Kindergartners and first-graders are introduced to the circulatory system and to nutrition. Explain that good foods keep the heart healthy -- just as good food keeps the rest of the body healthy -- so it can do its job as well as it can. Ask your students to think of different kinds of foods they like and don't like. Hand out slips of paper, and ask each student to write the name of one food on the slip of paper. Write the names of the food groups on the chalkboard. Collect the slips in a basket (or hat). Then, one by one, have each student come up and draw one slip from the basket and call out the name of the food. Ask the class to categorize each food (you can assist them), and write it under the appropriate heading on the board.
Students in these grades learn that their bodies are growing, and that physical activity helps their bodies grow up to be healthy and strong. Explain that the heart is a part of the body that needs to grow, too, and that exercise helps it. Ask the students to think of exercises they could do in the classroom, such as deep-knee bends or jumping jacks. Then, pass out slips of paper which you've cut to 1 by 8 inches. Have each student write one exercise on his or her slip and then collect them. Finally, assist the children in using glue, paste or tape to make a link chain out of the slips of paper. Hang the chain somewhere in the classroom. Whenever the opportunity arises, you can go to the chain for an in-class exercise.
Remind the class that exercise and physical activities are good for your heart as well as the rest of your body, and that laziness is not. Ask them to think of the physical activities that they like to do. You can provide general examples, such as sports or games played at recess. Then, write the following phrase on the chalkboard: "Instead of watching TV, I could _______." Finally, ask each student to read the sentence out loud and fill in the blank at the end with one of their favorite activities.
This sing-along will help teach students that heart function is vital to life. Write the following song/rhyme on the chalkboard:
"The heart, the heart, the heart
Is a most important part.
How important a part is the heart?
Your body won’t start without a heart!
That’s how important a part
Is the heart, the heart, the heart"
Read the passage aloud and slowly, and then ask children to identify the rhymes. Help them if you need to. Then, have your students read it along with you. Next, have them read along again, but this time have them clap at the same time as they say each of the rhymes. Finally, tell your students you will read it again, but that you will leave out some words, words that they will need to fill in. Read the passage and leave out the rhyme words, allowing a little extra time for the students to fill in the missing words. You even can suggest they clap as they fill in the missing words.