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Life Science | Environmental Science | Physical Science | Health & Safety

Health & Safety: Core Concepts

Teaching health and safety to preschoolers requires balancing information that is important against information a preschooler can understand. Taught properly, preschoolers can understand and apply a surprising amount of information. Areas that are taught can include: hygiene, disease prevention, basic nutrition, basic fitness, good touch/bad touch, and stranger safety.

Explorers:

• As they learn about healthy eating and proper nutrition, students will
  sort our play food into various categories: anytime food vs. junk food,
  fruits vs. vegetables, etc.
• Students will be given a cut out of a tooth in yellow construction paper and a toothbrush. After they learn about the importance of brushing, they will make their teeth white again by brushing white paint onto the yellow tooth.
• Students will learn about 911 when they practice dialing the on a play phone that connects to a recording of a 911 operator when dialed correctly.

Trailblazers:

• To help students learn about how easily and quickly germs can spread, the teacher will cover her hand in germs ‘glitter’ and then proceed to shake the children’s hands.  Children will be invited to come up with ways to prevent spreading germs and be reminded of the importance of hand washing.
• Students will learn about fire safety as they play in our dramatic play firehouse.
• Students will understand the difference between hot and cold when they sort pictures of matches, stoves, candles, etc. from ice cream, refrigerators, snowmen, etc.

Pioneers:

• After accessing the USDA’s preschooler page to see the food pyramid, students will practice making healthy plates by creating a collage using cutouts of foods from magazines, newspapers and flyers.
• To aid in the memorization of addresses, children will create a replica of their house using recycled materials and affix their address to the buildings front.
• Students will create a dental health poster when they place pictures of sweet foods and healthy foods under a picture of a happy tooth or a sad one.

Scholars:

• Children will learn about dental health when they leave a hard boiled egg in vinegar for two days tto demonstrate how enamel is damaged by bacteria and acid.  When the children see how the shell is softened at the end of the experiment, they will underststand how important it is to brush to protect our enamel.
• Students will create maps with escape routes from school with the help of their teacher.
• Students will create their own toothpaste using salt, baking powder, water and peppermint flavoring and then graph whether or not they liked the results.