Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Part A: Healthy Mimes

15 minutes

Part B: Engaging Prior Knowledge

30 minutes

Part C: Healthy Pledge

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will

understand the complex and diverse meaning of 'health'
understand the position and function of the heart
consider ways to keep themselves healthy.

Success criteria

Students can

identify some actions that contribute positively to their health
make an attainable pledge to improve an aspect of their health.

Part A: Healthy mimes

Step 1

As a class, facilitate a discussion in response to the prompt “I keep healthy by…” Encourage students to think in terms of physical health, active lifestyle, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle (mental health). For example: “I stay healthy by riding my bike to school”. Keep a list of responses on the board.

Step 2

Explain to students you are going to play a game of Mime. This means using their bodies to show the action of one of the healthy activities listed on the board.

Step 3

Have everyone stand. Find a volunteer to come out the front and face the group. Ask them to choose a healthy activity and say it out loud.

Step 4

Now ask the student to mime doing that healthy activity. For example: The student says, “I stay healthy by walking the dog” and mimes holding a leash out in front of them and walking in place. The class copies the mime.

Step 5

Repeat the game a number of times with a new student out the front each time.

Alternatively, you could play this as a guessing game of charades, where the student out the front isn't allowed to use their voice, and the rest of the class has to guess what healthy activity they are miming.

Part B: Engaging prior knowledge

Step 1

Facilitate a class discussion about students’ prior knowledge around the heart. Ask students:

Where is the heart?
Can you point to it?
How big is the heart?
Can you feel your heart beating? When does our heartbeat get faster/stronger?
What does the heart do? Why?
Can we injure our heart?
What things are good for our heart?

Step 2

Refer to the Love Your Heart Poster. Explain that the heart is a muscle, just like the ones in our legs or arms, except this one is responsible for pumping blood around our bodies. Have students noticed that when they run around, they start to breathe heavily? Well, legs need oxygen (breath) as well, especially when they're exercising heavily. Our heart gets oxygen to our muscles, as well as other organs such as our stomach and our brain, so that they can work how they're supposed to.

Part C: Healthy pledge

Step 1

As a class, brainstorm some ways you might improve your health, as individuals or as a group.
Some ideas might be for students to bring their water bottle to school every day of the week, walk the dog two nights a week, or do 10 minutes of meditation during the week. As a class, you could aim to perform an active brain break routine at 10:00am, such as stretching, skipping or running a lap of the oval, every day for a week.

Step 2

Remember to make your goals S.M.A.R.T.: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. That means your goals should not be vague or generalised, but something very clear so that you know when you've been successful. You need to be able to track your progress so that you know when your goal has been met. Make sure it's something you can actually do! Lofty goals are great, but hard to achieve, and often leave us feeling unaccomplished. Make sure your goal is related to health; and finally, give yourself a timeframe, so that you can stay focused on achieving your goal before a certain date. This will help you to feel a sense of accomplishment and finality - it doesn't just go on and on!

Step 3

Using the Heart Foundation Activity Template, have students write down their healthy pledge. They could also draw a picture of themselves doing something healthy.

Step 4.

Display these pledges around the room. Throughout the week, reward students with a sticker every time they make a step towards their goal, such as when they bring their water bottle to school.

Reflection

Revisit the understanding of the heart as a muscle. Explain to students that you have to keep your heart strong to stay healthy. For children, that's rarely a problem, but can students think of some hurdles to staying healthy, or that might impact them achieving their healthy pledges? Some examples might include running out of time, the weather preventing us from going outside, or sometimes being too tired to make healthy choices.

Review your healthy pledges in a week's time. How have students fared? Were some pledges difficult to achieve? Why? Do students feel healthier having tried to fulfil their goals?

Differentiated Learning

Extension - Some students might like to create a sticker chart or graph to track their healthy pledge progress in class or at home.

Provisions for Learning Support - Work with the whole class to create a healthy pledge and show them how to create a chart or graph to track their progress. Revise the chart each day as part of your routine. Keeping it to a consistent time will help the students build positive habits and ensure it isn't forgotten.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching practice today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Jump Rope For Heart - Healthy Hearts

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