Healthy Teeth are Happy Teeth

There are so many different kinds of learning that happen in school: math, reading, how to get along with each other, meeting deadlines.  These are skills that people use their whole lives long.  Learning to be healthy is another skill, one that helps us make our lives longer.  Mrs. B, our wellness coordinator, has been doing an extra special job this year.  She has been making sure that our kids know about everything from fun ways to exercise to good diets.  Now, she is even tackling their teeth!

Mrs. B found someone from Boston University's Dental School to come talk to all the Perkins' students about their choppers.  

 

Ms. Krissie Gibson taught our kids how to keep their teeth healthy and happy.  It all starts with brushing them frequently--and, correctly.  Brush down from the gum, both sides, and don't miss any spots.  Each tooth-brushing session should last for two whole minutes.  

How long is two minutes? If you don't have a clock handy, Ms. Gibson suggests singing the alphabet song to yourself four whole times.  Do it in your head, though, or you will get toothpaste all over the place!

Also there are foods that are tooth healthy, she explained.  High-fiber fruits and vegetables scrub your mouth while you are chewing, for example.  Dairy produces, like cheese, milk, and yoghurt, provide calcium, which helps keep teeth and bones strong.

Ms. Gibson knew that sometimes the best way to teach something is to make a game out of it.  That's why some of the older grades learned about dental heath by playing a quiz game that was like Jeopardy.  She divided other classes, such as, like Ms. Hardin's fourth grade, into two groups to compete against each other in a trivia match.  

 All the third grades did word search activities.  Who did the best on this exercise?

It turned out to be a three-way tie!

We Won!

Mrs. B's Wellness Warriors have done it again.  The kids entered a contest sponsored by Boston Moves for Health.  The Perkins School only has five pedometers (a pedometer is a little gizmo that measures the distance a person has walked or ran), but five were enough.  The kids shared them to measure how much they moved in gym class.  Sometimes they were running.  On wet or slippery days, they walked around the schoolyard.  They even measured the push-off steps they used to glide when they were learning to ride bicycles with the Boston Bikes program.

Do you know what?  A little bit of skipping here and jogging there really adds up.  Getting exercise and feeling healthy is prize enough, but the Perkins School managed to come in second place in the contest. 

Here is the chart of how many steps we managed to take in a month.  Finding the total would be a good math problem for our upper classes.  Yes, this is just addition, but those numbers of steps are really large!  Okay kids, those of you who are learning estimation, is our monthly total of steps more or less than a million?

 























One thing we do know is that our average of 832 steps per student got us a prize of $500.  

What is going to happen with that money?  According to Mrs. B, our gym teacher, it might go to buying hockey sticks for the school. Another possibility is that Mrs. B will buy enough pedometers for all the kids to use them.  It's fun to measure your steps and makes you want to take more of them.

Also, says Mrs. B, "our kids really wanted to participate.  They are team players.  They wanted to win for their school."

So keep up the good work, kids.  Maybe you will be able to win again and buy both!

Eating Our Way to Health

Mrs. B, our gym and wellness teacher, is on a roll.  Boston Bikes, track team, pedometers AND another essential part of wellness--nutrition.  After all, it's not just moving your body that makes it healthy; it's what you put in it as well.

Mrs. B signed up for a program offered by University of Massachusetts Extension Nutrition Education Program.  As a result, Ms. Carole, a Nutrition Educator, came to the Perkins.  She spoke to all the kids about the magic in food and the need to eat right.  Protein, grains, vegetables, beans, seeds and nuts, dairy, fruit--these foods that are good for you are called "everyday foods," she told them. Treats are fine too, but in much smaller amounts.

To remind the kids of the foods they should eat most of (and in what proportions or amounts), Ms. Carole gave each student in every grade a picture to color.   

All too often drawings and pictures get thrown away, even when they contain important information.  

Not this time. Mrs. B made sure that every one of those pictures were laminated.  That means it was covered by plastic so it wouldn't bend too easily and would stay clean.  In fact, it became the perfect placemat for lunchtime.  Now the kids have a daily reminder of the foods that will make them healthy--and, keep them that way.

The World in Just One Classroom

If you remember, there's a big geography project going on in (and right outside) Ms. Meadow's room. Since people from all around the world are taking an interest in us by visiting our blog, these third graders are returning the favor. They are researching the countries that have shown up on our visitors list and writing down an amazing fact about each one.


They have learned some impressive things. Here is something Raymond learned about Japan:















It's an amazing fact, but also an amazing looking creature!



Talking about spiky things, Andrea found out about a medical use for needles besides giving shots:














What does that look like? Well, check it out. In China, doctors sometimes use acupuncture instead of drugs when patients have an operation. The needles block the pain completely.

















Meanwhile Molly went to the other side of the world to learn about the country of Brazil. It's a huge country, with a huge and long river called the Amazon. Here is one of the things that interested Molly the most:
















And, why not? Look at this guy!

The Birth of Mrs. B's Wellness Warriors

One morning Mrs. Balaconis was walking across the schoolyard. She found two freshly emptied bags of chips. Could these have been somebody's breakfast? Yup. Were chips a healthy way to start a school day, or any other day for that matter?

Mrs. B decided to take this question to the kids of the Perkins School. She created this poster and asked them to vote. You can see their opinions for yourselves. So could Mrs. B. As our gym teacher and wellness coordinator, she had already been working on teaching the kids about health and physical fitness. In this moment, however, Mrs. B's Wellness Warriors were born!

You can follow their healthy adventures right here on the blog.