Hands-On Health Activities for Third- & Fourth-Graders

Hygiene with Potatoes

• This lesson plan and activity shows students why hand washing is important, how germs spread, and the importance of avoiding other people's bodily fluids. Wearing rubber gloves, the teacher will peel three potatoes. Discuss how the rubber gloves prevent germs from spreading to the potato. The first potato will act as the control, and is placed into a plastic baggie. The second potato is placed into a plastic baggie after students take turns holding and passing it around. Students should wash their hands before touching the third potato, and should then pass it around the class and then place it into a baggie. Students should then predict what will happen to the different potatoes after the span of three days. The development of mold on the handled potatoes can facilitate a discussion about the ways germs are spread through bodily fluids and prevention through hand washing.
  
  

Good Food Choices Diner

• This lesson and activity will help familiarize students with the Food Guide Pyramid. Students will understand how to apply guidelines from the pyramid into making food choices. Students will examine a variety of menus from local restaurants. After reviewing the Food Guide Pyramid, students will discuss healthy and non-healthy choices on the menus. In small groups, students will develop their own menus for a fictitious restaurant that will serve healthy meals. Students will present their menus to one another in class. This activity can be extended by asking students to write and then review a food journal for a week.
  
  

Identifying Stress

• This lesson plan and activity will help students understand the physical responses to stress. It will also help students learn ways to manage stress. Ask students to create a list of things that cause stress in their lives. Students will choose one stressor to jot down on a piece of paper. Each student will fold the paper and place inside a balloon. Gather the balloons inside a large garbage bag. With a volunteer student, attach the bag of balloons to the student's waist, using masking tape. Ask the student to lean forward to tie her shoe. Explain that stressors can weigh us down and make it impossible for us to complete tasks. Follow this activity with a discussion of the physical indicators of stress, such as sweating, crying and headaches. Ask students to develop a list of good stressors and bad stressors.
  
  

Developing Compassion and Respect

• This lesson plan and activity will help students learn and demonstrate compassion for one another and respect for one another's property. Arrange student desks in a circle. Each student will write his name at the top of an index card. At your randomly chosen commands, students will pass the index cards around the room. When a card arrives at their desk, they must write a compassionate or respectful comment about the person whose name appears on the card. After each student has received three or four comments on her card, follow the activity with a discussion of how good it feels to receive and to give compassion and respect to one another. You can extend this activity by asking students to develop a list of ideas or variations of the "Golden Rule," which states that you should treat others the way you would like to be treated in return.