Nutrition

As a personal trainer, I can tell you the hardest part of a Wellness Plan is instituting a healthy diet...not a fad diet or a diet 'designed for weightloss' I'm talking about a nutrition plan that gives the body all the vitamins and minerals it needs....so (not surprisingly) I've been searching the internet, as well as working on my own printouts to help teach my boys about Healthy Nutrition and Healthy Living....Here's some of what I've come up with....

• From The Homeschool Mom i printed a weekly menue so the boys can help me plan a healthy diet for the week that we work on the lapbook.
• From The Heart Foundation For Kids I found some Gor For Kids printouts on Water
• From Captain 5 A Day I found great information on Vegetables and Fruit (they also have activities on Hand Washing and such that I used in our Human Body Lapbook) There are also some great activities at Dole 5 A Day, And here's some great online stories for kids!!
• Here's a great list of Links for teaching kids Nutrition!
• For finding our about nutrition or activities you should check out KidsHealth. They actually have an article for each age group - with ideas on fitness levels. I printed one for each child's lapbook and we made index cards.
• Nutritional Explorations - kids explore nutrition in this interactive site.
• TOTALLY INCLUSIVE Nutrition Guide for your kids.
• Also here's a Nutrition Lapbook guide, and here's another.
• Easy Fun School on Nutrition mini-unit
• And of course to understand the Food Pyramid check out My Pyramid and Pyramid Food Guide

Human Body

Well as you know we did a separate lapbook on Nutrition and the Food Pyramid....here's what we did on Anatomy & Physiology.

For our healthy living pages, DJ did a page on Asthma (from which he suffers) and it's instigators. We found this great lesson plan from the EPA on air quality and polution, as well as the Health Effects of air polution...(I also greatly suggest the EPA Student Center for learning about Environmental Basics!)..X-man did a page on the importance of Keeping Clean (why do we wash our hands? Why cover our mouth when we cough or sneeze? etc)

To introduce the idea of Genetics I made cards that looked similar to these (as they were out of my price range). Essentially I took a picture of my husband and myself, well 2 pictures. I expanded them. Then printed them. One of each I cut out the features (lips, eyes, ears, nose, hair). Then I had a blank head I had drawn. The kids got to make a guess at what our next child might look like....then we took a look through the family albums to see where mom and dad got their features...and how DJ got red hair when neither mom nor dad have red hair....(but his great-great-grandma did -- recessive genes!!) We also made a Family Tree - to look back at features in those who came before us...

There are 2 main biographies - Darwin (Wiki) and Rosalind Franklin 'The Dark Lady of DNA' (Wiki)...pics of darwin (1,2) and franklin (1, 2)

Then to understand the Ladder of DNA - we made A MAP OF ME - where we listed those things that made us individuals (even those inherited trates) == (I'll upload my PDF later)....I made a Ladder then on each rung we wrote those trates...including our medical information (allergies, DJ's Colitis, etc).

We also introduced the concept of evolution -- if you're looking for a great understanding of the concept for you. the teacher, you'll find it here! Also here you'll find an easy lesson plan on evolution -- The boys checked out PBS' online videos on understanding Evolution. I also briefly explained the Tree of Life project how it's like we made our family tree to understand Genetics, Biologists around the world are branching their studies of phyllum together to see where they connect! For older children this site is great for comparing the major beliefs in the Orgin of Life (evolution, creationism, etc)
We also did a separate page on First Aid.
This Squiddo is great for lapbooks for kids of all ages!
Gotta go cook ((it is Thanksgiving morning...lol) so I'll finish tonight!!