Pour Some Sugar on Me

Flu and cold season is upon us again and if you are anything like me, a day of 30 coughing kids can make you want to go home and dive into a bath of hand sanitizer. Helping students understand what germs are and how they spread is essential for the health of you and your students this winter.  A class full of germ-conscious kids who properly wash their hands regularly would be great, right?  Joann and I featured germ-related activities in our posts about germs last year.  Be sure to check them out on our blog archive here and here. 

On a similar note, Halloween traditions can bring up a whole new set of healthy eating teachable moments for your classroom.  As the kids are slowly coming out of the sugar rush of Halloween and building up to the feeding frenzy (more commonly known as Thanksgiving) in America, teachers have a chance to set a good example and teach kids more about the food they are putting into their bodies every day.  I know that I had more than my fair share of added sugar on Halloween, and as I was enjoying it, I started thinking about the added sugar in my diet.  There are lots of nutrition related activities you can implement into your class, but this week I thought sugar would be a timely and appropriate topic.

How much added sugar are we really supposed to be getting anyways?  According to the American Heart Association, women shouldn’t have more than about 5 teaspoons a day (20 grams) and men shouldn’t have more than 9 (36 grams).  Children should be limited to 3 teaspoons (or 12 grams) of added sugar per day.  Most Americans get more than 22 teaspoons, a fact that might surprise some of your students.  These numbers don’t include the sugar naturally founds in food like fruit.  This is the sugar that is added into many foods for extra sweetness.

This fall, I want to help students hunt down the hidden sugar in their diets.  They probably have plenty of Halloween candy to use in this activity, so I plan to ask them to each bring in a few pieces.  If they don’t have candy, they can bring in wrappers and containers from other popular items like yogurt, cereal, soda, and other packaged snacks.  Unfortunately, the nutrition information isn’t on most fun-size candy passed out during trick-or-treating, so you might need to do some online research.  Looking up the information online is a good technology lesson in itself, or you can provide students a list of sugar content in popular candies.  This list is a good starting point.

When looking at ingredients, remember that the sugar content is usually listed under carbohydrates. Sometimes it’s hard for students to figure out which sugar is naturally occurring and which is added, but the numbers will give you a rough idea of the amount of added sugar.  The amounts are generally listed in grams, a weight measurement students might not be familiar with.  They might be more familiar with a volume measurement like a teaspoon.  What does a gram of sugar look like?  The following idea is for an activity that will let students see the amount of sugar in each of their snacks.

For this activity, I will start with 3 baby food jars (or snack size zipper bags) in the front of the classroom, each one representing the maximum amount of daily added sugar that kids and adults should get per day (3, 5, and 9 teaspoons).  After a discussion of added sugars, I will let the kids research their own snacks and create jars or bags of the amount of sugar in each of their snacks. 

For kids old enough to do the math themselves, there is roughly 4 grams of sugar in each teaspoon (this can vary slightly by granularity of the sugar, but it makes for a easy conversion for kids to use).  They can simply divide the number of grams of sugar by 4 to determine the approximate number of teaspoons of sugar in the snack.

I will also make a few examples, so I am sure there is a wide range of snacks.  I will do an example bag for a can of soda, a sweetened yogurt, and a typical serving of a sugary cereal.  Once the kids have created their bags of sugar, I will let them creatively present their results to the class.  It might be a neat exercise to line up the bags with their wrappers in order of how much added sugar they have.  If we do this, we can make a class chart so we can remember and compare our results. 

Here are some more Gateway resources that will help you study added sugars with your class:

Reading Labels: Which Snack is the Best Choice?

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-04-10.9162408692

Put Your Favorite Beverage to the Test

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/32769

Good Snack, Smart Snack

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2007-10-09.8279893203

Sugary cereals

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/9203

Candy bar fractions

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-09-25.6576047958

~ Peggy's Corner - November 1, 2011~

The Dead Zone: The 1918 Flu Pandemic

Pandemics are frightful things – a widespread illness that strikes suddenly and virulently, leaving thousands or even millions in its wake. While horrific pandemics like the Black Death are today largely confined to the pages of history books, modern-day pandemics such as cholera, malaria, and AIDS continue to ravage many parts of the world. One of the most terrifying pandemics occurred nearly 100 years ago, towards the end of World War I. The 1918 flu pandemic swept the globe, killing an estimated 50-100 million people worldwide in the span of two and a half years. In the U.S., the flu struck over a quarter of the population; in a single year, the average life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by 12 years.

The 20^th century saw two flu pandemics in addition to the 1918 outbreak. The 1957 and 1968 outbreaks were relatively mild, with the global death toll reaching about 2 million and 1 million, respectively.  In 1918, governments worldwide instituted strict rules to try to prevent the spread of infection. In the U.S., stores were forbidden to hold sales, and face masks were required to be worn in public. Public gatherings such as funerals and weddings were limited to 15 minutes, and those who violated the flu mandates were required to pay heavy fines. Medical supplies and caskets were in short supply, and many communities lacked enough manpower to bury their dead in a timely fashion.  For many people, the horrors of war had been replaced by the even greater horrors of disease. Finally, at the end of 1920, the flu seemed to burn itself out, and life slowly returned to normal.

The 1918 flu pandemic offers rich primary source material for students to investigate; there are many photographs, personal letters, and news accounts online. For younger students, the advent of cold and flu season is a good time to revisit hand washing techniques and lessons on how germs are spread. Older students can explore how viruses work and mutate, and discuss how pandemics affect communities, the economy, and public health policies. This week, I’ve selected three resources on the flu for various grade levels.  I’ll also be featuring several new lessons and resources on this topic each day throughout the week on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so be sure to check those pages regularly.

Let's Learn the Flu FACTS

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-10-10.2852513394

Subjects: Health, Science

Grade: 1-3

In this lesson, students will learn the difference between a cold and the flu, including the symptoms they each present. Students also learn some precautions they can take to avoid getting sick. This lesson was produced by Scholastic, a leading children’s publishing, education, and media company.

Pandemic

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2008-12-30.0957862802

Subjects: Science, World History

Grade: 7-8

The focus of this teaching unit is to broaden students understanding of infectious diseases what they are, what causes them, how they are spread, and what can be done to prevent widespread transmission of these communicable diseases. Students will participate in a simulated outbreak and will also study the events of a historic epidemic that occurred locally. Given what they have learned, students will then be asked to predict whether such a widespread transmission of an infectious disease could happen today. This unit is a product of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, which offers educational TV, radio, and other media to the public.

Cold and Flu

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-10-10.1998814543

Subjects:  Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, Health

Grade: ESL Intermediate

This lesson, for intermediate ELL students, focuses on vocabulary and reading comprehension related to colds and the flu. Students will engage in pre-reading activities, read a passage about colds and flu, and check their understanding in post-reading activities. Along the way, students will also learn about how to tell the difference between a cold and the flu, and how to treat the illnesses. This lesson was created by English-to-Go, part of the Developing Teacher web site for language teachers. The site offers web hosting for language classes and courses, as well as teaching tips, newsletters, lesson plans, and training courses.

~ Joann's Picks - November 1, 2011 ~

Where did that Healthy Eating Post Go? ...AKA Getting Organized for Better Teaching

Eating disorders and body image issues can be life changing for students during the adolescent years. They are, at the very least, a distraction from learning and can escalate quickly into a major problem for your students. Seeing these types of issues in the school setting, has reminded me how important it is to include life skills in my teaching. We are in the business of teaching our students how to be healthy and successful as much as we are in the business of teaching them the specifics of our particular subject areas. 

As I was reading Joann’s overview of eating disorders and body image, I thought about some previous posts we have written about nutrition and exercise.  These columns are very relevant to teachers trying to tackle issues of self-esteem, body image, and healthy living in the classroom.  If you are looking to encourage healthy eating, try implementing some ideas and resources from our previous posts, You Are What You Eat and Battle of the Bulge.  Good health habits are not formed through healthy eating alone, and with current budget cuts teachers can’t always rely on a P.E. program to encourage exercise. Get Out and Run! and Brain Gym present physical education ideas that are easy for classroom teachers to implement during regular classroom time. 

As I was searching our blog site to find these entries, I realized how hard it can be to find specific things online, even when I know exactly what I am looking for.  Ideas I come across online every day can get lost in the shuffle if I don’t have an easy way to bookmark them to find them later.  How often have you read a great idea in a blog or website that you decide revisit later, when you “have time?”  The real problem is remembering what you wanted to come back to read and where you found it. (Finding the time is hard, too, but I haven’t come across any solutions for that one!)  I am constantly reading blogs from my Google reading list, Facebook posts, and Twitter updates from fellow educators.  I can “Like” them, retweet them, and join in discussions about the ideas, but that doesn’t help me easily organize the ideas so I can find them again when I am ready to use them. 

It’s nice for teachers to be able to organize findings to use later, and we can pass on this very valuable skill to students for their own research and organization. 

There are quite a few methods to keep track of notes and webpages you don’t want to forget.  You can bookmark sites on your computer or use one of many online bookmarking tools.  I haven’t worked with too many of these tools, and I would like to know if there are certain ones any of you suggest and have used successfully.

A friend of mine who is an avid technology user and kindergarten teacher suggested one method for organizing my online findings. (Thanks Mr. K!) I have been really happy with it, since I can access my saved pages on different devices like my phone or iPad.  It’s been keeping me more organized, and hopefully it will help you stay a little more organized this year, too. 

This blog post, A Web-to-Evernote Workflow that Works Everywhere, explains the process well.  Basically, I signed up for two different accounts: Instapaper and Evernote.  I dragged a “Read Later” button onto my computer’s toolbar from Instapaper’s site, and I click it anytime I come across a page I want to read later.  When I find some extra time to look at my archived pages, I click a button in Instapaper to send the ones I like over to Evernote, where I can organize them however I like.  I installed Evernote on my Android phone and my iPad, so I can access my notes and saved pages from anywhere.  I can also access them on the web by signing into my account from any computer.  Cool, huh?

I hope the resources and suggestions Joann and I present each week are immediately useful.  If not, click “Read Later” and save these ideas and resources for later!

~Peggy's Corner - 8/26/2011~

The Body Shop

A new book aimed at six-to-twelve year olds will hit the shelves in October, and it’s already generating a lot of comment in the press and from nutritionists. The book is entitled Maggie Goes on a Diet, and it tells the story of an overweight and insecure girl who diets and exercises her way to becoming a soccer star. While the author is careful to note that Maggie becomes “normal-sized” rather than paper-thin, the book has been roundly criticized by mental health and eating disorder experts for the message it sends. The author, no doubt, means well; with over half of all American adults either obese or overweight, the health problems associated with being overweight have skyrocketed over the past few decades. The target audience of Maggie Goes on a Diet, however, is worrisome. Educating children about good nutrition and the importance of exercise to keep their bodies healthy is one thing, but to stress dieting and exercise as a weight-loss method to gain acceptance and to become a “star” is quite another.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has announced that eating disorders in children have shown a rapid increase in recent years. It’s not difficult to figure out why – kids are bombarded daily with images of sleekly muscled men and ultra-willowy women who slink around selling products. Most of the celebrities that female students currently admire lament their clothing sizes, which usually top out at either 0 or 00. This culture of extreme thinness is indeed an illness, and eating disorders are considered the most prevalent form of mental illness in the world. The British supermodel Kate Moss, a perennial tabloid darling for her chain-smoking and drug use, has said that she keeps her famous figure waif-like by limiting what she eats. She came under fire last year for declaring that “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” – a sentiment that promptly appeared as a slogan on best-selling tee shirts aimed at pre- and adolescent girls. While the tee shirts were eventually banned in the UK, their success points to a very troubling question: What kind of parent would buy their young girls such a shirt, and why is it so vital to them that their daughters conform to an unrealistic super-thin “ideal”?

Studies have estimated that 8 million Americans suffer from eating disorders, including 1 million males. Schools have recognized that many eating disorders start in intermediate and middle school, and have responded with wellness classes and programs that emphasize proper nutrition and exercise to maintain a healthy body. Physical education classes, too, have been instrumental in educating students to the dangers of eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating, and districts nationwide have been offering healthier lunch options for students. While proper nutrition and exercise information is most often discussed in science, health, and PE classes, discussion on the role of media, society, and peer pressure in relation to body image can be integrated into classes in different subject areas. My picks this week focus on educating students on developing a healthy body image, and Peggy will discuss ways to use these resources and others in the classroom. Throughout the week, we’ll also be featuring several new lessons, tip sheets, and resources on this important topic each day throughout the week on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so be sure to take a look. It’s information that could have a very big impact on a student’s life.

Healthy Body Image: Teaching Kids to Eat and Love Their Bodies Too!

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-08-16.7462628853

Subjects: English Language Arts, Health, Social studies

Grade: 4-6

A comprehensive resource manual and lesson guide with scripted-lessons and activities for grades four, five, or six. The guide teaches kids to focus on a healthy lifestyle and preventing disordered eating. This guide was written by Kathy Kater of BodyImageHealth.org, which promotes healthy body image attitudes for students and adults.

Gender Stereotypes and Body Image

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-08-16.8529610999

Subjects: Writing, Health, Social studies

Grade: 6-7
The goal of this lesson is to make students aware of the dangers of gender stereotyping and the media's role in perpetuating gender stereotypes. This lesson was prepared by

Media Awareness Network, a Canadian non-profit organization that offers a wealth of digital and media literacy resources.

Eating Disorder Facts & Myths Lesson Plan

http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2011-08-18.2048515931

Subjects: Health, Social studies

Grade: 9-12

Students will learn basic information about eating disorders including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Students will learn facts about these disorders and be able to identify common myths associated with the disorders. Students will learn about and discuss the media's influence on adolescent society in the areas of body image and eating disorders. Students will develop leadership skills by having the opportunity to promote awareness in their school community. This lesson was produced by Bright Hub, which provides K-12 educational resources and information for schools.

~Joann's Picks - 8/26/2011~