** Find past Teaching Centers below. **
Click on the tabs above to access key points, classroom discussion questions, extension activity ideas, resources, and more for each feature article in this issue.
A button at right links to our Digital Edition, which makes it easy to use the magazine on computers, interactive whiteboards, and projectors. This month's edition debuts some exciting new bonus features. Pop-up highlights and thinking questions help students engage with the text and make it easy for you to call attention to key messages. In the column at right you'll also find links to a printable teacher's guide for this issue, our 2011-12 Planning Calendar, our Current Health blogs, and our archives.
This issue of Current Health Kids is dedicated to the very important and sensitive topic of bullying. Whether bully, bystander, or victim, we hope that each of your students find answers to their questions and relief no matter what their situation. The most important thing this issue can teach us is that when it comes to stopping bullying--we are all in it together.
In This Issue
Your Body: A Matter of Inches
Your Relationships: Don't Just Stand There!
Your Choices: Blocking Out Bullies
Your Mind: Cool to Be Kind
Online Exclusives
• Our 2011-12 planning calendar helps you plan lessons for the whole school year.
• Our 2010-11 index can help you keep track of your favorite Current Health Kids articles or find a useful article you missed.
• Great news! Now all the reproducible worksheets for each issue—including the bonus reading comprehension worksheets, one for each feature article—are together in one place, within your Teacher's Guide. Access these worksheets and more online at right under "Printable Teacher's Guide" at right.
Let us know how your students find this special issue! Write to us at chkids@weeklyreader.com.
In Health,
Alicia Zadrozny, Editor
Past Teaching Centers
September 2011
October 2011
November 2011
December 2011
January 2012
A Matter of Inches
(p. 6) 820L
Key Points
• A person’s height is most often determined by hereditary factors. Medical and nutrition issues may also be factors in height.
• Kids grow at different rates. Present height compared with one’s peers is not always a determination of future height.
• People are able to achieve the same things, for the most part, regardless of their height.
Think and Discuss
Are your family members generally short, tall, or a mix of both? Make a prediction about how tall you will be.
Extension Activity
Have students explore more height records at www.guinnessworldrecords.com. Ask each student to choose a person to research and to present his or her findings to the class.
Resources
• More information about kids and height: www.kidshealth.org/Features.jsp?lic=1&feature=300
• A kids’ height predictor:children.webmd.com/healthtool-kids-height-predictor
Don’t Just Stand There!
(p. 10) 860L
Key Points
• Bullying is a serious issue that extends beyond the usual bad behavior. It involves repeated harmful acts
and an imbalance of power.
• Bullying acts include many parties, including assistant bullies, reinforcers, bystanders, and defenders.
• Bullying creates situations in which no one feels safe.
Think and Discuss
Do you think there is a bullying problem in your school? How do you think it feels to be bullied?
Extension Activity
Students who are bullied can experience a wide range of emotions, including sadness, rejection, loneliness, and fear. Have students create posters personifying one of those emotions. Use the activity work sheet on page 4 to initiate the activity.
Resources
• Stop Bullying:www.stopbullying.gov
• Look for resources in your state, including your department of education, and local laws.
Blocking Out Bullies
(p. 14) 930L
Key Points
• Bullying is hurtful and causes victims to feel powerless.
• Bullying can get worse if appropriate action is not taken.
• Kids can learn appropriate responses to thwart bullying.
Think and Discuss
What would you do if you were bullied? Do you feel that you are equipped to deal with such a situation?
Extension Activity
Using the information from “Hero in the Hallway” (page 4) and from Ashley Craig’s site, Students Against Being Bullied (below), discuss potential programs that could be implemented school-wide. Assign small groups of students to take on various steps listed or have the class create a project of their own.
Resources
• Students create bully cards with this Teaching Tolerance activity:
www.tolerance.org/activity/playing-bully-card
•Students Against Being Bulllied:www. studentsagainstbeingbullied.webstarts.com/about_my_program.html
Cool to Be Kind
(p. 18) 780L
Key Points
• Empathy is understanding someone else’s thoughts and feelings.
• Empathy improves relationships, is linked to higher self-esteem, is common to good leaders, and may even be a cure for loneliness, depression, anxiety, and fear.
Empathy may also prevent bullying.
• Empathy can be learned.
Think and Discuss
The article says that empathy can be developed by taking the time to listen to others. Are you a good listener? How does it feel when someone really listens to you?
Extension Activity
Find a student quiz and other activities on developing empathy from Teaching Tolerance at www.tolerance.org/activity/bullying-quiz.
Resources
• Love Our Children USA’s STOMP Out Bullying campaign:www.stompoutbullying.org
• Kind Campaign:www.kindcampaign.com
• The Ophelia Project, which aims to create safe social climates:www.opheliaproject.org
Pulse (p. 4)
• More information about the importance of family meal time:www.extension.umn.edu/parenting/components/mealtime.html
You Asked (p. 23)
• Activities for National Children’s Dental Health Month: www.ada.org/5578.aspx
• Send us your students’ health
questions. E-mail them to chkids@weeklyreader.com. Write “You Asked” in the subject line.
Get Up and Go blog:
• www.weeklyreader.com/getupandgo
Additional Resources/Books
• Letters to a Bullied Girl:Messages of Healing and Hope, by Olivia Gardner
• Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories, edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones
