How To Teach Kids About Personal & Community Health

Teaching kids positive health practices reduces their risk of being exposed to harmful substances or contracting illnesses, according to the California Healthy Kids Resource Center. Lessons should focus on personal hygiene, such as washing and brushing teeth, as well as community health concepts, such as identifying environmental threats to health and preventing communicable diseases. Health lessons educate children, so that bad habits such as smoking, and alcohol and drug abuse, can be prevented. Keep lessons interesting by using visual aids and combine classroom instructions with hands-on activities.

Things You'll Need

  • Crayons, markers and pencils
  • Paper
  • Toothbrush
  • Toothpaste
  • Sneakers

Instructions

  1. Personal Hygiene

    • 1

      Demonstrate proper dental hygiene practices by showing your child how to brush her teeth. Use visual aids such as the "How We Should Brush Our Teeth PowerPoint" on the Share My Lesson website. Encourage a child to practice by brushing your teeth at the same time as she does. Hand out pictures to color and play online games about dental hygiene, such as those found on the Mouth Power website.

    • 2

      Teach your child good personal hygiene by washing his hands frequently. Model these behaviors for your child by hand washing before every meal or snack, before touching food, after using the bathroom, after playing with the family pet and after sneezing or blowing your nose. Make the activity fun by singing a song such as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" while washing to teach your kid that he must wash for at least 15 seconds, according to the Parents website.

    • 3

      Maintain a routine as the best way to get your children to bathe. Recommend they take a bath or shower before bedtime or before or after school. Parents can make bath time fun for younger kids by letting them play with toys. Teach them to cover all the basics during a bath including washing the face, hair, armpits, ears and feet and by cleaning beneath their finger and toenails. Teach your child to clean just the outer part of his ears with a washcloth.

    Diet, Disease and Exercise

    • 4

      Teach your child that the body needs vitamins, minerals and nutrients to stay healthy. Reinforce what you teach by letting him use interactive computer tools, such as that available on the Public Broadcasting System - NOVA website, where kids can scroll over parts of the body and learn more about what each does and what nutrients are good for sustaining optimal functioning.

    • 5

      Teach younger kids basic nutrition concepts, such as how many calories are in various foods, by pointing to various foods and having them shout "healthy" or "yucky." Show them the food pyramid and teach about the various food groups. Reinforce the lesson by having younger children color pictures of the pyramid. Have kids create healthy meals out of pictures representing grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat and beans.

    • 6

      Tell younger children that they should exercise every day to maintain good health. Give concrete examples of activities such as playing tag, jumping rope, walking, riding a bicycle or roller skating. Ask children to list their favorite activities and set time aside every day to play together. Have older children log their activity level for a week, using tools such as the Physical Activity Record form on the Team Nutrition United States Department of Agriculture website, and evaluate themselves against the standards for physical activity in the guide.

    • 7

      Show children a map of world flu trends, such as that available on the Google.org website, to demonstrate how serious communicable illnesses like the flu are. Use a concrete explanation for how germs are spread, such as telling them that germs are spread when we don't wash our hands and that this could make people sick. Parents can obtain a star chart and encourage their child to fill it out every time she washes her hands.

    • 8

      Tell children that smoking is bad for them by sharing interesting facts, such as that cigarettes have over 4,000 toxic chemicals or that nicotine is also used in bug spray. Challenge kids to create their own flipbooks with cartoon characters to educate others about the dangers of smoking and second-hand smoke.

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