The Wealth of our Health

Mrs. Bauer’s Health Class

Greetings to those students returning to Gossler Park School, and welcome to all of our new students and families just arriving!  I hope you all had a safe, happy, healthy summer, and are ready to JUMP right into our exciting and interesting HEALTH class.  I am very honored and enthused to be your Health Teacher this year.

My name is Mrs. Bauer, and I recently moved back to Manchester (after being gone a long time) from Massachusetts, having taught health and physical education there for nine years.  I also coached the middle school and high school girls and boys cross country, track, and swim teams in the Bay State for ten years. I am a strong promoter and active practitioner of conditioning and wellness of both body and mind.  It’s been my professional and personal mission to motivate students to adopt and sustain healthy lifestyles.  I both enjoy, and have been extremely successful, influencing and teaching students the benefits of a balanced lifestyle, resulting in improved self-discipline and self-esteem. 

I will be teaching in every classroom, kindergarten through fifth grade, for 45 minutes each week.  The purpose of our Health curriculum at Gossler Park School is especially important for helping our children develop the knowledge and skills they will need to avoid health risks and to educate them and to help them become enthusiastic about maintaining a healthy lifestyle NOW in their very young lives, and throughout their lives.

The health topics covered in each grade level are as follows:

• KINDERGARTEN – Topics: human body, health helpers, healthy choices, food categories, snacks, dental health, rest, exercise, medicine, refusal skills, bus safety, and disease symptoms and prevention.

• GRADE 1 –Topics: nutrition, exercisehelping relationships, feelings, families, friendship and courtesy, solving problems, personal safety, poisons, walking or bicycling near traffic, seat belts, fire safety, emergencies, and drugs.
• GRADE 2-Topics: germs, feelings and friendship, drugs, medicine, caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, refusal skills, preventing pollution, the environment, dental health, and safety - in water, sun, at home, and at school.

• GRADE 3-Topics: nutrition, friendships, influences, feelings, appreciation, anger, decision making, negotiating, communicable versus non communicable diseases, staying safe, bike safety, being assertive, and drugs.

• GRADE 4-Topics: body systems- respiratory, circulatory, and excretory, responsibilities, control, learning, conversation, cooperation, problem solving, exercise, rest, community support, influencing others,

• GRADE 5- Topics: bones, muscles, and nerves and how they work together, teamwork, feelings, appreciation, resolving conflicts, bullies, stress, exercise, rest nutrition, snacks, growing and changing, drugs, influences, advertising, inhalants, peer pressure, and refusal skills.

I look forward to a healthy year with your children.  I am asking that you please send them to school on health day dressed in comfortable clothing and walking shoes because I plan to have my Health classes participate in some physical activity each week. Part of being healthy is being PHYSICALLY FIT.

And finally, I would like to reiterate how excited I am to be your child’s Health Teacher this year, and if you have any questions, concerns, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to contact me at school anytime.  I am here to guide your children toward a healthy, balanced, lifestyle that will hopefully carry over into a lifetime of wholesome health.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Bauer

Back to School Tip #1

Get Enough Sleep

A recent survey by the National Sleep Foundation found that nearly half of all children younger than 13 complain of being tired during the day. In order to start the school year right, make sure your child gets the recommended 9-10 hours of sleep each night.