Teach Students to Stay Healthy

If our students are not healthy, they won't be learning much, will they? Although there's no guarantee, we can help them learn some ways to stay healthy.

Here are a few ways we can help them learn to develop good health habits:

Model Good Health Habits

Being a good role model is the best way to teach children pretty much anything. They need to see you modeling proper health habits! Let them see you:

• drink water
• wash your hands frequently
• eating healthy foods
• cough or sneeze into your elbow
• brushing teeth
• working through stress
• exercising
• getting fresh air

If you're unable to let them see you doing these healthy things, work it into your conversations:

• Yesterday, when I was out for my daily walk... "
• I was getting stressed about the weather, so I... "
• This morning, while I was brushing my teeth... "

Share information about good health habits.

Plenty of resources with information can be shared with children about good health habits.

I suggest trying some of these "Stay Healthy" activities from this bundle.

• Healthy Habits Book to Illustrate
• Germs for Active Learners
• Healthy Habits Readers Theater

Or you could try this bundle, available on the popular Boom Learning platform!

The "Stay Healthy" Boom Bundle has these two decks

• Germs
• Healthy Habits

Here are a couple of helpful videos!

 

You can easily add these books to your classroom library for the children to read or for read-aloud! (These are Amazon affiliate links.)

• Staying Healthy (TIME FOR KIDS® Nonfiction Readers)
• Grow Strong!: A book about healthy habits
• Ultimate Kids' Guide to Being Super Healthy: What You Need To Know About Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep, Hygiene, Stress, Screen Time, and More
• Germs vs. Soap: A Silly Hygiene Book about Washing Hands!
• The Monster Who Wanted to Stay Healthy

Talk about what we can do to stay healthy

I truly believe in having a health unit. But that's not enough! Good health habits should be discussed regularly! It might sound like this:

"I know it's chilly outside, but bundle up because fresh air is important for your health."

"What a healthy snack! That will help your body fight germs."

"I'm glad to see you wash your hands so carefully! You won't be spreading any germs!"

"Yes, you can refill your water bottle. Water helps us stay healthy!"

Being healthy is at the lowest level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. So, it makes sense that being healthy is essential to learning. See the post below for more information about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Bloom's Taxonomy.

For more ideas on keeping them healthy, see this post!

What do you do to help your students learn how to stay healthy?