For the HEALTH of it! Back to School

Well, next week I officially report back to work.  It has been a great summer, but I am excited to get my classroom in order, turn all of those ideas I've been pinning and planning into reality, and finally meet my new bunch of fourth graders.  I love back to school time!

What I don't love about a new school year is being bombarded by germs... coughing, sneezing, dirty hands, nose picking, viruses, bacteria...  OH MY!  I can feel my throat start to scratch and my sinuses start to drain just thinking about it.  

In my school district, we teach about communicable and non-communicable diseases, pathogens, and heatlhy habits as part of our health curriculum.  I always start the year with these valuable lessons that we refer to all year long.  Because of a packed schedule, I only teach health once a week, so I need to make that lesson count!  

I've just finished the first three in a HUGE series of health lessons I plan on creating throughout the school year. 

Here's a little bit about each one of the lessons:

In lesson #1 students learn what communicable and non-communicable diseases are, examples of each and ways to protect against contagious illness.  As a closing activity they play a "I have, who has" game as a class to review the vocabulary and concepts in the lesson.  

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 Lesson #2 goes into more depth about what causes communicable diseases, specifically viruses and bacteria.  The informational brochure talks about the immune system and how it helps defend against these unwanted intruders.  As part of the lesson, students design a germ and create a wanted poster sharing details from what they learned from their health brochure.

Click to go to TpT.

Lesson #3 teaches students about 8 healthy habits for staying well.  This connect to both of the previous lessons, but goes into more details about how to keep well.  As an opening activity, students participate in an easy to science experiment to discover where the most germs are in the classroom. 

Each of these lessons includes detailed lesson plans, lesson objectives for posting, an opening activity, main lesson including a non-fiction text in brochure format, and a closing activity.   If you buy the MINI-BUNDLE of all three lessons,  I've also included a grade book page with all of the objectives listed and an assessment covering all three lessons. 

If you already have a health curriculum, the health brochures are also a great way to revisit the concepts in a literacy center or as a take home assignment.  They include vocabulary, quick before reading activity, close reading/code the text key, and after reading vocabulary task and comprehension questions related to the lesson objectives.  

My next set of For the HEALTH of It! lessons will be focusing on HYGIENE!  If you are interested in getting notification of when these lessons are completed, please follow Literacy Loves Company on TpT!  All new resources are 50% off for the first 48 hours...  that equals big savings.  

*NOTE...  as I use these lessons in class, I'll update this blog post with photos of the lessons and activities.  If you are interested, follow my blog by e-mail or on blog lovin!  

Thanks for visiting Literacy Loves Company Blog!  I hope you stay germ free and have a great Back to School season! 

Attribution for the dirty hands photograph in the video:

Hard Work, Dirty Hands, Ogilvy PR via flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/27132029@N06/6253368421,  CC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/