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Fit to Be Taught, Vol.24

Sink Your Teeth Into These Dental Health Month Lessons

February -- Dental Health Month -- is the time of year when many teachers help students "brush up" on their awareness of tooth care. This week's lessons capitalize on that once-a-year "teachable moment."

Dental Health Month provides teachers with a month full of great curriculum connections. In the primary grades, where the emphasis is on taking care of their teeth, teachers can encourage good tooth care habits by having students track their brushing habits on a brush chart. First-grade teachers, in particular, can create a class graph, so students can keep track of teeth lost throughout the year. They might even join this year's Tooth Tally Project.

In addition, Dental Health Month offers younger students the opportunity to share some fun read-a-loud books.

As students move up the grades, hands-on experiments are a great way to drive home the importance of tooth care. Creating a timeline of dental history is another great curriculum connection. Many great Web sites also are available to help you teach about teeth and dental health.

Read the full article on Education World.

Wellness News
Regular Exercise Helps Teens Avoid Obesity Taking part in physical activities in and out of school more than twice a week protects adolescents from becoming overweight young adults, a study suggests.

Schools Offering Strength Training for Students More schools are investing in fitness equipment to teach children about strength training.

Reading, Writing, Running

Run to Read and Write is a small classroom program Carol Goodrow has shared through the KidsRunning. Goodrow used it with first graders and with second-grade special-education students in a resource room in Connecticut. All of Goodrow’s students have participated in the program, which is adaptable to any grade level.

Goodrow teaches reading and writing using systematic phonics from Monday through Thursday, and on Friday, the students run and write in their journals. Their writing also is published on KidsRunning.

Students earn running bookmarks and can participate in a family fun run in June in which kids run a mile, eat healthy snack, and earn Run to Read and Write Ribbons (purchased by Runner's World). They write in their journals right after the run.

The program integrates heath, fitness, nutrition, and literacy. Kids love to run, and writing about running makes even reluctant writers want to write.

Read more about this program at: Run to Read and Write.

Click to learn more about Action for Healthy Kids.

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