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Lesson 18: Healthy Choices

Objectives:

Students will:

  • list healthy foods.
  • describe how eating healthy food helps the body during puberty.
  • explain how exercising helps the body during puberty.
  • name good forms of exercise.
  • describe how getting proper rest helps the body during puberty.

Vocabulary: good food, junk food, exercise

Materials: Picture Cards 30, 31, and 32, pictures from magazines, pictures of students, worksheet #7

Procedure:

  1. Read Picture Card 30 and go over discussion questions.
  2. Review good nutrition. Have students plan a healthy meal, a snack, or make a daily food chart.
  3. Explain the specific need for good nutrition during puberty because of rapid growth. Make a chart of good foods with healthy-looking girls (or actual pictures of students) underneath. Beside that put pictures of junk food with a list of the following consequences for having very poor nutrition - little or no growth, feeling weak and tired, bones may break more easily, more susceptible to sores on skin, and immune system won't be as strong so a girl may be sick more often. Girls should also know that poor nutrition can make a girl stop having her period. However, this private information would not be appropriate on a bulletin board.
  4. Have students describe a TV advertisement that made them want to eat some junk food. Ask how the commercial tried to convince viewers to eat this food even though it does not help the body in any way. Ask them what they can think about to convince them- selves not to eat this junk food.
  5. Read Picture Card 31 and go over discussion questions.
  6. Have students fill in the Daily Exercise Chart on worksheet #7 for a week. Teacher or aide can help interview students daily to help fill this in. At the end of the week have them decide whether they are getting enough exercise. Have students set goals for themselves.
  7. Read Picture Card 32 and go over discussion questions.
  8. Use small chart on worksheet #7. - Good Rest, Good Health for students to record the number of hours sleep they get and how they feel the next day. Students may need parental assistance. Have students complete the chart for 4 school nights. On Friday help students read their charts and decide whether they got enough sleep and how it affected the way they felt each day.