Are you having trouble fitting health lessons into your plans because you already have too much to teach? Stop overlooking the value of health class! You can use health lessons to teach reading and writing. You can help students in your class stay organized, play safely and get along with each other. So why are you ignoring all these important outcomes?
Where we teach in Alberta, health is part of Physical Education and Wellness (PEW). It’s a small set of outcomes tucked into a giant list of things students need to do in gym class. That puts it at the bottom of the “important” list. Our school board also asks for thirty minutes of daily physical activity (and that doesn’t include recess or lunch breaks). This means health class rarely happens for most teachers. It’s shoved aside for more “meaningful” lessons like reading, writing and math.
Why is teaching health class important?
Health class teaches students how to look after their bodies and minds, manage their feelings and get along with others. It can also help with reading, writing and math. That is why we wrote an entire year (and then some) of health and wellness lessons that fit into other subject areas. You have to teach it anyway, so why not get more out of it?
One of the quickest and most important ways we connect with our students is by doing feelings checks. These are just quick touch-base moments where students get to share what they are feeling. You can do them out loud or on paper.
What is health class called in your province or territory?
Health class goes by a different name across Canada. Here is what each province and territory calls it:
- British Columbia: Physical and Health Education (PHE)
- Alberta: Physical Education and Wellness
- Saskatchewan: Health Education (taught alongside Physical Education)
- Manitoba: Physical Education and Health Education
- Ontario: Health and Physical Education
- Québec: Physical Education and Health
- New Brunswick: Physical and Health Education
- Nova Scotia: Health Education (taught alongside Physical Education)
- Prince Edward Island: Health / Physical Education (distinct but complementary frameworks)
- Newfoundland & Labrador: Healthy Living (integrated with Physical Education)
- Northwest Territories: Physical Education and Health Studies
- Nunavut: Physical and Health Education
- Yukon: Physical and Health Education (follows the BC curriculum model)
Whatever your curriculum calls it, students still need to learn how to manage their feelings, stay safe and get along with each other. That is what our lessons teach.
Why should you make time for health lessons every single week?
First of all, teaching health is a requirement. It might seem like one of those subjects where you just observe if a student can keep their desk clean and BAM! You have an assessment done on whether or not a student organizes.
But this is a pretty lazy way to teach. You wouldn’t teach math by just observing if a student counts. When we say “teach health” we mean putting it on the schedule for at least thirty minutes a week.
You need to explicitly teach many of the health outcomes. Some of your students don’t have anyone at home who can teach them. The reasons vary. Some families have cultural differences about women discussing body health. Others face a language barrier about the foods available in your local area. Still others have different social norms about calling the police in an emergency. Your students need clear, relevant information so they can look after themselves as adults.
Why do today’s students need health class?
Schools rarely discussed mental health a generation ago, but now students tend to have a good grasp on how it can impact their learning. Even though students learn about mental health and its impacts, some live in fear of discussing it at home, where families treat it as shameful or just don’t talk about it.
Building relationships can be challenging in school. When we teach all students a shared language for interacting respectfully, they learn to resolve issues, disagree respectfully and work together. This can help your classroom management too, and students tend to be happier when they aren’t always creating drama with each other.
Your health lessons can save you time in the long run because students build better coping skills. You may notice a change in your students when you give them specific skills and strategies.
But how do you fit health lessons into your busy schedule?
Break health class into short daily lessons. Most weeks we taught a specific health lesson for about 10-15 minutes a day. We would choose one of our quick lessons and do just one part, so we finished the entire lesson within a week. On short weeks (weeks with holidays or special events that interrupted our regular schedule), we would teach the longer lessons in one single block of about an hour. This made it easy to meet all of our outcomes and get lots of reading and writing hidden in our days.
Our general strategy is to teach everything on Monday and Tuesday. We save the rest of the week for worksheets, activities and projects. Students work from a “to-do” list during project work time. We put the follow-up activities from our health lessons on this to-do list, and students work on them between other lessons. Most weeks, students get another ten to thirty minutes of health finished.
Where do you start with health lessons?
We try to start the school year with lessons that help students get to know each other and learn classroom expectations. Some of our units work well scattered throughout the year, and others work best taught from beginning to end.
Health and Wellness Lessons for Grades 1-6
We divide our health and wellness lessons into units. There are enough lessons to teach health for SIXTY minutes a week and still not run out. Find the unit that fits what your students need right now.
Build Community
Communication, Teamwork & Classroom Community Unit: Activities to help teach your students to work together as a team. You can do the activities at any point throughout the year. We usually start the first week of school using some of these activities. Save the rest for days when we need reminders that working together is a skill. We also use them when we need to have a little fun. Find this set designed for Grades 4-6 in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
There are several posts on our site about creating community in your classroom: How to Create a Community Culture in Your Multi-Grade Classroom and How to Build Community With Theme Days for School.
Set Class Expectations
Expected and Unexpected Behaviours: This is a great one to use for starting your school year. It sets classroom expectations and addresses social situations for students from different cultural, intellectual or behavioural expectations. Instead of making class rules, you can talk about making classroom expectations. Students understand right from the beginning where to put things when they’re done or how to line up. We start the year with this, but it also works as a great refresher any time of year. It’s handy if you get a new student or if your students are struggling with your expectations.
Find the Grade 1-3 Expected and Unexpected Behaviours Unit in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Find the Grade 4-6 Expected and Unexpected Behaviours Unit in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Include Social Emotional Learning
Managing Feelings: This is a unit about emotional well-being. There is a lot of talk about emotional regulation out there in the world these days. What does it all mean? In our classroom, we specifically teach students vocabulary words they can use to express their feelings.
It is amazing that just having the language to identify how they are feeling can make it so much easier to calm students and get them back to learning. This unit also addresses positive self-talk and how to express their feelings in meaningful and positive ways. To help introduce these concepts, we made an Emotional Regulation Bingo Game, available in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Find the Grade 1-3 Managing Feelings Unit in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Find the Grade 4-6 Managing Feelings Unit in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Discuss Wellness, Stress, Sleep and Nutrition
Wellness Choices: This is a unit addressing general health such as stress, nutrition, exercise, sleep, dental care, medical care, and vaccinations. We assume families teach all of these lessons at home, but for some students, the information is new.
The Grade 4-6 unit gets into other topics like addiction, stress and substances. It includes lessons about drugs, alcohol and tobacco use, which leads to many interesting questions and discussions with students. The lessons include reading passages that students can read independently or as a whole class.
Find the Grade 1-3 Wellness Choices Unit in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Find the Grade 4-6 Wellness Choices Unit in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Develop Friendships and Anti-Bullying Strategies
Building Positive Relationships: This unit focuses on creating strong friendships and preventing bullying. There are several lessons on how to report and deal with bullying, relationships with families and how to handle friends.
We use this unit early in the year and then review it whenever we’re having trouble with our friendships. This unit is one of our best sellers because you can teach it any time of year, and you do not need to teach the lessons as an entire unit. This means you can customize what you teach based on when your students need it.
Find the Grade 1-3 Building Positive Relationships Unit in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Find the Grade 4-6 Building Positive Relationships Unit in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Discuss Organization, Goals, Volunteerism, and Careers
Life Long Learning: This unit addresses learning styles, setting goals, changes in life and prioritizing. Some activities get students to look at how they organize and prioritize their life and school activities (this one is usually very eye-opening to parents too).
Students look at how their special talents and skills can lead to jobs or careers in the future and how volunteering is an important responsibility for everyone. Goal-setting and how to set smart goals is one part of the unit that you can use any time of the year. We tend to teach single lessons from this unit throughout the year.
If you need ideas to thank volunteers or support staff in your school, read Easy Ways to Show Appreciation to Your School Support Staff.
Find the Grade 4-6 Life Long Learning Unit in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Learn General Safety, First Aid and Emergency Response
Safety and Responsibility: This unit discusses different safety precautions and basic first aid for students. Most of the first aid involves bandages and getting help from adults. This unit touches on online safety including not giving out personal information. Lessons include safety equipment and rules for recreational activities (swimming, biking), safety at home or when babysitting, and emergencies such as fire, earthquake, tornado, and lightning storms. We usually teach this unit as an entire unit, meaning we don’t spread it out over the year.
Find the Grade 1-3 Safety and Consent Unit in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Find the Grade 4-6 Safety, Responsibility and Consent Unit in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Read this post about digital safety and citizenship: How to Teach Digital Citizenship: Find Fake News and More. It touches on safety online, too.
Learn How to Work in a Group
Group Roles and Processes: This is a unit to help your students learn to work together in groups. We need to teach students how to work well in groups. Too often we assume they can magically figure it out, but anyone who has been in a group where they feel miserable can understand it’s a skill.
It’s a great one to start the year with and then revisit throughout the year. Any time we are going to have students start a project where they are going to be working in groups, we pull one of these activities out so the group can decide how they are going to work together (or whether we need to mix up the groups before we get started). Find it in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
All of these lessons are available in a bundle (which saves you money), but don’t forget to try the free lessons to see if they work for you. You can find these in the individual lessons.
Find the Grade 1-3 Year Long Bundle in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Find the Grade 4-6 Year Long Bundle in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD).
Get a Free Feelings Check Activity
Our Feelings Check Activity will save you planning time. Join our email list and we’ll send it to you free. You’ll also get access to our Resource Library.
Hopefully, we convinced you that teaching health and wellness is important. Health has a real impact on the lives of your students, and that makes it worth the time. Whether your province calls it Physical Education and Wellness, Health Education or Healthy Living, students need these skills. If you’re looking for more ways to bring wellness into your classroom, check out our post Make Wellness Lessons a Priority in Your Classroom.
What are your thoughts on teaching health? Let us know in the comments below. We want to know how teaching health in your classroom has had an impact on your students.
Health Class FAQ
How much time should we spend on health class each week?
We suggest at least thirty minutes a week. Most weeks we taught one quick lesson for about 10-15 minutes a day. On short weeks, we taught a longer lesson in one block of about an hour.
What is health class called in Alberta and the rest of Canada?
Alberta calls it Physical Education and Wellness. Other provinces and territories use names such as Physical and Health Education, Health Education and Healthy Living. Our list in this post shows the name for each one.
How can we fit health class into a busy schedule?
Teach it in short bursts. Pick one part of a lesson each day so students finish the whole lesson within a week. Add the follow-up activities to your students’ to-do lists, and they can work on them between other lessons.
Where should we start with health lessons?
Start the school year with lessons that help students get to know each other and learn your classroom expectations. After that, add other units throughout the year as your students need them. Some units work best taught from beginning to end, and others work well as single lessons.
What health resources do you have for Canadian classrooms?
We write our health and wellness units for Canadian classrooms. You can find our Grade 4-6 Year Long Bundle in our BN Shop ($CAD) or TpT Store ($USD). Single units for Grades 1-3 and 4-6 are there too.
