in fact too much unprotected sun exposure can cause damage to the skin, eyes, and even cause skin cancer.

There are many ways to prevent these dangers.

  • Young people should wear a sunscreen with a SPF (sun protection factor) of 30 or higher while in the sun.
  • They should also be especially careful from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. when the sun is the strongest.
  • It is important that sunscreen is reapplied often, especially after getting the skin wet.
  • It may be helpful to wear long sleeves and a hat to protect the skin from overexposure.
  • Tell the youth that wearing sunglasses with 100% UV (ultraviolet) protection while outside will help protect their eyes from being damaged by the sun.
  • Remind the  young people that their skin can get burned even on cloudy days so make sure to be careful if spending time outside.

If the skin does burn, there are some things you can do to make it feel better.

  • Take a cool bath.
  • Apply pure aloe vera gel to any part of the skin that is sunburned.
  • Use a moisturizing cream to rehydrate the skin to treat itching.

Activity: Body Map

  1. Hand out some laminated photos with different types of skin cancer for the class to pass around.  Tell them that a lot of skin cancers show up in moles. Teach them about the ABCDE’s of a mole (see right). Visit What Does Melanoma Look Like? for more information.
  2. See if the youth  can find any moles on their arms or legs. Have them inspect the mole using the ABCDE’s for skin cancer.
  3. Have each young person make a skin map of their bodies:
    • Hand out a copy of the body ‘map’ using the template provided.
    • Have each young person look at their arms, hands and neck and fill in any moles, birthmarks or freckles they have, onto the body “map.”

ABCDE’s of a Mole

  • A = Is it asymmetric or irregular in shape?
  • B = Does it have a border that is ragged or notched as healthy moles generally don’t.
  • C = Is it a funny color (red, black, mixture of colors)?
  • D = Is it larger in diameter than a pencil eraser?
  • E = Is it evolving or getting bigger? Any change in shape, color, elevation or any new symptom such as bleeding, itching or crusting is a danger sign.

Conclusion

Each young person should bring the body ‘map’ home to have the rest of the body completed with the help of a parent. Tell the youth that they can look back to the body ‘map’ if they see any new or changing spots.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which includes tips for keeping skin safe in the sun and instructions for watching the ABCDE’s of moles.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog(s)

Summer sun protection

Sun protection – we’ve got you covered

Additional Instructor Resources

Sunwise for Kids computer games by EPA.gov

Books:

What Are These Spots On My Skin by Scott Naughton
Skin Sense: A Story about Sun Safety for Young Children by Lori Lehrer-Glickman

Hand-Washing: A Weapon Against Germs!

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand the importance of hand-washing by showing them firsthand how everyday germs start out invisible, but when left unattended grow into something very unappealing. They will review proper hand-washing techniques.

Instructor Notes

Before facilitating this lesson, you may want to review the following information about hand-washing. These facts can be shared with young people during your discussions.

Hand-washing is easy to do. It’s one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of many types of germs in all settings—from your home and workplace to schools and more. Clean hands can stop germs from spreading from one person to another.

When should we wash our hands? You should always wash your hands:

  • before, during, and after preparing food
  • before and after eating food
  • before and after caring for someone who is sick
  • after using the toilet
  • after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing
  • after touching an animal
  • after touching garbage
  • any time they feel or look dirty.

It seems simple and obvious that it’s important, but according to the American Society of Microbiology, 96 percent of people say that they wash their hands after using a public restroom, but during observations conducted as part of a study, only 93 percent of females and 77 percent of males actually do.

Introduction

Fifty percent of young people in middle and high school wash their hands, and of these, only 33 percent of females and eight percent of males use soap. That makes it even more important to wash hands since so many of the same people are touching door handles, tabletops, computer keyboards and so many other things every day. 

  1. Show the video Wash Your Hands by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The 30 seconds long.)
  2. Review the steps covered in the video and the simple directions below for proper hand-washing.
    1. Wet your hands with clean running water (warm or cold). Apply soap.
    2. Rub your hands together to make a lather. Scrub them well. Be sure to scrub the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
    3. Continue rubbing your hands for at least 20 seconds.
    4. Rinse your hands well under running water.
    5. Dry your hands using a clean towel or paper towel. You can also let your hands air dry.
  3. If soap and water are not available, you can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that has at least 60 percent alcohol.
    • Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can quickly reduce the number of germs on hands in some situations, but they do not remove soil and other substances and do not eliminate all types of germs.
    • Also, alcohol-based hand sanitizers are not good at removing elements of food for those who suffer from food allergies.  A child or adult with a severe food allergy could have a reaction if someone else near them has not washed their hands with soap and water and comes in contact with that person.
  4. Remind young people that good hand-washing is one sure way to keep you and others in good health!

Activity: A Slice with Germs

  1. Ask young people to touch their faces, hair, desk or other object to get their hands dirty.
  2. Give each young person a slice (whole or half) of preservative-free, fresh bakery bread and tell them to touch it all over, keeping it flat.
  3. Have young people place the slice of bread in bag with two small drops of water. Seal the bag shut.
  4. Label the bag with the young person’s name and date.
  5. Put all the bread slices in a brown grocery bag. Include one piece of bread in a bag that was untouched.
  6. Seal the grocery bag shut. Place in warm spot.
  7. Each day, have the youth open the brown grocery bag and observe the bread for any changes. Typically it takes about five days to two weeks for good mold growth.
  8. Explain to the youth that the mold is from the germs they had on their hands. Even though we can’t see these germs, they are there. These germs can spread easily and cause us to become sick.
  9. Hand-washing is the simple most effective way to reduce the number of germs on our hands!

Conclusion

Remind young people that hand-washing is the simple and effective way to reduce the number of germs on our hands. Picture the mold your germs grew on the bread to remember how important it is to wash your hands throughout the day!

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing good hand-washing habits at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Practicing good hand-washing techniques will help keep germs away

Additional Instructor Resources

Infection Prevention: Hand Washing video

Quench Your Thirst! The Importance of Water

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Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand why drinking water is important. An Interactive whiteboard lesson teaches facts about the body’s need for water and offers tips to help the youth to drink more water. Using actual healthy and dehydrated plants reinforces the message that all living things need water!

Introduction

Here are some facts to share with the youth about the importance of water.

  • Every part of your body needs water. In fact, water makes up 60 percent of body weight.
  • Dehydration happens when there is not enough water in your body.
  • Mild dehydration can cause headaches, nausea and fatigue (tiredness). You may need more water in hot temperatures or if you sweat a lot.
  • If you’re getting enough water you’ll rarely feel thirsty. Your urine will also be clear or slightly yellow. Dark yellow urine is a sign of dehydration.
  • There has been a significant rise in the intake of beverages with added sugars and excess calories on the market. Most are geared to entice children to consume. These added calorie beverages are contributing to overweight and obesity in our children.
  • Drinking more water is one of the simplest things you can do to be healthier.

Activity: Plants

  1. Ask the young people if they think it would be a good idea to give small children, animals, or plants pop or a sports/energy drink? What would happen to them if they did? Possible answers include:
    • sick
    •  tired
    •  wouldn’t grow normally
    •  may even die.
  2. Show young people the healthy and unhealthy plant. Point out the differences between the healthy watered plant and the unhealthy plant. Healthy plants are full of color and stand tall and firm. Unhealthy plants sag, lack bright color, look wilted or limp.
  3. What do you think may happen to our bodies if we stopped drinking mostly water and drank pop, fruit drinks, sports/energy drinks instead? Or if we simply stopped drinking much at all? The answers are the same as for animals, babies and plants, but may include more diseases, injuries, our organs not working right, headaches, not thinking as clearly, or extra weight. Drinks other than water have added ingredients that can get in the way of the water’s ability to do what it’s supposed to do for us.

Water is what human beings, animals and plants were meant to drink! Drinking water actually helps you stay healthy!

Activity: Getting Enough Water

Use the interactive whiteboard, if available, to guide the youth through the following questions in the lesson (see What You Need).

  1. What percentage of our bodies are made up of water? Correct answer: 60%
  2. Why do you think we need to drink water when our bodies already have so much of it? The answers may include the information listed in the introduction above.
  3. So, we know that water is good for us, but do we know why? Ask the youth what they think water actually does in the body, and which things it doesn’t do.
    • Keeps our body temperatures normal
    • Lubricates and cushions joints
    • Makes your hair grow faster (false)
    • Helps your kidneys work correctly
    • Makes you sleepy (false)
    • Protects your spinal cord
    • Helps digestion
    • Helps your body get rid of waste
    • Helps you float better when you are swimming (false)

Conclusion

Your ideas

Ask young people for ideas or tips they have for drinking more water each day. Possible ideas include:

  • fill a reusable water bottle and take it with you when you go places

  • drink water and milk with every meal

  • drink a glass of water when you wake up in the morning

  • keep cold water in a pitcher in the fridge.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes these tips, so that families can continue discussing the importance of drinking enough water at home. Find more health lesson plans to encourage healthy habits for kids.

Additional Instructor Resources

There Are Sneaky Sugars! – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)
Water: Meeting Your Daily Fluid Needs
Don’t wait until you are thirsty