Sleep for Kids!
Here is a great website for students to have fun with and learn information about the importance of sleep. Click here.
Most internet website you find about sleep is about the nutrition and wellness regarding sleep. Most of them ask you to subscribe to be able to further explore them or gain information. I wouldn’t want parents or students having to pay for information.
The website “Sleep for Kids, includes information on how we sleep, how sleep works, your dreams, what you can do if you can’t sleep and even games and puzzles. I think this is a great website because if includes so much background information about why sleep is important and how sleep works for those curious kids. The website has a character or “host” that is a bear named P.J. Bear which I think is cute because he is in his pajamas. With P.J. being the character, as you read, you are supposed to pretend P.J. is the one telling you all the information. If you think the website is not providing much information, you can order P. J’s education booklets from this site that includes, even more, information about sleep. I think the characters are cute and it makes the website feel friendly.
How this could be used in a classroom is if a teacher hears that students are not sleeping enough at home or coming to school tired, the teacher would encourage them to look at this website with their parent or guardian. Teachers could also have students exploring this website at school in the computer lab and blocking out time for the students to navigate through the page. This website also provides information for parents and teachers that include places to learn more about sleep and other links.
Since this is a student friendly website, students can explore it at school and work on the games and puzzles as homework. Since the games are fun, students could work in these games and puzzles during their free time and still learn about how important sleep is. This can be extended by telling the students to track their sleep every night and see if they are sleeping the recommended amount or if they should change some things up at home. This also will encourage parents to pay attention to sleep and adjust bedtime accordingly.
Everything I would use would be on the Sleep for Kid’s page that I provided the link to at the beginning of this page. It includes information, worksheets, outside resources, and places for parents and teachers to explore.
Learning Objectives:
Educate students on the seriousness of getting enough sleep and rest. Students will be able to give 2-3 examples of good sleep habits and 2-3 examples of poor sleep habits.
Core Integration:
A core subject I would try to incorporate sleep into would be science. Why I would choice this subject is because you can talk about the human body and mind and that can relate to sleeping. Since I am working with kindergarteners, I would not be talking about the human body that in-depth but, it would make sense to bring up sleep when in the science time.
Follow up assignments could be having the students calculate how many hours they get by writing down the time they wake up and go to sleep and seeing if they are getting the appropriate amount of sleep. We could also talk about how the human body would react to only getting a certain number of hours of sleep versus what is recommended. For example, if you skip sleep, you will be tired and will get physical and mentally drained. You can even get hallucinations. I am not sure if I would explain that to students but it is something we could talk about since it harms your body.
Next Generation Science standards:
ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting an Engineering Problem
Asking questions, making observations, and gathering information are helpful in thinking about problems. (secondary to K-ESS3-2)
National Health Education Standards (NHES):
Standard 3: Students will demonstrate the ability to access valid information, products, and services to enhance health.
Standard 5: Students will demonstrate the ability to use decision-making skills to enhance health.
Standard 6: Students will demonstrate the ability to use goal-setting skills to enhance health.
Personal Health and Wellness
PHW1.8.2 – Summarize the benefits of getting proper rest and sleep for healthy growth and development.
PHW1.2.5 – Explain why sleep and rest are important for proper growth and good health.
Healthy Behavior Outcomes:
HBO 3: Get an appropriate amount of sleep and rest.