Duration: 30 Min

Milk Matters

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand the health benefits of low-fat milk by analyzing nutrition labels.

Instructor Notes

Beformide facilitating this lesson, you may want to review the following information about low-fat milk products. These facts can be shared with kids and parents during your discussions.

  • The 2015 Dietary Guidelines recommends Americans switch to fat-free or low-fat milk. According to researchers, fat-free and low-fat milk is essential to children and adolescents’ development and overall wellness. In fact, fat-free and low-fat milk and milk products provide four of the five “nutrients of concern” that children don’t get enough of: calcium, potassium, Vitamin D and magnesium.
  • White milk comes in four varieties: whole (full fat), 2%, 1% (low-fat) and Skim (no fat). Flavored milk also comes in different varieties such as low-fat and fat-free.
  • Who should drink whole milk? Answer: Children 12 months to 24 months (1-2 years old). After that, kids may switch to 2%, low-fat or skim milk. (As long as the child isn’t gaining weight quickly, they can drink 2% milk.)
  • Babies (0-12 months) should drink breast milk or infant formula as cow’s milk isn’t digested well by babies under 12 months, and it lacks essential nutrients.
  • Some children are allergic to some nutrients/items found in milk, like protein. A milk allergy is an overreaction of the immune system to the protein found in milk and can trigger a range of symptoms from mild (rash, hives, swelling, etc.) to severe symptoms (trouble breathing, wheezing, loss of consciousness, etc.) This means that they may need to choose a milk substitute. Make sure to choose a milk alternative that is fortified with 30% DV (Daily Value) of calcium. If you have young people in your class that fall into this category, ask them to complete the activity with the understanding that this may not specifically apply to them.
  • Other children may have an intolerance to lactose found in milk, which means they are missing the enzyme lactase, which breaks down lactose, a sugar found in milk and dairy products. This results in the inability to digest milk or other dairy products which may cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, gas, bloating and diarrhea. Lactose intolerance can cause great discomfort, but it is not life threatening.

Activity

  1. Ask the youth: What kind of milk do you drink? If they don’t know, show them examples of cartons of each type to see if that helps them identify the type of milk they usually drink.
  2. Let’s figure out which type of milk may be the healthiest for us to drink by looking at what’s on the Nutrition Facts labels of four different types of milk. Pass out the Milk Nutrition Facts Labels worksheet and the Compare Milk Activity worksheet you printed at the beginning of the lesson. Tell the youth to use the milk Nutrition Fact labels to fill in the chart and answer the questions on the worksheet.
  3. Ask young people to share what they learned about the type of milk they drink.
  4. Review answers to questions with the youth using the Instructors Answer Key.

Conclusion

Encourage kids and parents alike who don’t already drink 1% or skim milk to work towards that as a goal. Tell them if they don’t like it at first, try mixing 1/2 their milk with the lower fat milk, changing it gradually each week until you are drinking only the lower fat milk. Most people really do get used to the skim milk after awhile. The same idea works for flavored milk. If you are used to drinking flavored milk, try mixing 1/2 white skim or lower fat milk until you get used to not having the added sweetness.

Or you might want to try this approach: If you usually drink whole milk, switch to 2% by the end of one week, 1% by the end of two weeks, and skim by the end of three weeks. If you usually drink 2%, switch to 1% by the end of one week, and skim milk by the end of two weeks.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing their milk choices at home.

Additional Instructor Resources

Mental Remix

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

Marketing Mania

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people discover “tricks of the trade” in food and beverage marketing. They practice comparing the messages conveyed through advertisements with the nutrition information available about different products.

Introduction

Explain to the youth that eating healthful foods is important to a person’s growth, development and overall well-being. Their eating behaviors in childhood will carry over into adulthood and contribute to their long-term health and risk for chronic (long-lasting) disease. One of the driving factors influencing eating behaviors and food choices of youth is food advertising. Food advertisers spend large amounts of money targeting children, in an attempt to build brand loyalty and to persuade them to desire a particular food product. It is important that children begin to develop the skills to navigate this complex media-saturated world they live in.

Activity: Exploring Advertisements

  1. Advertisements are all around us. Ask young people to name some places they might encounter advertisements.
  2. Show young people a variety of food and drink packages, print ads, and video clips. If possible, have multiple examples for several different products or families of products.
  3. Other popular methods of marketing foods might be sweepstakes, contests or “clubs.” If one of these methods is used to market a product, then they must adhere to these rules:
    • If there is a prize, it should be clearly presented.
    • If there is an opportunity to win a prize, the odds of winning should be clearly stated. Share an example or two if available.
  4. Ask young people to compare various marketing strategies used to sell the products. For each example, ask the following questions. (Depending on the size of your group, you may want to split the youth into small groups to each answer the questions about a different advertisement. If time permits, small groups may present their responses to the entire group.)
    • What methods were used to promote and sell the products? (e.g., animation, music, bright colors or celebrities)
    • How do these methods affect your thoughts and feelings about these products? Do the props make the product more interesting?
    • What is the message? (e.g., you’ll be stronger, smarter, have more fun if you eat/drink the product)
    • Do you believe it?
    • How does the portion size of the product shown compare to what a single serving might be? (e.g., sports drink packaged in 20 oz bottle is actually 2.5 servings)
    • How does the suggested or advertised portion compare to the amount you or your family/friends would usually consume? (They are likely to consume the entire packaged/portioned amount.)

Optional Interactive Activity

Young people can practice marketing “tricks of the trade” on CoCo’s AdverSmarts Interactive Food Marketing Game. See additional game formats below.

Conclusion

Learning how to be savvy consumers is a skill that will serve young people well throughout their lifetimes and in many different contexts. Encourage them to pay particular attention in the days ahead to the messages that are all around them, and whether or not those messages are accurate or misleading.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can practice spotting the youth-targeted marketing all around us.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog(s)

Additional Instructor Resources on Food Marketing to Children

Love Your Lunch!

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how to choose a healthful meal when eating school lunch. Youth will draw their lunch choices on paper trays, then examine the drawings to see if their meal represents the five food groups.

Instructor Notes

School lunches play an important part in meeting a child’s daily nutritional needs. Since most elementary age children need about 1,500 to 2,000 calories each day, the school lunch helps them meet that goal. Often young people will limit their food choices from the school lunch menu due to a lack of food/nutrition knowledge as well as some “selective” eating patterns. It is important to introduce young people at an early age to the concept of balance in eating. By choosing a variety of colorful foods from the five food groups (vegetables, fruits, dairy, grains and protein) they will have a healthful meal.

Activity: Love Your Lunch

This activity explores the current choices young people make at lunch by learning about the five food groups.

  • Pass out a lunch tray template to each young person.  Ask the youth to fill in their lunch tray worksheet with their favorite school lunch menu food choices by coloring food items or cutting out pictures of food items from magazines.
  • When the youth are finished drawing, review the lunch tray activity and ask young people the following questions:
    • How many young people have less than five colors on their tray?
    • How many have more than five colors?
  • Explain that it is important to have many colors on their trays. Why do you think this might be true? It means that their lunch is more likely to include a variety of foods from the five different food groups which makes it a healthful meal.
  • Introduce the youth to the five food groups: vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, and protein. Show food models, the resources at ChooseMyPlate.gov or pictures of foods representing each of the five food groups.
    • How many different food groups do you have on your lunch tray?  If time permits, ask if young people want to share the food groups they have included on their lunch tray. Give positive feedback to the healthful five food group choices the youth have listed or drawn.
    • Ask young people what food item they could add or change the next time they go through the lunch line to make it an even healthier meal that includes more of the five food groups.
  • Open the Online Interactive Lesson and Activity to review the five food groups. Young people can practice choosing more healthful foods for their bag lunch or school lunch.

Food Gallery
From ChooseMyPlate.gov

Conclusion

Conclude the lesson by handing out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue talking about healthful food choices at home.

Health Powered Kids Blog

Back to school means helping kids choose a healthy lunch

Additional Instructor Resources

Living a Healthy Life

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand how living a healthy life has to do with more than just what they eat. Healthy living requires following certain habits and routines each and every day. The youth will identify the things they each do personally to lead to healthy lives. Then together they plan an event that includes treats that encourage healthy habits.

Introduction

Explain that health can mean different things to different people. In this lesson, we’re going to talk about healthy stuff that’s not about food. Why? Because to have a healthy life, you need to have certain habits and routines that you follow each and every day.

A healthy life is like a puzzle that you’ve put together. All the pieces are connected, and when one piece is missing, the puzzle is not complete. For a healthy life, you do need to eat well, but there are other pieces of that puzzle that need to come together too.

Activity: Healthful Habits

  1. Ask the young people what they could do today to live a healthier life. To start the discussion you could say: “I brushed my teeth this morning and I’m going to do it again tonight before I go to bed.” Ask the young people to name a healthy activity they’ve done today and have them give a reason why they believe the activity is healthy. Correct the young person if needed.
  2. Can you think of your habits that are connected to good health? Give the youth the chance to think about this for a moment. They might need you to give them some hints to get them on the right track. You could offer questions, such as:
    • “What about your teeth?” to prompt them to answer that brushing their teeth is a healthy habit.
    • “What do we do with our hands before we eat?” To prompt them to answer that washing their hands before they eat is a healthy habit.
    • “How do we keep our whole bodies clean?” To prompt them to answer that taking a bath or shower each day is a healthy habit.
    • “What do you do every night, until morning?” To prompt them to give you the answer that they need “a good night’s sleep.”

Activity: Plan a Healthy Celebration

Ask the youth to coordinate a healthy birthday celebration or Halloween or Valentine’s Day treat. Instead of bringing in sugary treats, advertise healthier options. Have the young people brainstorm ways to make their school party’s sugar-treat free! Suggest small treasures instead, such as decorated pencils, homemade cards, erasers, toothbrushes, etc.

Conclusion

Close the lesson by reminding young people that there are many ways to be healthy everyday. For the next couple days, try to notice the healthful activities you do such as exercising, eating healthy snacks, keeping clean and getting a good night’s sleep. Keep track of your healthy choices on the Healthy Me Checklist. Each time you notice one, congratulate yourself for taking steps to live a healthy life!

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue to discuss healthy choices in daily life.

Additional Instructor Resources

Learning Mindfulness through Movement

Lesson Introduction & Overview

Young people begin to learn about mindfulness practice by learning and then moving through a series of yoga poses.

Activity

  1. Prepare young people for their yoga practice with the follow discussion questions and topics:
    1. Do you know what yoga is? Have you done it before? Wait for answers, allow youth to demonstrate poses if they know any, and then explain that yoga is a way to exercise your body, your breath and your mind all at the same time. There are many different types of yoga and ways to do yoga.
    2. Have you ever heard anyone talk about something called mindfulness? Do you know why mindfulness can be a good thing? Wait for answers and then explain that mindfulness means paying attention to and noticing what’s happening—such as things you’re seeing, hearing and feeling—without deciding if they are good or bad. Mindfulness can help you be happier and healthier. If you are being mindful, you are less likely to get really upset or sad and more likely to be calm and happy. It’s not something that’s always easy, but anyone can learn to do it.
  2. Explain that an important part of yoga is paying attention to your breath. Ask young people to lie down on the floor and then give the following instructions for noticing their breathing: Place your hands on your belly. Breathe in deeply through your nose and feel your belly rise. Hold for just a second while your belly is filled with air, and then slowly breathe out through your mouth. Do this five more times. Invite young people to try to continue this same breathing pattern throughout their yoga practice.
  3. Teach young people each of the eight yoga poses they will be doing in their practice. Do this part fairly quickly so you can get to the actual sequenced practice. It’s okay if young people don’t catch on right away and need more instruction during the sequence. Yoga is an ongoing practice and there is no exact right way to do a pose. Unless a young person is at risk of hurting themselves, if they are pretty close to the pose let them be.

Sun Breath

  1. Sit on the floor with your legs crossed or in your chair with your feet flat on the floor. Sit up tall and keep your back straight.
  2. Put the palms of your hands together at the center of your chest.
  3. Close your eyes and take three big sun breaths. Here’s how:
    • When you breathe in deeply, raise your arms above your head in the shape of a big round sun.
    • Then breathe out and bring your arms back down so that your palms are together at the center of your chest.
  4. The sun breath allows you to become centered and focused on your breath.

Space Float

  1. Sit on the floor with your legs crossed or in a chair with your feet flat on the floor.
  2. Take hold of your outside ankle. If you are sitting on a chair, hold onto the edges of the chair by the outside of your legs, above the knees.
  3. Breathe in deeply as you stretch your body forward, chest and stomach out.
  4. Breathe out as you slump back; spine is curved, chest is caved in.
  5. Space float gives you a flexible spine. It keeps your back muscles relaxed and strong. It also helps you digest your food.

Shooting Star

  1. Sit on the floor with your feet in front of you and your hands behind you on the floor.
  2. Breathe in and push your body up (like a backwards push-up).
  3. Make yourself into a perfectly straight line, like a shooting star, by pushing your stomach up and point your toes away from you.
  4. Try to hold this pose for a count of 10. (You can hold this pose longer during the sequenced practice).
  5. Shooting star makes your arms, legs and stomach muscles strong.
  6. You can also do this pose while sitting in a chair. Hold the edges of the chair and push up like the description above.

Moon Walk

  1. Sit in your chair or lie down on the floor on your back.
  2. Begin to walk in the air. Keep your right leg straight and lift it up as you lift your left arm. Breathe in as you lift your leg and arm.
  3. Breathe out as your arm and leg go down.
  4. Then breathe in again as you lift your left leg and right arm together.
  5. Breathe out as your arm and leg go down.
  6. Switch sides and keep going. Lift your leg and stretch your arm straight up toward the sky.
  7. Moon walk balances the two sides of your brain and helps you think better.

Cobra

  1. Lie on your stomach on the floor. If you are sitting in a chair, sit up straight with your feet flat on the floor.
  2. Put your hands on the floor under your shoulders. If you are sitting in a chair, put your hands on your knees or a desk.
  3. Stretch your upper body up high, with your arms straight and your stomach resting on the ground. If you are sitting, lean forward slightly, push your hands against your knees or desk and push your shoulders back to look up slightly. Keep your neck straight and in line with your spine.
  4. Stretch your head as far up as you can and HISS! Feel the stretch in your spine.
  5. You are a very fierce cobra snake!
  6. Keep stretching and breathing in and out. Make a hissing sound when you breathe out. Continue this breathing and hissing for a minute.
  7. If you are on the floor, breathe in and lift your “tail” (feet) up by bending your knees. Try to bring your head and “tail” (feet) close together. Can they touch each other?

Elephant

  1. Stand up.
  2. Bend forward with your arms hanging down.
  3. Clasp your hands together, with fingers interlocked.
  4. Walk around the room, bent over, and swing your trunk.
  5. After a minute, stretch your trunk high up into the air. Lean back and let out a big elephant sound like a horn!

Relaxed Monkey Pose

  1. Kneel on the floor on your knees and sit back on your heels. If you are sitting in a chair, keep your feet flat on the floor.
  2. Lean forward and stretch your arms forward to the ground. Continue stretching as far as you can. Can you touch your forehead to the floor? If you are sitting on a chair, just reach down to the floor as far as you can.
  3. Stretch your arms out as far as they will go; allow your body to relax.
  4. Take in big monkey breaths. Feel your chest rise with each breath in and your chest relax toward the floor with each breath out. Breathe in and out at your own pace. Relax for one minute.

Sea Turtle Deep Relaxation

  1. Lie on the floor on your back with your legs straight and arms at your sides. Or sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and hands on your desk or lap.
  2. The palms of your hands are facing up and resting on the floor, desk or lap.
  3. Close your eyes and breathe gently.
  4. Focus on your breath. If you have any thoughts or distractions, try to let them go and go back to focusing on your breath.
  5. You might need a word to focus on or a favorite place to imagine like lying or sitting on a beach. Imagine the warm sand, the hot sun and the cool breeze off the water. Your breath sounds like the waves! As you breathe in, listen! It sounds like the waves coming up to the shore. As you breathe out, imagine the waves going back out to sea. Keep breathing with the waves for another minute or two.

Move through the eight poses in a guided sequence.

At the end of Sea Turtle, give young people time to slowly sit back up. Ask each person to share with the group one thing they noticed during their yoga practice. Thank everyone for participating.

Conclusion

A nice practice in mindfulness is gratitude. At the end of your activity, thank young people for participating and express your appreciation for some aspect of what happened.

Continuing the Conversation

Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English, Spanish, Somali and Hmong so that families can practice mindfulness through movement at home.

It’s Mealtime! Relax and Enjoy

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

Hungry for Breakfast

Lesson Overview

This lesson helps young people understand the importance of breakfast. The youth will think about good food choices by discussing “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle and singing The Breakfast Song.

Instructor Notes

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

  • If young children learn important concepts about eating breakfast it will lay a foundation of eating right for years to come. Studies have shown that eating breakfast improves a child’s concentration and mental performance.
  • Young people who skip breakfast are less focused and alert and often too tired to complete morning tasks.
  • Young people who are hungry experience more learning difficulties as compared to well-nourished children.
  • The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says that children who eat a healthful, well-balanced breakfast are more likely to:
    • meet their daily nutrient requirements
    • have better concentration
    • have better problem-solving skills
    • have better hand-eye coordination
    • stay alert
    • be creative
    • miss fewer days of school
    • be more physically active.

Activity: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Read the book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle.

  1. After reading the book, talk with the young people about all the foods the caterpillar ate. These include apples, pears, oranges, plums and strawberries. Talk about how fruits are good, healthful foods that give our bodies energy. Then talk about all the junk foods the caterpillar ate, such as chocolate cake, ice cream and candy. What happened to the caterpillar after he ate those types of foods? Why?
  2. Ask young people to raise their hands if they had breakfast this morning. Let a few share what they ate.
  3. Tell the young people that today we will be talking about breakfast as one of the most important meals of the day. Breakfast is the first chance to get nourishing food into their bodies and their brains for a great start to the day.
  4. What does it mean to be hungry? Let the youth answer and have them give examples of how they feel and look when they are hungry. Explain that it would be hard to think, learn and play if they felt hungry and tired. That is how they may feel if they don’t eat breakfast.

Activity: Breakfast Song

Ask the youth what happens when we feed our body with nourishing foods for breakfast vs. eating no breakfast or a breakfast without healthful foods. Invite young people to stand to learn a song that will help us remember what foods to eat for breakfast to help our brains and our bodies start the day!

Teach young people the lyrics to the Breakfast Song.

Conclusion

Remind young people that what they eat in the morning has the power to energize them throughout the day. Hand out the Healthy Families Newsletter in English or Spanish, so that families can continue discussing the importance of breakfast at home.

Related Health Powered Kids Blog

Rise and dine! The importance of a healthy breakfast

Additional Instructor Resources

Healthy Heart

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

Hand-Washing: A Weapon Against Germs!

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