Recipes for Healthy Kids and a Healthy Environment
Download the Complete Curriculum
Download a PDF with all nine lessons in the Recipes for Healthy Kids and a Healthy Environment below, or find individual materials listed on this page.
Recipes for Healthy Kids and a Healthy Environment was designed to excite kids about environmental health and empower them to take steps in their everyday lives to improve the environment for their community and reduce their environmental risk.
Audiences
The resource is geared toward children ages 9 – 13 and can be used inside or outside the classroom.
The program encourages kids to actively explore the environments in which they live and play and can be used in out-of-school programs, extracurricular groups, and after-school clubs.
What Kids Will Learn
The curriculum helps kids understand what environmental health is, how to protect themselves and positively impact their communities, and how to become champions for children’s environmental health in their homes, schools, and communities.
What the Lessons Include
- Easy-to-use lesson plan cards organized around key actions for teaching (ASK, DO, and EXPLAIN)
- One or more hands-on activities in each 45- minute lesson
- Materials for kids to take home to share with their families
- Posters and visual cards
Lesson 1: Environmental Health 101
This lesson helps kids connect the earth to their schools, homes, and communities and teaches them how they all affect each other.
Kids will be able to:
- Define environment and environmental health.
- List the four things that all living beings need (air, water, food, and shelter) and give examples of each.
- Understand why children are often more at risk from environmental health hazards.
- Understand that their actions can help to create a healthier environment for themselves and for everyone around them.
Download the Complete Lesson Plan
Supplementary Materials
Other Resources
Lesson 2: Pesky Pests and Household Hazards
This lesson teaches kids about pests, pesticides, and how to get rid of pests in homes and schools safely by taking away their food, water, and shelter.
Kids will be able to:
- Define pests, pesticides, household hazards, chemicals, and toxic.
- List the steps to take if they ingest or touch a household hazard.
- Name three household pests and explain how to safely get rid of them.
Download the Complete Lesson Plan
Supplementary Materials
Other Resources
- Pesticide Information for Students and Teachers
- Pest Patrol Backyard Activity Book: Integrated Pest Management for Kids
Lesson 3: Breathing Easy: Keeping the Inside of Our Homes Healthy and Clean
This lesson teaches kids about air pollutants or irritants and how to keep the air in our homes and schools clean. It includes information about asthma and its triggers as well as lead exposure.
Kids will be able to:
- Define asthma, breathing, secondhand smoke, and other triggers.
- Name three asthma triggers and how to avoid them.
- List three things that they can do to keep the air in their homes healthy.
- Explain how lead can impact kids negatively.
- List steps to avoid exposure to lead in our homes.
Download the Complete Lesson Plan
Supplementary Materials
Lesson Cards
Lesson 3: Breathing Easy: Keeping the Inside of Our Homes Healthy and Clean - Visual Cards (pdf)
Take Home Talk
Lesson 3: Breathing Easy: Keeping the Inside of Our Homes Healthy and Clean - Take Home Talk (pdf)
Activity: Asthma Triggers Hunt
Poster 1
Lesson 3: Breathing Easy: Keeping the Inside of Our Homes Healthy and Clean - Poster 1 (pdf)
Other Resources
- AirNow: Why is Coco Orange? Asthma Storybook
- Dusty the Asthma Goldfish and His Asthma Triggers Fun Book (PDF)
- Air Quality and Outdoor Activity Guidance for Schools
Lesson 4: Be Sun Smart
This lesson teaches kids about the sun and why plants, animals, and humans need it. It also explains how the sun can be harmful and ways to protect ourselves from it.
Kids will be able to:
- Define sunscreen, sunburn, vitamin D, and ultraviolet (UV) light.
- Explain basic information about the sun.
- List three things that the sun provides which we need.
- List three ways that they can protect themselves from too much sun.
Download the Complete Lesson Plan
Supplementary Materials
Other Resources
- AirNow: Air Quality Index Basics
- AirNow: For Students
- The Sun, UV, and You: A Guide to SunWise Behavior
- Sun Safety Tips
- SunWise Downloads
- SunWise Activity Book
Lesson 5: Climate Change and You
This lesson teaches kids about the earth's orbit around the sun, the Greenhouse Effect, and how to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere.
Kids will be able to:
- Explain what the sun is.
- Explain the rotation and revolution of the earth around the sun.
- Explain what our atmosphere is and what it does.
- Explain how climate change impacts them and the simple steps that they can take to help reduce greenhouse gases.
Download the Complete Lesson Plan
Supplementary Materials
Other Resources
Lesson 6: Keeping All of Our Waterways Clean
This lesson helps kids understand the importance of water in our lives and describes the life cycle of freshwater. It also discusses how to keep trash from getting in storm drains and polluting our waterways.
Kids will be able to:
- Define rainwater runoff, drainage pollution, freshwater, saltwater, and potable.
- Name three different types of waterways.
- Explain three ways to stop drainage pollution.
- Explain how keeping our waterways clean benefits the entire community.
Download the Complete Lesson Plan
Supplementary Materials
Other Resources
- WaterSense Resources for Educators
- WaterSense Save Water at Home Coloring Book (pdf)
- DC Water for Kids
Lesson 7: Healthy Water Inside
This lesson teaches kids about the importance of water in our lives and water safety and conservation. It also teaches them how to avoid mold and mildew at home.
Kids will be able to:
- Define mold, mildew, and fluoride.
- List three ways to stop mold and mildew from growing.
- Explain how water is treated.
- Explain some ways to conserve water at home.
Download the Complete Lesson Plan
Supplementary Materials
Other Resources
Lesson 8: Sustainable Eating, Healthy Foods, and Community Gardens
This lesson describes what foods we should eat to stay healthy and how to eat food that helps both the Earth and everything on it stay healthy.
Kids will be able to:
- Define sustainable, local, community garden, and nutrition.
- Explain how air, water, food (soil), shelter, and sun impact gardens and food.
- Discuss the connection between climate change and food, and clean waterways and food.
Download the Complete Lesson Plan
Supplementary Materials
Other Resources
Lesson 9: All Together Now - Air, Water, Food, and Shelter
This lesson sums up everything the kids have learned about how interconnected the earth is. It also helps them make individual, group, and family pledges to help create a safer and healthier environment.
Kids will be able to:
- Connect the previous lessons to their daily lives.
- Commit to taking action as individuals to improve their environment in a tangible way.
- Commit as a group to take collective action to improve their environment in a tangible way.
Download the Complete Lesson Plan
