Teaching elementary students about diet and nutrition will help them develop life-long healthy habits. One important health lesson is understanding the six groups of the food pyramid developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Set up a cutout of a large food pyramid at the front of the classroom. Gather pictures of various types of food. Call upon students to attach the pictures in the correct part of the pyramid. Explain the importance of each kind of food in the pyramid and how many servings they should eat. Ask each child to report on what she ate for the previous day's supper. The class can then discuss which items were healthy and which ones were not as healthy.
The Center for Disease Control recommends children have 60 minutes or more of physical activity every day, which should include strength-training activities, such as gymnastics or climbing, and bone-strengthening activities, such as jumping rope or running, at least three times a week. Teachers can help students achieve these recommendations with lesson plans explaining how important it is for children to be active. Have students keep a log for a week of how much time they spent in physical activities and how much time they spent in more passive pursuits, such as watching TV or playing video games. At the end of that time, have the students look over their logs to see if they need to add more physical activity or cut down on passive recreation.
Learning proper dental care at a young age will prevent problems as adults. Little Giraffe, a website dedicated to elementary lesson plans, outlines some excellent lessons to teach elementary students dental health. One is to place hard-boiled eggs in soda and fruit juice. Let them marinate for a day or two. Have students clean the eggs with a toothbrush, demonstrating how what students drink affects their teeth. Another lesson involves soaking a hard-boiled egg in vinegar, which shows students how acid eats away at enamel. Teach flossing techniques by having students floss the underside of a Styrofoam egg carton.
While elementary students do not smoke, they are aware that some people do. It's important to lay the groundwork to prevent children from taking up the habit later. About 3,900 kids aged from 12 to 17 start smoking every day, according to Kids Health. Teaching elementary students about smoking is a difficult topic because they do not understand the negative internal effects. One way to accomplish this is to use a smoking machine, which can be procured from a local Cancer Society or Heart Association, to blow cigarette smoke through a tissue. The tissue instantly turns brown. Explain why this happens. Teaching young students about smoking should be informative, not scary.