Theme Week: Teach Your Child How to Stay Healthy!
When I think of winter, I think cold, snow, Christmas, and illnesses. Commercials for the flu, pneumonia, and now COVID vaccines start in late fall to remind audiences that the risk of getting one of these ailments goes up as temperatures go down. And parents with children in school or daycare understand more than anyone that kids spread germs EVERYWHERE.
So an important lesson theme I have discovered is…
Healthy Habits!
Yes, even children as young as a year old can learn ways to slow the spread of germs. Even better? Kids can learn letters, numbers, science, and more while learning how to stay healthy. I recently did this theme with the youngest kid I nanny, and he loved the activities. His favorite was the counting teeth pictures. I have also done this theme before with the girls. They thought it was super fun, so I will include those ideas as well.
Games
Few children dislike playing games. It is the best way for younger kids to learn. When I ask the two preschoolers in my life what they did at school, their answers are always, “I played.” They don’t even realize that they’re learning. Which is why, perhaps, so many children think the first few years of school are so much fun!
One of the games we played for our Healthy Habits week was a scavenger hunt. I created this one myself using clipart pictures that I found online, since he cannot read yet. You can either create your own or download mine. Just click on the picture below. Then let your children search the house for items that keep us healthy! This activity might even be a great family game just to make sure everyone knows where the items are located and why we need to use them.
The kiddo and I also played a board game about healthy living that I found here. I printed the game on cardstock just to give it some sturdiness. You can also laminate it if you plan to use it more than once. Cut out the question cards, borrow some game pieces and dice from another game, and have fun quizzing each other about Healthy Habits! One note about this particular game is that it goes quickly. We played it three times within the thirty minutes I allot for each lesson.
Another game that takes a bit longer is Veggie Bingo. The best boards I found were here. She offers several cards to choose from as well as the calling cards that you can print off. It would also be simple to create a few different boards on your own. Just make sure you include calling card pictures! I used the game a few years ago with the girls for a Fruits and Vegetables theme, and we’ve played it too many times to count. The girls still enjoy it, and their younger brothers learn the names of some healthy foods while trying to get the first bingo!
There are many, many more games out there that you can use to teach young children about health. Games are fun, and healthy habits are important to instill in our babies before they enter the germ-filled world that is school. Why not have both at the same time, right?
Letters
One of the most common theme ideas I have seen is to emphasize one letter at a time. Letters are one of the most basic yet important academics a child can learn. If he or she cannot recognize letters, then reading will be impossible. And reading is needed for literally every aspect of a person’s life. So, while I am not currently doing a Letter of the Week, I do highlight the letter or letters that go along with our themes.
For our Healthy Habits week, we focused on the letter H. The easiest project to prepare and for kids to do is to simply print or draw the letter on a piece of paper. Then find stickers, printed pictures, or even items if possible to glue into the shape of that letter. (create project for picture) For example, using the letter H for Health could mean pictures of exercising, nutritious food, washing hands, etc. Items that can be glued or taped to the letter might be a tissue, a napkin, or even the label from an old bottle of soap or sanitizer.
Math
Math is a second academic category that people use their entire lives. Recognizing and counting numbers, sorting, and shapes are a few of the mathematical lessons youngsters learn. For the Healthy Habits theme, I have two suggestions.
The first is to get every different color of construction paper you have and lay them on the floor. Then get fruits and vegetables or other healthy foods for your child to sort by color. You can use real foods, pictures of foods, or if you happen to have a basket or two of play food, you can use that. We used the plastic play food because it was the easiest and most abundant at the time. Talk about how each food item keeps us healthy, and your child will practice color recognition while learning about some new foods to try, which might help those of us who have picky eaters!
The second idea teaches kids about their teeth. I found an interesting counting activity here that led to a discussion with the four-year-old about keeping our teeth healthy so they won’t fall out. It’s three pages of pictures of a mouth with differing numbers of teeth from one all the way to twenty. We used small magnetic numbers so he could place matching numbers to the mouths. You can also write small numbers on a piece of paper to cut out for your child to match. Or if he or she isn’t up to the recognition yet, practice counting simply by pointing to the teeth in each picture.
Science
When people think of health, most likely the first academic subject they think of is science. Health science is even a choice at some universities. But what can a toddler or preschooler learn about the science of health? Plenty.
When I researched activities for this theme, the most common science experiment I found was showing how germs spread. There are many different materials you can use to do this, so I won’t give any links here. An internet search for “germ spreading experiments” will show several choices. You can use hand sanitizer, lotion, or even just the straight glitter. I will note that the majority of what I found uses glitter as the “germs,” so be prepared for the mess that will create. And another benefit to this experiment? Teaching kids how many germs they miss when they don’t wash their hands properly!
Teaching children about their bodies and how different parts work is crucial, especially when it comes to creating healthy habits. And again, there are so many ways to do this. If you can get outside, trace your child’s body with chalk and then draw in different organs, bones, or other body parts. Using black paper, white chalk or crayon, and Q-tips, you can make “x-rays” of your child’s bones (picture of boys’ x-rays). I also have a go-to game of playing “Simon Says” but only using commands to touch or move different parts of the body.
For toddlers, print out either a generic picture or a picture of him or her that shows the head, torso, arms, and legs. Then glue or tape it to blocks and cut the picture to fit the blocks. It becomes a puzzle that can be fairly easy and teaches how the body fits together! I used the larger Lego blocks, and it held together well. Even with infants, singing made-up songs about the parts of the body or ways to stay healthy can be a good start.
Conclusion
Teaching children healthy habits will help decrease the illnesses they bring home. It can also help them create better lifestyle choices when they become adults, such as diet, exercise, sleep, etc. But learning about it doesn’t have to be boring, and it doesn’t have to mean sitting your child down to attempt worksheets or reading books. Have fun with it, use some imagination, and he or she might just begin to think that healthy habits are enjoyable!
