Lesson Overview

Bodies get a lot of attention in our society, some of it not very positive, much of it focused on appearance more than actual health. This lesson helps young people understand different components that make up the structure of the human body. Youth will learn how eating and exercise habits influence how much muscle and fat each person has inside their body.

Instructor Notes

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

• Body weight is the combination of muscle, fat, organs, fluid, tendons, ligaments, and bones.
• The human body is made up of about 600 to 700 muscles.
• Voluntary muscles attached to the skeleton allow the body to move, while involuntary muscles allow the movement of internal organs.
• Voluntary muscles are the muscles that you can move by thinking about it. You can flex your bicep muscle by lifting up your arm and “showing how strong you are.” They are called voluntary because you can make the decision to do it, just like you can volunteer to wash dishes after dinner. Involuntary muscles are those muscles that work automatically; you do not have to think about digesting your food, or flexing your own heart to pump blood around your body.
• Ligaments are tissues connecting bones to other bones to form joints.
• Tendons connect muscle to bone.
• Bone is hardened connective tissue that supports the body, protects organs, and aids movement of the body. Bones store minerals, these minerals are phosphorus, magnesium, fluoride and calcium, and are involved in cell formation. The body is made up of 206 bones.
• The heart is an organ. It is also a muscle that pumps blood through the body.
• The lungs are organs that exchange oxygen from the air with carbon dioxide from the blood.
• Fat is unused energy.
• The intestines absorb nutrition from food to be used by the body. They allow the nutrients to enter the blood.
• The stomach releases enzymes that break down food into nutrients that can be used by the body.

Introduction

Show the youth the two containers (don’t show the inside). One box is filled with a heavy item the other a lighter item.

Ask: Can you tell what is inside? Both boxes are full.

Let the young people handle the boxes, feeling the differences in weight.

Ask: Do you think both boxes have the same materials inside? Why?

Explain that you can’t tell what is inside the packages by looking at the outside. Our body is just like these packages. We see the outside, but do not know what is inside. Each body is different. All of our bodies have: muscle, fat, organs, fluid, tendons, ligaments, and bones. All these combined make up our total weight.

Activity: Body Components

Looking at how the body is put together will help young people understand that everybody is different. Each person has a unique body and unique needs. Introduce 5 components of the human body.

If you have access to a projector and the proper software, use the the interactive whiteboard files to guide young people through learning about the parts of the body. In unavailable, discuss the following facts with the youth.

• Your body is made up of five separate components, each of which has an important role:
  • Bones give you height and support your body. How many bones do you have in your body?  206
  • Muscles give you movement and strength. How many muscles do you have in your body? 600 to 700
  • Internal organs support life. Can you name some of your organs? Skin, stomach, intestines, liver, spleen, pancreas, heart, brain, lungs, gall bladder, kidneys, and bladder.
  • Skin keeps you together and your organs inside your body.
  • Fat keeps you warm, protected, and provides stored energy.
• All of these components change with age and level of activity.
• Two people could look alike on the outside and weigh the same, but be very different on the inside. Our eating and exercise habits, along with age and genetics, determine how much muscle and fat each person has inside their body. Eating healthy and being active helps our bodies in the following ways:
  • strengthens our muscles
  • keeps our heart, lungs, and bones strong
  • helps build the right amount of protection and stored energy
  • and helps our organs work properly.

If we eat unhealthily and are not active, our muscles and bones become weak, our heart and lungs have to work harder to do their jobs, and sometimes we store extra fat our bodies do not need.

Ask: What happens to your body when you get older (grow taller, gain weight, muscles become stronger)? What are some activities we can do to keep our bodies healthy as we get older? What are some foods we should eat to keep our bodies healthy as we get older? What kinds of food and activities could make you unhealthy and be bad for your body?

Conclusion

Point out that our human beings are amazing and complex! Encourage young people to try to make choices every day that help their bodies be healthy, strong and fit.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish so that families can continue discussing body composition at home.

Additional Instructor Resources

• Body Composition on Reference.com
• Midwest Dairy Council Bone Health Brochure

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how their hearts work and why it is important to keep them healthy. The youth may participate in any of the five activities that teach how the heart delivers oxygen-rich blood to every part of the body.

Instructor Notes

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

Your heart is a muscle that pumps oxygen-rich blood to your body and brings oxygen-poor blood back to your heart and lungs. Your blood travels through several miles of blood vessels. The cells in your body need the oxygen to survive.

Your heart is located near the middle of your chest, slightly to the left. This tough muscle is about the size of an adult fist, and it weighs about one pound. The average human heart beats 72 beats per minute.

We work to keep our hearts healthy to help avoid these serious and relatively common health problems:

• Heart disease – Fatty deposits can form and harden in the arteries of your heart. This material, or plaque, narrows the arteries in a process called atherosclerosis, which can restrict blood flow to your heart. The more plaque in your arteries, the greater your risk for a heart attack.
• High blood pressure – Blood pressure is the amount of pressure within the walls of arteries. Many factors can cause high blood pressure including having too much salt. High blood pressure puts stress on your blood vessel walls. There are usually no signs or symptoms. The silent condition can lead to:
  • heart attack
  • heart failure
  • stroke
  • kidney disease.
• Stroke – A stroke happens when blood and oxygen flow to the brain is stopped or interrupted. This happens because of a ruptured or blocked blood vessel. A stroke is similar to a heart attack and just as serious.
• Heart attack – Heart attack happens when an artery becomes blocked with plaque or a clot. When blood cannot flow to the heart, damage or death to the heart muscle may occur.
• Sudden cardiac arrest – This is a sudden loss of heart function caused by an abnormal heart rhythm. Heart and breathing stop. Death can occur without immediate help. Sudden cardiac arrest is sometimes referred to as a “massive heart attack.” Sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, anywhere at anytime.

Introduction

Provide young people with information on the human heart.

According to the American Heart Association, the normal human heart is a strong, muscular pump a little larger than a fist. Each day an average heart “beats” (expands and contracts) 100,000 times and pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood. Red blood cells carry oxygen. In a 70-year lifetime, an average human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times.

Now let’s take a closer look at our hearts and how they are connected to our overall health and physical fitness. The more oxygen your body gets the more energy you will have.

Ask the young people to take slow deep breaths to help their bodies build up a supply of oxygen. Does it feel different when they pay attention to their breathing? The higher a person’s heart rate the greater the demand for oxygen. In other words, as your heart rate goes up so does the need for more oxygen. We breathe harder, pulling more air into our system which eventually goes into our bloodstream.

Activities

Here are five heart health activities:

1. Have the young people each make a fist and squeeze their bicep (upper-arm) muscle, then relax. Now have the young people flex their quadriceps (thigh muscle), then relax. Next, tell the young people to flex their “heart.” Pause while the young people realize they can’t voluntarily move their heart. The heart is a muscle but not one we can flex when we tell ourselves to do so. Therefore, we need exercise to get the heart muscle to flex and get a good workout.
2. Have the young people lay their forearms on their desktops, palm up. Have them gently make a fist then release the fist fully and rhythmically, as many times as they can for one minute. As you are timing the minute, observe how the young people react.  Is the exercise getting hard? Are some young people pacing themselves? Did some quit before the minute was up?  Review what you observed with the youth. Tell them that even though they may be getting tired after just one minute of opening and closing their fist, their heart needs to pump all day long, everyday without taking a break. Explain that when the heart is filling with blood, it is like the hand when it is open, and when the heart is pumping blood to the rest of the body, it is like the hand squeezing into the fist. This is why it’s important for us to get exercise because it strengthens muscles in our body including the heart muscle. The stronger the heart, the easier the pumping.
3. Refer young people to the Healthy Heart word find worksheet. Allow five minutes to complete the word find. Next review the “everyday heart health tips” listed on the handout. Write the young people’s heart health ideas in an area where they can see the full list. Encourage youth to write their heart health tips in the space provided on the handout.
4. Pass out one activity chart per young person. Read the instructions aloud. They are to take the activity chart home and track their physical activity for one week. The goal is to get 60 minutes of physical activity each day. Note – They will receive bonus minutes if a family member is physically active with them.
5. What’s your heart rate?
   • Your heart rate is the number of times your heart beats each minute. This amount will increase with activity.
   • To check your heart rate, place your index (pointer) finger and middle finger on the side of your neck (carotid artery). Count the number of beats for 60 seconds. You can also count for 30 seconds and then multiply by 2.
   • The number counted is your heart rate or how many beats per minute your heart is currently beating.
   • Your heartbeat can also be felt by placing your hand over your heart or by placing two fingers (excluding thumb) on the inside of their wrist. Young people can do this before and after physical activity to get an idea of the speed at which their heart beats in comparison to their physical activity level.

Conclusion

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish so that families can continue discussing heart health at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Stay active to keep your heart healthy

Additional Instructor Resources

www.HeartRescueNow.com

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people define “screen time” and potential problems with spending too much time looking at electronic screens.  They will analyze how much of their day they spend in front of electronic screens and think of healthy ways to limit their screen time.

Introduction

Help the youth define screentime by asking these questions and discussing as a group:

• What exactly is screen time? (Screen time includes time spent in front of the TV, computer, phone/texting, or video game playing.)
• How much screen time do you have?
• What are some ways you can cut down on screen time?

Activity: How Much Screen Time Do You Have?

Ask young people to write down their screen time each day for one week. They track their total numbers of hours each day. It could also help for them to write down what type of screen time it is. This will give them a visual sense of how they’re spending their time throughout the week.

After young people have tracked their screen time for a week, discuss the group’s results with the following questions:

• How much screen time do you usually have in the morning, before school? Is this your routine just about every morning?
• Do you have any screen time during school? How much?
• What about after school, before dinner?
• How about during dinner?
• How about at night, after dinner?
• How about on Saturdays? Sundays?

Young people might be surprised by how much screen time pediatricians (doctors who take care of children) think is healthy for youth to have each day.

Ask the youth, how much for kids 2 years old and younger? (Have the young people write down a number.)

Next, how much for kids older than 2? (Again, have them write down a number.)

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the following for screen time:

• Children younger than 18 months: No screen time, except for video-chatting.
• Children 18 months to 24 months: If you want to introduce screen time to your child, choose high-quality programs and watch them with your child.
• Children age 2 to 5: Limit your child to 1 hour or less of high-quality programs each day. Watch these programs with your child to help him/her better understand them.
• Children age 6 and older: Set a screen time limit that is right for your child and the whole family. It’s important that screen time never replaces healthful behaviors such as physical activity, sleep and interaction with others.

Ask the young people, how do you feel about this? Does it surprise you? (Getting feedback from them will help them to feel like they’re part of this process.)

Can you guess what some of the reasons are for why you should only have two hours or less? Ask them for their ideas, but make sure they get this message:

• One of the main reasons is that the more screen time you have, the more time you spend sitting or lying down, and not really moving your body.
• The less time you spend moving your body, the higher the chances are that you could end up having too much extra weight on your body.
• Extra weight can cause health problems now, and when you get just a little older. Health problems include: weaker heart and bones, high blood pressure, and diabetes. These conditions used to only be found in older people, now pediatricians are seeing younger kids with these conditions.

Activity: Cutting down screen time

Now we need to take a look at the amount of time you spend in front of a screen each day to figure out ways to get it to about two hours or less, if it’s not there already. Here are some simple things you can do:

• Try to remember to turn off the television if nobody’s really watching.
• Plan ahead! Look at the shows that are going to be on each day, and choose which ones would be good to watch.
• Turn off the television and games when eating meals.
• Avoid eating while at the computer or watching TV. This helps keep us from eating too much.
• Set a timer to help us remember to get away from the TV or computer or whatever screen we’re using, because it’s easy to lose track of time when you’re in front of a screen.

Ask the youth to come up with some ideas of things they would like to do to replace screen time with other things. And let’s make them things that will be fun to do as a family, or fun for you to do with your friends, or sometimes just fun for you on your own.

Remind young people that this is just one of many lessons about breaking habits that aren’t so healthful and replacing them with habits that are healthful. Changing habits is challenging for everybody—kids and parents. We can all help each other, and remind each other we’re doing this to make improvements in our health, but also to have fun together as a family.

Conclusion

Set screen time goals for the next week. Some examples include:

• Turn the television off if nobody’s really watching it.
• Eat our food in the kitchen or dining room. No screen time while eating!
• Do not text during family meals or other time set aside for family activities.

Keep track of your screen time each day. When you’ve reached two hours, replace your screen time with a healthy activity. If you’ve had plenty of exercise already, read a book, make artwork or crafts, or even just have a conversation with other family members.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which also includes these tips, so that families can continue discussing ways to limit screen time at home.

Additional Instructor Resources

Decreasing Screen Time Article

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people visualize how much milk they should drink each day by pouring 8 ounces into each of three glasses. The youth will complete a milk-themed maze activity. Optionally, the young people can photograph themselves with milk mustaches to remind them to drink milk each day.

Introduction

1. Talk with the youth about why drinking milk is good for them.
   Drinking milk will:
   • give your body important nutrients like calcium and vitamin D to help your bones grow strong
   • give your body protein to help build strong muscles.
2. Ask the youth, what could happen if your body doesn’t get enough calcium?
   Answer: Your bones can get weak and could easily break.
   If you’re allergic to cow’s milk, you can try fortified “milk” made from soy, rice, coconut or almonds. If that doesn’t sound too good, you can also:
   • drink calcium-enriched orange juice
   • eat vegetables rich in calcium, such as cooked broccoli and spinach.
3. How much milk should you have each day?
   Answer: For most kids your age, three 8-ounce glasses of milk each day is enough to give your body all the calcium and protein it needs.

Activity

1. To show how much milk a young person should drink each day, pour 8 ounces of milk into three glasses.
2. Ask for feedback from the youth: Are they surprised with the amount? Did they think they needed to drink more or less?
3. Give each young person a glass or carton of milk and ask them to try and make a milk mustache. (Offer a milk substitute such as soy milk for young people who cannot have cow’s milk.)
4. Optional: Take a group photo of the young people with their milk mustaches to hang in your classroom as a reminder to drink milk every day.
5. Have the youth complete the milk maze.

Conclusion

Remind the young people that drinking milk is good for their bones, muscles, and overall health. Ask them to count how many 8 ounce glasses of milk they have to drink today. Will they get to 3 glasses? Count again tomorrow and remember to get enough milk every day!

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue to talk about drinking milk getting enough calcium at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Healthy snacking: Moving beyond milk and cookies

Additional Instructor Resources

• Children’s Bone Health and Calcium
• Midwest Dairy Council Bone Health Brochure

Lesson Overview

This lesson will help young people understand gluten allergy and gluten sensitivity. They will look for gluten in the food groups on MyPlate and think of ways to be kind to those who follow a gluten-free diet.

Instructor Notes

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

• Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley and triticale. (Experts recommend only consuming oats labeled gluten-free as cross-contact may occur when oats are grown side-by-side with wheat, barley or rye.) This includes a lot of foods you probably eat everyday like bread, cookies, crackers and pasta.
• The gluten in bread makes it soft and spongy. Gluten helps baked goods like bread, cakes and muffins rise and hold their shape. It also acts like glue to help food such as crackers to not crumble.
• There are many health claims surrounding following a gluten-free diet, some of which are not supported by scientific studies. Many believe that eating a gluten-free diet is healthier and will increase energy levels. This can be true if a well-executed gluten-free eating plan is established. It often means buying fewer processed foods and eating more fresh, fiber-rich fruits and vegetables. If not carefully planned gluten containing foods are often swapped for more highly processed foods, which is an unhealthful way of eating.
• Gluten is harmless for most people, except those with celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity.
• Celiac disease damages the small intestine and keeps the body from using nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot eat any food that has gluten. Their immune system responds to the gluten by damaging the small intestine. It can cause gas, bloating and diarrhea. They may also have a headache and feel really tired. If not treated it can affect growth and cause damage to the nervous system. It can also cause people to be malnourished.
• A gluten sensitivity is similar to celiac disease, but it does not damage the small intestine or affect growth and development. Eating gluten may cause someone with a gluten sensitivity to feel sick, but the person’s body will still be able to use the nutrients from the food he or she eats. Other symptoms someone may have who is gluten sensitive is “foggy mind”, depression, abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, gas, constipation, headaches, bone or joint pain, and chronic fatigue when they eat gluten containing foods. They will want to eat gluten-free so they feel better every day.
• Food you eat has many nutrients (vitamins, minerals and calories) to help you be healthy. When people who shouldn’t eat foods with gluten in them do, their bodies will not be able to use the nutrients as they should.
• Common gluten-free grains include rice, corn (maize), soy, potatoes, beans, quinoa (KEEN-wah), tapioca, millet, sorghum, buckwheat, flax, chia seeds, teff, nut flours and gluten-free oats. Despite the name “buckwheat”, there is no wheat or gluten found in buckwheat and instead it is actually a relative to rhubarb.
• Other gluten-free foods include fruits, vegetables, fresh meat and eggs.
• It isn’t always clear which foods have gluten in them. It can be very challenging to try to eat only foods that are gluten-free. People who have to eat this way get very good at reading nutrition fact labels to see if a food is gluten-free or not.
• People who have food allergies, sensitivities or other restrictions often have to deal with people not understanding their situation. Sometimes other people can be unkind about it, or put their friends at risk by not being careful.

Introduction

Give some background on gluten and gluten-free foods.

• Show the youth grains that have gluten: wheat, rye, barley.
• Show the youth examples of grains that do not have gluten, such as rice, quinoa, corn and others listed above.
• Show the youth how on MyPlate the gluten-free grains fit into the same orange section as the grains with gluten.

Activity: Gluten-free Foods on MyPlate

Go to MyPlate. Click on each food group, one at a time, to explore which foods are gluten-free. Within each food group, click on “View Food Gallery” and click through the slideshow to have the young people guess which of the foods are gluten-free.

• Fruit: All gluten-free.
• Vegetables: All gluten-free.
• Grains: Brown rice, popcorn and white rice are gluten-free. (Note: Many cereals have other things added to them that have gluten even if they are made from corn. Cornbread is only gluten-free if it is made in a special way without regular flour.)
• Protein: All fresh cuts of meat, nuts and seeds and beans are gluten free. (Note: Deli meat is usually not gluten-free unless it is made especially for people who cannot eat gluten. The gluten-free deli meats will be labeled “gluten-free.”
• Dairy: Milk, soymilk and cheese are gluten-free. (Note:  Yogurt, pudding and frozen yogurt may all have gluten in them because of added flavorings. Always check the label to see if a product is gluten-free.)
• Oils: All oils are gluten-free as long as the one type of oil is the only ingredient in the ingredient list.
• Special consideration: Even though potatoes are naturally gluten free, when you deep fry them to make French Fries they can be cross contaminated with other gluten foods that were fried in the same oil.

Activity: Gluten-free Birthday Party

1. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of someone who needs to avoid gluten. We are going to act out a story about a birthday party. A boy named Logan has celiac disease and needs to avoid eating gluten. All of his friends can eat foods with gluten, including the tasty birthday cake. As you are acting out the story, remember how hard it would be for someone like Logan to not be able to eat the same food as his friends.
2. Read the following story out loud: Logan has celiac disease. On Friday night, he goes to his friend Andrew’s birthday party. A birthday cake made with wheat flour is served, but there is also a special cupcake for Logan. Some of the other friends tease Logan and are rude. They seem to be jealous about the special treatment. Alex stands up for his friend Logan and helps explain that celiac is a serious disease.
3. Break the youth up into small groups to act out the story. Walk around and offer ideas for what Alex could say when he stands up for Logan. If young people need prompting in how to address the topic in a positive way, Alex could respond that he wanted everyone to feel special at the birthday party without excluding anybody for any reason.  The gluten-free cupcake was just one consideration of the needs of the friends invited to the party.
4. Then ask for a few volunteers or one small group to act out their storyline to the entire group. Discuss.

Activity: Word Find

Pass out the Gluten Word Find and instruct young people to find all 18 foods that contain gluten. The answers can be found on the Gluten Word Find Answer Key.

Conclusion

Remind young people that it can be very challenging to try to eat only foods that are gluten-free. Ask the youth to pay attention to nutrition labels and notice how many of the things they eat contain gluten. If they have a classmate or friend who can’t eat gluten, think of ways they help that person from being left out when food or treats are given out at special events.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can practice spotting gluten in their meals at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog(s)

The dish on gluten

What you need to know about food allergies

Food Allergy Awareness for the School Year

Additional Instructor Resources

Does My Child Need a Gluten-Free Diet?

Gluten-Free Diet

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people think about the ways their bodies give them signals telling them when they need to eat. They will use a worksheet to track their hunger before and after a snack and learn that tracking your hunger can keep you from overeating.

Introduction

Ask the youth, what does a baby do when it is hungry? Usually he or she cries or whimpers. A dog might do the same thing…bark or whine to let us know it’s time to eat.

Inform the youth that our bodies let us know in much the same way when we are starting to feel hungry. How? Maybe our stomach growls, we get a headache, we become cranky or irritable, or feel tired or weak. It takes about 10-15 minutes once we have started eating for our bodies to notice the change. The feeling of fullness is the result of your brain reacting to chemicals and hormones that are released when you eat. Your brain can take up to 20 minutes to register these chemicals before you are signaled you are getting full. Therefore, it’s important to eat slowly enough to give ourselves time to adjust. Our bodies send signals that we’ve had enough, like our belly actually feeling a bit more filled up. If we eat too much too fast we can’t notice those cues until it is too late and we feel extremely full and uncomfortable.

Here’s a simple way to gauge before, during and after eating what state we’re in:

😐 = Pretty hungry, my stomach feels empty

🙂 = Just right! Not too hungry or too full; satisfied

🙁 = Too full, I ate too much

This language of hunger is different from the cravings we feel when we smell our favorite food or see something delicious looking in a magazine. That’s our thoughts telling us, “Wow…I sure would like to taste that,” no matter whether our body is hungry or not.

Being hungry is different from craving and we can teach ourselves to better listen to our bodies to know the difference.

Activity

1. Ask the young people to make a fist. Tell them that their stomachs are about the same size as their fist.
2. Ask the following questions to further explore the topic of hunger:
   • How would your stomach feel if you put too much food in – two or three times the size of your fist? (Sore, bloated, sticking out)
   • How would your stomach feel if you didn’t put enough food in or if you missed having a meal or a snack? (Pain, rumbling)
   • Would it feel this way if you saw a piece of cake on the counter that you thought looked really delicious? Or if you smelled your favorite meal cooking? (You might feel these things for a short while when you are having a craving, but if you take a few minutes to pay attention they will go away. A craving won’t make you feel hunger that lasts.)
   • What if you put just the right amount of food in your stomach— about the same amount as your fist? How would it feel? (Content, not stuffed, good, nice, satisfied)
3. Let’s enjoy a snack in an amount that is a little bit smaller than our fists, or the size of our stomachs, but let’s first think about how hungry we actually are so that we don’t eat too much and get those uncomfortable feelings.
4. Pass out the Kids Hunger Tracker worksheet. Ask the youth to fill in the first line, writing down today’s date and then drawing the appropriate face in the “Before the Meal” column.
5. Then pass out the snack. Encourage young people to eat slowly and chew the food well. Have them notice the flavor and taste and how their bodies feel. Encourage them to stop when they feel satisfied regardless of whether the food is gone.
6. After the snack, have them complete the final column on the worksheet.

Conclusion

Encourage young people to use the worksheet over the next several days to track their hunger and see what they notice. The more they practice this mindful approach, the more attuned they will become to their bodies’ food needs.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

‘Tis the season to take note of your hunger cues

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing the ways that young people know they are hungry and when they have eaten enough.

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how they can change their perspective to a more positive view by practicing new ways of thinking, or mental models. The youth will learn about the Five Pillars of Excellence, which can help identify what we want and how to get there. They will learn how to use the Mind-Power for Life™ meditation technique to help them change their thinking in order to thrive.

Introduction

In this lesson you will learn about the Five Pillars of Excellence that can help with a “mental remix”— identifying what you want and understanding how to get there.

Introduce the youth to the Five Pillars of Excellence through the Mental Remix Online Learning Activity. Young people may explore the lesson independently on computers or mobile devices, or the presentation can be projected to the classroom’s SMART or Promethean Board.

Five Pillars of Excellence

Below is a text-based version of the content in the Mental Remix Online Learning Activity.

In order to achieve anything in life you need to know what you’re aiming for, not what you’re trying to avoid. It’s strange but true that the more you concentrate on what you don’t want the more you get exactly that. Unfortunately, that happens to a lot of us frequently. However, when you can learn to create pictures in your mind of the things you really hope for, sometimes called a mental model, you’re much more likely to get what you want.

Five Pillars of Excellence

1. Know what you want — Have you ever asked a friend what he wants to eat and he says he doesn’t care, but rejects every suggestion you make?? It’s so frustrating! It makes it almost impossible to make a choice. People make better decisions, achieve more success and are happier when they know what they want instead of what they don’t want. You’ll probably do better on that math test, for example, if you know what grade you are hoping to get rather than just that you don’t want to fail.
2. Be flexible — No matter how much you plan and act in certain ways, there is so much that is out of your control. You can’t, for example, make a teacher like you. You can’t control her or his feelings. What you are able to change is what you do. In the long run, this will change the results you get. So you can work hard, be respectful, help out in class, and then see what happens. It will probably make a difference!
3. Learn from experience —To achieve success and reach your goals, you have to know if you are getting closer or further away. Another way to think of this is that there are no failures, only feedback. A failure signifies an end…a defeat. Getting feedback is different. It implies learning. Shifting your mindset away from the idea of failure toward all information being feedback allows you to keep going, keep trying and keep moving toward the result you want, even when the going gets tough.
4. Take action now—The only way to make change is to change. Action is your only option. What are you willing to do right now to get you moving toward what you want?
5. Treat your whole self with care. There is a saying that goes, “Garbage in, garbage out,” meaning that what we bring into our lives, what we feed ourselves, physically, emotionally, intellectually and so on, has a direct result on what we get out of our lives. The more we care for ourselves, the more benefits we reap, which impacts our ability to think straight and have a positive frame of mind.

Activity

Meditation is a mental remixing strategy. Lead the young people through a short practice meditation and then consider making it part of your regular classroom routine.

Mind Power for Life™ Technique

1. Start by breathing in through your nose and breathing out through your mouth. Breathe out longer than you breathe in. Keep breathing like this during the exercise.
2. With your eyes open, focus your attention on a point in the distance. Allow your eyes to relax and your awareness of what’s around you to expand. You’ll start to notice space and things you can see off to the side. (Peripheral Awareness)
3. Start thinking and saying to yourself “I am.” Try to say it while you’re breathing. Breathe in while saying “I.” Breathe out while saying “am.”
4. Get a picture in your mind of what you want for the moment or day. Maybe it’s to be very calm and relaxed, or focused, or energetic. Whatever it is, let go of the image, while continuing the breathing, saying to yourself, “I am.”
5. When you are ready to complete the process of the meditation reverse steps 3-1.

Meditation can be done for as little as 5-20 minutes, once or twice a day.

Any one of the above steps can also be done separately if you need an extra mental “boost.” Using one part of the technique alone will work better if you are already really good at doing the whole technique.

Conclusion

It has been said by different people in different ways that we see things not based on the way they are, but on how we are. Mental remix helps us see the world in new and more hopeful ways, thus helping us be the very best, and happiest, we can be.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, which includes some additional meditation instructions so that young people and families can practice the Mental Remix at home.

Additional Instructor Resources

Meditation FAQs

Getting the Most out of Meditation

ChangeToChill.org by Allina Health

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand where healthy food comes from. The youth will discuss what kind of plants produce their favorite fruits and vegetables. Then they will try out gardening themselves by planting some bean seeds and watching the plants grow.

Introduction

1. Ask the young people where our food comes from. Give the youth a couple of minutes to share with another person where they think certain fruits and vegetables grow.  Discuss their thoughts as a group. You may want to mention the following points:
   • All food has to “grow” somewhere, whether it’s an animal for meat, grains for processing into flour and other products, or artificial flavorings made in a lab to mimic whole food flavors found in nature. Artificial flavorings and colors are used in some candies and flavored drink mixes.
   • It’s good to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible. Fruits and vegetables are the easiest type of food to find in a natural state. That means that not much has been done to them before they get to us. Foods that come in boxes and can be stored on shelves for months, for example, have been processed and have had things added to them to preserve them long before they get to us, in particular lots of them may have added sugar.
   • The sugar that is in fruits is different from the sugar in candy. The sugar in fruit is a natural sugar that is not made from many different chemicals like those found in candy, cookies, cereal and other sweetened treats, that’s known as processed sugar. Foods direct from the earth, no matter how sweet, are the healthiest foods for people to eat. So just where do our fruits and vegetables come from? Fruits and vegetables grow in many different ways. They can grow on trees like apples do, or they can grow underground from a root like a carrot. They also grow on vines and bushes.
2. Download the interactive whiteboard activity from the What You Need section above. The goal of the activity is to match up the fruit or vegetable with the growing location whether it’s underground, above ground on the surface, or on a tree.
3. Were they able to match certain fruits and vegetables to the type of plant they grow on such as underground, on a vine or in a tree?

Activity: Plant a Garden

1. Talk about: Why are gardens healthy? Growing a garden can be beneficial in more ways than just getting healthy food. Gardening can help people relax. It can also be a time for family bonding if you work together in the garden. Gardening can even be a type of physical activity. Furthermore, seeds are cheap to buy, so why not grow your own food and save some money?

2. Plant a mini garden. Have the young people plant their own green beans. You can split the youth into groups of four so they can plant one as a group, or you can hand out clear plastic cups to all young people to plant their own. However you wish to do this, you will need to handout a clear plastic cup (16 ounces) to everyone who will be planting seeds. Follow these steps for a successful gardening project:

   • Each young person or group will need to write their names on the cup so they know whose is whose.

   • Next use a thumbtack to poke a few holes in the bottom of the cup to let the extra water drain.

   • Once this is done, each cup will need to be loosely packed half way with potting soil. Make sure the soil is moist/damp.

   • Then place 5 to 6 seeds near the side of the cup so the youth are able to see them grow through the clear cup.

   • Cover the seeds with more moist soil to the top of the cup, and lightly pack it.

   • Place plastic wrap over the cups to help keep in the moisture, and place near a window for sunlight.

   • Once you see the beans starting to sprout, remove the plastic wrap and water as needed.

   • Continue to keep the cup in the sun.

   • The cups may need to be put into some sort of tray so the water doesn’t leak.

Activity: Veggie Scramble

If time allows, hand out the Veggie Scramble worksheet. Allow the youth time to complete the word puzzles, then share the correct answers from the Veggie Scramble Answer Key.  This worksheet may also be sent home as an enrichment activity.

Conclusion

You can keep the cups in the classroom and note their progress. This provides great informal, ongoing opportunities to talk about nutrition and health. Or you can have the young people bring plants home and care for them there. In that case you can, if you like, ask for periodic reports on how they are growing. Either way, once their plant has grown big enough, young people can transfer their seedlings into a big garden or larger pot at home!

Continuing the Conversation

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

Related Health Powered Kids Blog(s)

• So our food isn’t grown in a grocery store?
• Grow your own healthy food this summer

Additional Instructor Resources

What Kind of Sugar is in Your Food? Handout – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)

Lesson Overview 

This lesson helps young people get acquainted with MyPlate and how it can be used as a visual tool for a lifetime of healthy eating. They will explore the food groups that are represented on MyPlate and analyze a meal of their own by drawing it on a paper plate. Finally, youth will reflect on the food they eat and how they can make more balanced meal choices in the future.

Introduction

Ask the youth: Why do we need to learn about the right foods to eat, and how much food to eat?

Allow the young people time to give their answers, but make sure they understand:

• Eating healthful food keeps our brain, heart, muscles, and bones growing and developing well. The right amount of food helps us feel good and have plenty of energy. It even helps us learn better in school.
• If we eat too much of certain foods and not enough of others, we could end up hurting instead of helping our bodies.

Tell the youth that one way to learn about healthful foods, and healthful amounts of food, is with MyPlate.

Ask the young people: What do you know about MyPlate?

MyPlate is a tool that helps show us what kinds of foods we should eat every day and how much of those foods we should eat. Its message is simple: eating a variety of colorful foods from the five food groups at each meal helps our bodies stay healthy.

Note: Instructors should be aware of young people with special nutrition needs including food allergies and intolerances. Instructors should clarify to those young people that it is okay that they follow special food guidelines set by their parents and/or doctors.

Activity: Getting to know MyPlate

Explore each section of section of MyPlate on the interactive whiteboard lesson (see What You Need) or the ChooseMyPlate.Gov website. Click on each of the sections and read some examples aloud. Discuss the information about the foods included in the different food groups.

• Click on the Grains section, to see the differences between whole and refined grains. Emphasize that we want at least half of our grains to come from whole, unprocessed sources.

• Click on the Vegetables section to see the five subgroups of vegetables. Emphasize that the deeper, darker colored vegetables will be higher in nutritional value.

• Click on the Fruits section to see whether frozen or canned fruits are okay, and also to see whether or not 100% fruit juice counts as a fruit.

• Click on the Dairy section to see what kind of dairy foods are best to choose.

• Click on the Protein Foods section to see what kinds of choices are best and how to get variety.

• Fats and Oils (butter, mayonnaise, oils found in fried foods) are not considered a food group, but are part of one’s daily food intake.

• If using the interactive whiteboard lesson, practice by sorting the foods into the food groups. Can you name other foods to put in the different sections of MyPlate?

Activity: Color Your Plate

Just for fun, let’s think about a meal we’ve eaten recently. It’s time to bring out the paper plates! Pass out paper plates to young people.

Ask young people to draw, list, or cut and paste the foods they had for one meal on their paper plate. Remind them to include drinks.  For example, if they had a grilled cheese sandwich and milk, those items could be listed, drawn, or cut and glued onto the plate.

When the group is finished, review the paper plate activity and invite young people to share with the class what is on their plate:

• How does your plate compare with MyPlate?

• What food item could you add to include more food groups?

• What food/drink could you have less of or substitute with another food/drink to make it more like MyPlate?

• Are there any food items on your plate that are not part of the five food groups?  (fats, oils, added sugars)

Remind the youth that eating foods not in the five food groups is OK in small amounts as long as they are eating most of their foods for the day from the five food groups.

Conclusion

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish so that families can continue discussing healthy meals at home.

Additional Instructor Resources

• Build A Healthful Bagged Lunch! – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)
• Build A Healthful School Lunch! – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)
• Check the Nutrition Facts Label! – (Russian) – (Somali) – (Spanish)
• Mix-And-Match-to-Build-a-Healthful-Lunch!
• MyPlate: Introducing MyPlate video
• Choose A Variety of Foods Video
• Putting MyPlate Into Action video

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how important sleep is to growing bodies and minds. The youth will determine how many hours of sleep they should get each night and learn how to track healthy sleeping habits in a sleep diary.

Introduction

Introduce the topic of sleep by asking the questions below and facilitating a discussion with the participants’ answers.

How many hours should kids sleep every night? Let young people guess first. Then tell them the answer according to the following guidelines:

• ages 3 to 10: 10 to 12 hours each day
• ages 11 to 12: about 10 hours each day
• teenagers (ages 13 to 17): about nine hours each day.

Then ask them: OK, so if you get up at (use an example of a time they might get up), what time should you go to sleep at night to make sure you get enough hours in? Help young people figure this out if they cannot do it on their own.

Why do kids need plenty of sleep? Let the youth answer, but make sure they understand the following reasons why sleep is important:

• Sleep plays an important role in healthy growth and development. Your body needs the deep rest it gets during sleep to help your muscles, bones, and skin prevent injury and illness and helps your brain develop well.
• Sleep also helps you remember what you learn, pay attention and concentrate, solve problems and think of new ideas. Studies show that people can focus better when they’ve had enough sleep, that’s especially important during school. Having enough sleep simply makes you feel better during the day.

Is all sleep the same? Let young people answer first and then explain that just like nature is full of cycles (the earth rotates, causing cycles of light and darkness – day and night; the moon has cycles) we have cycles in our sleep as well. Our bodies can’t get fully rested unless they are able to go through all the cycles several times. Explain that there are five stages in one cycle of sleep. Each cycle of sleep takes about 90 minutes. That means that within 10 hours of sleep we go through about six cycles and 33 stages of sleep.

• Stage 1 and 2: You first fall asleep, but are not yet in a deep sleep.
• Stage 3 and 4: You are in a deep, restful sleep. Your breathing and heart rate slow down, and your body is still.
• Stage 5: You are in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Your brain is active and you dream.

Activity: Healthy Bedtime Habits

Ask the youth to think about what bedtime is like right now.

• How do you sleep best? (Have kids demonstrate their favorite way to sleep.)
• Do you sleep with any special blankets, stuffed animals, pillows etc.? (Have kids raise their hands to answer.)
• What kinds of things things help you relax and feel sleepy? 
• What makes it easier for you to go to sleep when you need to? 

Can you name some things that might help you have better bedtime habits? When young people come up with helpful ideas for how to develop good sleep habits, ask them to write them down on a piece of paper in checklist form. (Alternately, create a master checklist based on the answers and distribute copies.) Possible answers:

• Try to go to bed at the same time every night. Your body gets used to a schedule and will be ready to sleep.
• Don’t drink sodas with caffeine, especially in the afternoon and at nighttime.
• Make sure your bedroom is cool, dark and quiet.
• Exercise during the day. Running and playing at least 3 hours before bed helps your body get ready for sleep.
• Avoid big meals before bedtime. Drink a glass of warm milk or have a light, healthful snack like fruit.
• Have a bedtime routine. Do the same relaxing things before bed each night, like taking a warm shower, reading or listening to quiet music. Your body will know it’s time to get ready to sleep.

Activity: Sleep Diary

A good night’s sleep is important. Keep track of your sleeping habits using a sleep diary.

After a full night of sleep, you wake up ready for a new day of school, fun activities or family time. You use a lot of energy throughout your day to go to school, play outside, do your homework, participate in sports, practice an instrument, and play with your friends. After all of that, your body needs sleep!  Your body is just like a car’s gas tank, full in the morning and empty at the end of the day. If your family has a car, your parents have to fill up the car’s gas tank. Getting enough sleep will help you to fill up YOUR own gas tank! A full tank gives you enough energy to stay busy and do your best each and every day!

When you get enough sleep, you can:

• pay attention better in school
• be creative
• fight sickness so you stay healthy
• be in a good mood
• get along with friends and family
• solve problems better.

When you don’t get enough sleep, you can:

• forget what you learned
• have trouble making good choices
• be grumpy and in a bad mood
• have trouble playing sports/games
• be less patient with brothers, sisters and friends
• have trouble listening to parents and teachers
• become sick more often.

You should talk to your parents and doctor if you:

• have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
• snore or have trouble breathing while you sleep
• have weird feelings or “growing pains” in your legs
• feel sleepy or tired during the day.

Conclusion

Ask the young people to use this sleep diary to keep track of their sleep over the next week to help them know how healthy their sleep habits are or are not.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing healthy sleep habits at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog(s)

Promoting a good night’s sleep

Are your kids getting enough sleep?

Additional Instructor Resources

Your Kid’s Sleep