Getting an Early Start to a Healthy Life

Editor's Note: This unit for third-graders, prepared in the seminar on "Nutrition, Metabolism, and Diabetes," aims to encourage the adoption of a healthy lifestyle. Its interdisciplinary approach makes use of science, mathematics, and physical education classes. Its content is also aligned with standards in English and Language Arts.

A few weeks ago, the mother of one of my students shared a story. As Charlie was completing his math homework, he looked up at her and announced, "Mom I am going to go to Yale someday so you have to make sure I work hard!" My participation in the Yale National Initiative has helped me to inspire my students to set their goals high. After a few weeks in my third-grade classroom, Charlie is not only expecting to go to Yale, he realizes he will need to work hard to get there!

This past summer in Mark Saltzman's seminar on "Nutrition, Metabolism, and Diabetes," I developed a curriculum unit called "Getting an Early Start to a Healthy Life." There are many reasons to teach a unit about nutrition and healthy lifestyles to third-grade students. The incidence of diabetes is growing among young people. This increase of diabetes has been linked to the increase in childhood obesity, which is a worrisome trend. I want my students to pay attention to what they put into their bodies and understand the effects that foods have on their mood, activity level, and academic performance. I want them to be aware of how their bodies feel when they engage in physical activity. Giving students this information early in their lives will enable them to begin healthy practices now that will benefit them throughout their lives.

My curriculum unit integrates standards from Mathematics, English/Language Arts, Science, and Physical Education. Using this interdisciplinary approach helps me to show my students how these subjects are connected instead of teaching skills and topics in isolation. The students are learning about healthy living while they add up their total number of calories for a day, a week, and a month. It is exciting to watch as they tackle adding numbers in the tens of thousands. Because the columns of numbers are connected to their lives, they approach their work without hesitation. They are writing in journals about making healthy choices using the newly learned vocabulary. They are classifying this new vocabulary into nouns, verb, and adjectives during word sorting activities.

As we proceed through the unit, students will use laptops to conduct research and report on the digestive process. They will then choose how they will present the information they have learned, join interest groups to create power point presentations, or posters, or possibly write songs.

Because students learn better through active participation, my new lesson plans include some practice in Yoga one hour each week with a trained instructor. Exercise and Yoga are about mind, body, and spirit. The ultimate goal is to achieve balance in life. Experiencing Yoga provides my students with an overall awareness of their bodies and gives them a positive outlook on physical fitness. Every Monday afternoon we push our desks out of the way and lie down our mats. After each session, students record their reflections explaining how their bodies and minds are reacting. Charlotte sees an improvement with her balancing from week to week; Nate is learning the importance of stretching his spine. The students are now setting goals for what they would like to work on next week: Shanelle is going to listen to the instructor more and not fool around with the person on the mat next to her. Every week the students become more focused during the session. I expect that this enhanced focus will soon transfer into other areas in our classroom.

Authentic, real life implications increase the interest level for my students. The students are reporting on data collected from their own lives. They are keeping logs that track their daily food consumption and physical activity levels. As a result, students are becoming conscious of the food choices they make and the physical activities they engage in. Perhaps more importantly, they are beginning to see the connection of these two elements — eating and exercise — to living a healthy life. I give this connection a visual reference by asking the students to use balance scales. Students place weights on the left side of the scale to represent the calories in from food. Next they place weights on the right side of the scale to represent the calories out from activity. If the scale is balanced, they realize they are on the right track. If the scale is not balanced, students are able to make judgments about how to create a balance. Students then graph calories in on white paper and calories out on a transparency. We place the calories out graph on top of the calories in graph and students are able to see if their intake matches their output.

As I prepared this cross-curricular unit based on state standards and including activities that would be effective with my students, I gained much from my experience with the Yale National Initiative. But it is my students — like Charlie, Charlotte, Nate, and Shanelle — who are reaping the greatest rewards.

Kathleen G. Gormley is a Third-Grade Teacher at Highlands Elementary School in New Castle County, Delaware.