Dear Educator,As you are probably aware, obesity in children has reached epidemic levels in the United States. Nearly 30% of children are overweight or obese – in fact, the obesity rate for children ages 6 to 11 has more than quadrupled during the past three decades. This increase is due to poor diet combined with lack of physical activity – two factors that can also put a child at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes.

The good news is that there are basic steps a child can take to help himself/herself be healthy. These same steps can help prevent Type 2 diabetes, too.

• Proper nutrition and physical activity can help prevent overweight/obesity, encourage strong bones and teeth and muscle development, and ensure that a child grows to his/her full potential.

• Children who are physically active perform better academically.

As an educator, you are a key information gatekeeper to your students and their families. By teaching important messages of nutrition and physical activity, you can help children understand the simple strategies that help prevent childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

Thank you for joining our Adventures In Health! Sincerely yours, CentraState Healthcare System

Activity Guide for Grades 2 through 5

Having a healthy weight is one way for young children to stay healthy … and staying healthy may help prevent Type 2 diabetes.

Family Take-home: Backyard Scavenger Hunt

Page 8

Program Components

Diabetes FAQs for EducatorsPage 2

Key Messages & Teaching Tips Page 3

Using the Components Page 4

Classroom Activity: Hop, Skip and Jump

Page 5

Classroom Activity: Healthy Foods Artifacts

Page 6

Family Take-home: Helping Your Child Prevent Diabetes

Page 7

Diabetes Preventers Video (Running Time: 5:46 minutes)

& Classroom Activities Introduction

CentraState Healthcare System and the Star & Barry Tobias Health Awareness Center gratefully acknowledge the generous donations from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and the CentraState Healthcare Foundation which made this program possible.

Q: What is diabetes?

A: Diabetes is a common disease that makes it harder for the body to get the energy it needs to function properly. When a person has diabetes, his/her body has trouble moving sugar from the bloodstream into cells, where they would normally be used as the primary “fuel” to make the body run properly.

This chronic disease begins when cells develop resistance to insulin (which controls sugar in the blood) and no longer use it properly. As insulin resistance and the need for insulin increases, the pancreas can gradually lose its ability to produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar. This can cause a variety of symptoms and complications.

As you talk about diabetes prevention, you may get questions about the condition itself. This section can help prepare you to answer questions from children and their families.Diabetes FAQs

Make Smart Food Choices

Q: What is the treatment for diabetes?

A: If you have either type of diabetes, treatment includes making wise food choices, being physically active, and in some cases, controlling blood pressure and cholesterol. If you have Type 1 diabetes, treatment includes taking insulin injections for blood sugar control. Someone with Type 2 diabetes may be able to control their blood sugar initially with diet, exercise and oral medications.

Q: How is Type 2 diabetes prevented?

A: Being overweight and not getting enough exercise can increase the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes ... but you can help prevent it by having a healthy weight. Strategies for a healthy weight include good nutrition (for example: eat more fruits and vegetables; eat fewer sugar-sweetened and/or high fat snacks) and being active for a total of one hour per day.

Q: What is the difference between “Type 1” and “Type 2” diabetes?

A: With Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas no longer makes insulin. Type 1 used to be known as “juvenile diabetes,” because it is usually first diagnosed in children, teenagers, or young adults.

Type 2 diabetes usually begins when fat, muscle, and liver cells do not use insulin properly and the pancreas has to work harder to keep up with insulin demand. It used to be called “adult-onset diabetes,” but today, more and more young people are being diagnosed with it. Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes, and it is not something you are born with. There are some important things that can be done to prevent it, even in children.

Get Movingfor 1 hour every day

Maintain a Healthy Weight

Key Messages for Kids:

Remember... As an educator, you are a powerful role model! Children watch you and want to emulate you. Be conscious of this influence and demonstrate positive nutrition/physical activity behaviors:

• Let students see you eating healthy snacks

• Park far away from the school entrance (to facilitate walking)

• Model good exercise habits — and let kids see you get up and get moving!

2

3. Make smart food choices every day! Remind kids to: • Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables

• Eat 6 servings of multi-grain, high fiber products such as whole grain bread,

cereal, pasta and brown rice. Choose those with at least 5 grams of fiber

per serving listed on the Nutrition Facts Label.

• Avoid frequent consumption of fried or greasy foods.

2. Positioning Type 2 diabetes in a sensitive and effective way

• Start the diabetes project by establishing classroom norms for conversations/discussions about diabetes. Some examples of norms are:

• Be sensitive to my classmates’ differences and similarities.

• Only make comments that are positive and encouraging to my classmates.

• Ask students to be willing and ready to share their experiences with diabetes. Inform them that by sharing information and experiences, they will be a part of “teaching” their peers about diabetes.

Key Messages & Teaching TipsThere are 3 easy ways for children to be strong, healthy and help prevent Type 2 diabetes.

1. Get moving for at least 60 minutes (one hour) per day! It doesn’t have to be all at once, and it doesn’t have to be an organized sport. Children can just get up on their feet and have fun!

• Some activities get the heart pumping – like running, riding a bike, dancing, jumping rope,

swimming or playing soccer.

• Other kinds of activities strengthen muscles – like climbing, doing floor

exercises, or stretching.

2. Maintain a healthy weight. Kids should try for five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. For most fruits and vegetables, a serving is ½ cup, medium-size piece, or 6 ounces of 100% juice.

Children should not drink more than 6 oz. of soda, sports drinks or fruit juice per day; they should choose water and low-fat milk instead.

Did you know ...

It’s estimated that youth ages 8 to 18 spend an average of three hours per day watching TV, playing video games, texting, or in front of a computer screen. Not only are they more likely to snack while doing so, but they also see ads and messages promoting unhealthy foods and beverages.

1. Introducing the topic to kids • Start with a visual activity where students discuss various

types of food choices. Have food “artifacts” (such as newspaper clippings, boxes/cans of various types of food, pieces of fruit, pictures from magazines) displayed for students to view. Have a short, open discussion about food choices and chart all responses, questions, and topics on chart paper for students to view.

• Have students begin the process of filling out a KWL (know, want to know, learned) chart that will be displayed for the duration of the diabetes project. Ask students to share any previous experiences they have had with diabetes. These can range from their own personal experiences to those that family or friends have had with diabetes.

3. Engaging young students (if you are not a classroom teacher) Try these icebreakers:

• Encourage discussion about everyday food choices. Ask students to keep daily logs of their food choices for a week. After the first day, have students share their food choices, and discuss of what types of things affected their food choices (i.e. feelings, parents advice, friends’ choices, etc.)

• Have each student choose and share ONE word that shows what they know about diabetes or what they have experienced with diabetes. Chart all responses on chart paper for the class to view.

3

fruits and vegetables

sugar exercise healthy

Hop, Skip and Jump For this activity, students will get up and get moving in the classroom. For maximum space, push some desks together; or, take students to the gym, outside or all purpose room to enjoy this activity.

Make one copy of the Hop, Skip and Jump reproducible (next page) for each student.

Classroom ActivitiesIntroduction to

Using the Components

Adventures In Health: Diabetes Preventers Animated Video Students will watch the Diabetes Preventers video, in which three young children on a class trip find themselves inside a video game! The video introduces the key preventive behaviors that kids can follow to protect themselves against Type 2 diabetes: get moving, maintain a healthy weight, and make smart food choices.

VIDEO ACTIVITY

Healthy Food ArtifactsIn this activity, children use “artifacts” of food items (pictures, packaging, and other “finds”) as a springboard for discussion, comparison, and nutrition learnings. See Page 5 for the full activity.

Curriculum Connections &

Classroom Tips

• Write out 2 to 3 guiding questions on the board for students to think about as they view the Diabetes Preventers video.

• Have students create their own cartoon strip (similar to Diabetes Preventers) that shows their understanding of how they can prevent diabetes with their everyday choices.

• Have students put their thoughts on paper by journaling immediately after watching Diabetes Preventers. Then, come together for a class discussion about the video.

Tips for Other Types of Educators• Have students re-enact the video by

role-playing the parts of the three kids.

• Have students pick one character in the video and create a journal entry from the first person point of view.

Using the Video:• Ask students what they think of when they hear about “healthy choices.”

What can they do to stay healthy? Probe for answers that point toward eating a nutritious diet and being physically active.

• Tell students that today, they are going to watch an exciting video in which three kids – Keisha, Lizzy and Bryan – go on a magical class trip and discover the secrets to staying healthy.

• Show the video.

• Afterward, invite children to share what they saw and learned. What happened to the three kids? (they went inside a video game) What did they discover that they had to do to stay healthy? (be physically active/get exercise; eat healthier snacks/more fruits, vegetables and high-fiber choices; eat less sugar) Who did they meet along the way? (the Couch Potato) What happened to the Couch Potato? (he started eating better and getting exercise and he turned back into a real boy)

4

Tips for

KIDS Get Moving!

• Some activities get your heart pumping – like running, riding a bike, dancing, jumping rope, swimming or playing soccer.

• Other activities strengthen your muscles – like climbing, doing floor exercises, or stretching.

• You don’t have to play a sport to be active. Just get up on your feet and have fun!

Hop, Skipand JumpScavenger Hunt

5 + 10 + 10 + 20 + 5 + 10

60

How many moves did you make?

Add up all of the numbers in the instructions. That’s how many minutes you should get up and get moving every day. And remember: it doesn’t have to be all at once!

Top Tip!

Jump up and down 5 times.

Reach down and touch your toes – hold

it while you slowly count to 10 !

Hop from foot to foot 20 times.

Stand on your tiptoes and reach for the ceiling. Count to 5 !

5

Take 10 giant steps around

the room.

Hey, kids! It’s easy to get moving and be a Diabetes Preventer! Use a pencil to follow this Scavenger

Hunt trail — and don’t miss the Stops along the way!

Spread your arms wide and slowly twist side to side

10 times.

For more in-depth nutrition background and to extend your students’ knowledge of nutrition, use the following online resources:

• To discover nutrition recommendations for children: www.mypyramid.gov

• To learn about portion size comparisons: www.webmd.com/diet/printable/

wallet-portion-control-size-guide

Overview

Artifacts are assorted pieces of print material and objects that students bring into the classroom to demonstrate understanding of a topic.

For this activity, students learn by collecting nutrition-related “artifacts” that serve as the basis for discussion and learning. Review the Key Messages on page 3.

Curriculum Connections &

Classroom Tips

1. Collect artifacts and create a classroom bulletin board displaying student work/ journals and artifacts.

2. Invite another classroom to view artifact collection/student work and have students share what they learned about diabetes with their peers.

Tips for Other Types of Educators 1. Have children create a form of artwork that

demonstrates what they learned about diabetes.

2. Have students create lyrics for a song about diabetes awareness.

3. Play a game of “diabetes charades” where students try to guess diabetes related words.

Healthy Foods Artifacts

Introductory Steps

• Begin by asking students what the video showed them about being healthy. What did the kids in the video learn? Remind students that in Hop, Skip and Jump, they’ve seen that it’s easy to get up and get moving. Tell them that now they are going to explore other important aspects of staying healthy: maintaining a healthy weight by making smart food choices.

• Ask students if they know what an artifact is. (Artifacts are objects from a society that help you understand how that society lived. Archeologists use artifacts to study history.) Tell students that they will use nutrition artifacts to learn about healthy eating.

• Invite students to bring in artifacts that exhibit what it means to eat “healthy:” juice containers, pieces of fruit, fresh vegetables, high-fiber foods (like whole grain crackers), nuts, food labels of healthy foods, pictures from a newspaper or magazine of healthy foods, or empty packages. Display artifacts in a location for the whole class to view.

Discussion/Class Learning

• Have students categorize the artifacts in different ways: for example, by fruits, vegetables, whole-grain, low-fat dairy. Challenge kids to find the Nutrition Facts Label on the packages, and sort the foods according to sugar content and fiber.

• The artifacts are the springboard for a variety of in-class activities. Use them for group share (what would the students choose as their favorite healthy snacks?) journaling (why did they choose the artifacts they brought in?), and nutrition discussions.

Extension Activities

• Have students use empty packages and pictures to build a healthy snacks collage.

• Introduce the concept of “serving size.” Challenge students to find the serving size and servings per container on the Nutrition Facts Label. What does this tell them about how much they should eat of a particular food? Are they surprised to discover the serving size?

• Invite the school dietitian or nurse to visit the classroom and talk about healthy food choices.

6

FOR MORE INFORMATION...

Make sure your child eats a variety of fruits, vegetables and whole-grain products• In general, kids need 1 to 2 cups of fruit each day, and 1½ to 3

cups of vegetables each day. (This amount varies depending on their age and activity level.)

• Getting five servings of fruits and vegetables a day is a good nutritious goal. (For most fruits and vegetables, a serving is ½ cup, medium-size piece, or 6 ounces of 100% juice.)

• Aim for 6 servings of multi-grain, high fiber products like whole grain bread, cereal, pasta and brown rice every day.

Get Less Sugar and Fat• Reduce the consumption of high-calorie,

low-nutrient foods such as chips, cookies, cakes and pies.

• Think of candy, cakes, pies and other sugary desserts or beverages and fried foods as “sometimes” foods. They should be considered an occasional treat.

• Limit sugar-sweetened beverages like soda, sports beverages, juice drinks and 100% fruit juice (no more than 6 oz. a day). Encourage water and low-fat milk instead.

Limit television, computer and video-game time. • It is estimated that youth ages 8 to 18 spend an

average of three hours per day watching TV. Instead, get outside and get moving – together!

Fast Facts about Diabetes• Obesity in children in the U.S. has tripled in the past 30

years. Obesity puts a child at greater risk of Type 2 diabetes, which is the most common type. (90 to 95% of those with diabetes have “Type 2 Diabetes.” )

• Diabetes is a serious disease — so it is very important to prevent it. Once a person has diabetes, if it is not controlled/managed properly, it can increase the risk of:

• Blindness • High blood pressure • Foot and leg infections • Kidney disease • Gum disease • Stroke • Heart disease

According to the American Diabetes Association, one out of every three children (and one in two minority children) who are born in the United States today will face a future with diabetes if current trends continue.*

Symptoms of Diabetes

Signs of diabetes in adults and children can include:

• Lethargy• Frequent urination• Extreme thirst and/

or hunger• Weight loss

If your child shows any of these signs, it doesn’t mean that he/she has diabetes … but it would be good to have him/her checked by a healthcare professional.

If your child has diabetes: With the help of his/her diabetes team, your child can live a normal, healthy life by combining proper diet, exercise and medication (if needed) with regular blood glucose testing.

Hel p Your Child Prevent Diabetes

• Nutrition and target calories: www.mypyramid.gov• Diabetes Prevention: www.centrastate.com• Shaping New Jersey Website: www.shapingnj.org • Novo Nordisk website http://www.novonordisk.com/

diabetes/public/default.asp• American Dietetic Association’s Guide to Healthy Eating for Kids:

How Your Children Can Eat Smart from 5 -12 by Jodie Shield, MEd, RD and Mary Catherine Mullen, MS, RD.

• Sports Nutrition Guidebook by Nancy Clark, Human Kinetics; 4 edition (June 12, 2008)

Dear Parent/Caregiver,Your child is learning about important ways he/she can stay healthy. Basic steps include being physically active ... eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain foods ... and getting less sugar. These steps can help your child maintain a healthy weight and reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes. Ask your child to tell you about the video he/she watched at school. Diabetes Preventers is a cartoon in which children on a class trip find themselves inside a video game, learning about how to stay healthy and prevent diabetes. You can help by reinforcing these important messages at home — and being a role model for healthy food choices and getting up and moving every day!

FOR MORE INFORMATION...

• Fatigue• Numbness • Sores that are slow to heal, and

certain increased infections • Problems with vision

INFO FOR PARENTS

When Is A Child Overweight Or Obese?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses Body Mass Index (BMI) to measure overweight/obesity in children ages 2 - 19. • Overweight = BMI at or above the 85th percentile

• Obesity = BMI at or above the 95th percentile of children the same age and sex.

The percentiles for BMI are different than the percentiles for height and weight alone. Talk to your child’s healthcare provider about measuring BMI.

7*www.diabetes.org

Family Ideas!More

Try these activities:• Biking• Dancing• Hiking• Nature Walking• Jogging• Sledding• Skating• Swimming• Team Jump Roping

It’s easy to go outside and be active together. Follow this map for easy ways to get up and get moving!

TimiNg

TIPS Get Moving!

• Some activities get your heart pumping – like running, riding a bike, dancing, jumping rope, swimming or playing soccer.

• Other activities strengthen your muscles – like climbing, doing floor exercises, or stretching.

• You don’t have to play a sport to be active. Just get up on your feet and have fun!

Take giant steps from one corner

to the next.

Skip across your yard or playground.

Lay down in the grass and stretch your hands

and feet in opposite directions – hold for

10 counts.

Run in place for one minute (use your watch as a timer!)

BackyardScavenger Hunt

8

Find a tree, wrap your arms around

it, and give it a 5-second hug.

Jump over 3 sidewalk cracks

in a row.