Take Health Lessons to the Gym -- Part II

This is part II of a two-part series on integrating a physical activity component in delivering health lessons to elementary and middle school students. The purpose of this series is to illustrate how health content can be implemented with hands-on activities, physical experiments, visual illustrations that are associated with a specific lesson focus, or physical tasks that require students to repeatedly practice memory recall. Two physical activities in the following five health education topics are provided in this article: (1) alcohol, tobacco and other drugs; (2) communicable and chronic diseases; (3) consumer and community health; (4) environmental health; and (5) injury prevention and safety. Corresponding National Health Education Standards and twenty-first-century skills for each activity are also provided. Similar to part I of the series, a few of the designs can be implemented with a different lesson focus or health topic. Examples are discussed at the end of the article.