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HEALTH THEME

CRAFTS:

Comb Art
Place a small amount of paint of a piece of paper. Have the child move the paint about the paper with a comb. 

Collage of Smiles
Group collage: magazine pictures of smiles. (Not whole faces, just mouths - any kind - human or animal!)

Cleaning Teeth
Cut the bottoms off of large plastic soda bottles and turn them upside down - they look like teeth! Spray them with shaving creme and give the kids toothbrushes to brush the teeth clean.

Good Food Collage
Make a "good food" for their teeth collage out of pictures from magazines. They might even want to hang them on their own refrigerator to remind them which foods are healthy.

Making Toothpaste
Materials: * 4 tsp. baking soda, *1 tsp. salt, *1 tsp flavoring(vanilla, almond or peppermint Extract), *toothbrush, *floss, *airtight containers
Directions: Mix together, put in containers. Dampen toothbrush and dip in mixture to use.

Paper Plate Meals
Have the children look through magazines to find pictures of different kinds of foods. Then have them cut out the pictures and glue them onto paper plates to make 'breakfasts', 'lunches' or 'dinners'.

Pizza Collage
Materials Needed: Round piece of tagboard, Glue, Red tempera paint, Yellow & white Easter grass or yarn scraps, green, red, and black felt, brown scraps of paper
Directions: 1. Mix red tempera with glue. Let children paint tagboard with red glue.
2. Tear brown scraps of paper and crumple them. Stick them to tagboard (sausage). Use green felt (peppers); red felt (tomatoes); black felt (olives); Easter grass or yarn (cheese).

Shaving Cream Art
Add a drop of food coloring to a baseball sized pile of shaving cream. Mix this with a paint brush. Have the children be very careful, and use smocks because the food coloring will stain their clothing and hands. Have the children paint the shaving cream on a white piece of paper.

Stains
Scrounge some small white ceramic tiles (from construction sites, tile stores, parents who are remodeling etc). Provide children with a variety of food products to smear on the tiles such as: jelly, ketchup, syrup,peanut butter etc, have children brush the teeth with toothbrushes and real toothpaste. Which tiles are stained?

Smile
Yellow construction paper teeth, white paint and toothbrushes. Have children brush the yellow teeth with the white paint. Frame the completed 'smiles with red construction paper lips!

GAMES & ACTIVITIES:

Cover Up and Block the Yuck
First read the book "Cover your nose when you sneeze" Then we took a paper plate and I let the kids draw a self portrait on the front. Next they traced their hands on colored construction paper and placed a kleenex, then the hand cutout on top and stapled it (over the nose of their picture) onto the paper plate.

Dental Health
One thing you can do when doing dental health is to hard boil an egg ahead of time. Then bring in some dark soda. Place the egg in the soda for a day. Then the next day talk about why we should keep our teeth clean and how we can keep them clean. Then take the egg out. It is discolored, yellow, looks like plaque. Take a tooth brush with a little tooth paste, that's how you can fit in how much they should be using, and brush it off. It REALLY comes off. They love it. They each get a turn.

Fishing for Good Foods
Children can cut pictures from magazines (or for the little ones have them already cut) from the five basic food groups. Have the children glue these pictures onto a fish shape cut from construction paper. Slip a paper clip onto the front of each fish. Make a fishing pole from a dowel and tie a magnet onto the end of the string. Label five small buckets with the name/picture of each food group. Have the children try to catch a fish and encourage them to decide which group the food belongs to and then put the fish in the correct bucket.

How To Sneeze
The new recommended way is to cough or sneeze into the crook of your arm instead of the hand if no Kleenex is available.

Playing Doctor 
Let the children dress up in white shirts or smocks and take turns playing doctor/patient. You could bring out a shoe box filled with different supplies, bandages, popsicle sticks for tongue depressors, empty ball point pen for pretend needles, etc)

Visiting the Doctor
You could discuss why it is important to see the doctor regularly. Ask if anyone knows how to use a stethoscope and ask if they know what a heartbeat is. If they put their hands over their heart they might be able to feel it beating. You could show them how to take a pulse on their wrists and on their neck.
 

SONGS:

Growing Song
(tune: Are you Sleeping)
We need food and we need water
We need sleep, lots of sleep
To help our bodies grow
From our heads down to our toes
Grow, grow, grow
Grow, grow, grow.

Cheese Please
(tune: 3 blind mice)
Cheese, cheese, cheese we love cheese
Please, please please give us cheese
We like white cheese oh yes we do
Orange cheese taste wonderful to
Yellow cheese is for me and you
Oh, give us cheese

Never, Never Pick Your Nose By G. B. Lipson
Pick a flower
Pick a rose
Pick a treat
Or pick your toes (just kidding)
Pick some buttons
Pick some bows
Pick some jeans
Or fancy clothes
Pick some friends
Or pick some foes
But never, ever
PICK YOUR NOSE!!
YECH!

Sneezing Song
I think --I am going to sneeze ..(ha chew!)
I think --I am going to sneeze ..(ha chew)
If you sneeze, pass the tissue please....
Ha Chew, Ha Chew, Ha Chew
Pass around a box of tissue at the very beginning of school. Each child takes one, teach the song then sneeze and then we get up and
throw the tissue away. The practice is a good practice to show them where the dirty tissues belong and that you don't want to have to pick up someone else's dirty tissue. Make a picture, but trace their hand and glue a tissue to it. Title it "I think I am going to sneeze!"

The Shape-Up Song
Sung to 'Farmer in the Dell'
We're jumping up and down
We're jumping up and down
We're getting lots of exercise
We're jumping up and down.
We bend and touch our toes.....
We kick our legs up high......
We jog around the room.......
We wiggle our whole body....
We stretch up to the sky.......
 

STORIES:

Have any good stories? Let us know!
 

FOOD SUGGESTIONS:

Fruit Plate (lunch or snack) 
Give each child a paper plate and sliced fruit. Ask them to create themselves using the slices of fruit. Example; grapes for eyes, sliced apple for eye brows, banana sliced lengthwise for a mouth and a kiwi slice for a nose. This presents an ideal time to discuss the importance of eating well to maintain healthy bodies. When their creation is finished they may eat the fruit plate for snack!

Happy Face Sandwiches 
Bread
Peanut butter
Raisins
Alfalfa or bean sprouts
Squeezable cheese
Other small food items
Spread peanut butter on one side of bread - open faced. Have child make eyes, nose, mouth and hair from other items provided. Encourage kids to be creative and eat what they create. 

Taste Testing Various food items
Blindfold
Cut up and clean various food items. Blindfold your child and have him/her taste and smell different foods. Have him/her describe the various tastes, smells and textures before they guess what it is.

TIPS/NOTES: