Web Resource for Health: Going to the Hospital

Hello Everyone!

I was checking out the web again and I came across this fun site related to Health Education. The online resource is called Hospital Life. It is a website that is all about hospitals, medicine, sickness and all that goes along with it. This site has many different sections depending on which age group you are looking at. It has stuff for young kids, middle aged kids, and older kids. The site uses age appropriate language. It contains quizzes, games, real life stories, dictionaries, art work, etc. There are many ways in which this site can be used, but I would use this site with Grade Two students in Health. The activity that I would have the kids do would meet the following objectives from the Evergreen Curriculum:

Knowledge

Students will increase their knowledge of the human body

• understand some problems of physical health, one of which is HIV/AIDS*
  
• gradually incorporate the vocabulary related to the human body and to health into their speech and writing

Students will identify sources of support for healthy living

• recognize that family and friends are sources of support

• recognize that the job of health-care professionals is to prevent disease and injury and to care for those who are ill or hurt

Skills and Habits

Students will act on their knowledge about maintaining or improving their health

• establish daily habits for caring for their bodies in order to maintain or improve health and prevent illnesses, including HIV/AIDS*
  

Students will help members of their family, class, and community achieve physical, mental and social well-being

• develop their ability to communicate their knowledge about health to their friends, family and community

• learn to support those who are trying to maintain or improve their health
  

• explore and develop empathy for all persons

Attitudes and Values

Students will develop attitudes necessary for healthy living

• demonstrate respect for the needs of their body
  

• demonstrate compassion for people suffering from ill health, including people with HIV/AIDS*

Now how I would use this in my classroom with Grade Two students during Health would be if one or more of my students had to have an operation or visit the doctor for any number of reasons. In a class of students at least one student will have to go to the doctor or visit the hospital. It is just part of life. When this situation occurs I would put this website up on the data projector and as a class we would go through all of the stuff about visiting the doctor and hospital. I would have the students taking part in the interactive activities so they can learn about going to the hospital or doctor. They will then realize that it isn't really such a scary thing after all. Knowledge is power. The more you know, the less you fear. After the students have learned all about visiting the doctor and hospital they are going to create a class book of tips on how to stay calm and make your hospital stay or doctor's visit a pleasant one. The idea of this book will be for the students to read or for other people to read to help them through the scary thing of going to the doctor or hospital. Each student will be responsible for creating a page.

Using this website would enhance the learning of students because it is very interactive and kid friendly. The site uses a lot of kid friendly language that is easy for the students to understand. They will learn a lot about hospitals and doctors through cute, non-threatening characters and methods. All of the colors and designs will help those students who are visual learners. This website gives the students an experience that cannot be had with a book or even a video. This website will also benefit learning because it will spark numerous discussions. Students will be able to talk with each other and learn from their own experiences. This site also has many real-life stories which means the students can also learn from the experiences of other kids from different parts of the world. They can see that doctors and hospitals everywhere are places that help you when you are sick or hurt.

I recommend this website to you. I also hope that this lesson or activity is something that you can use. Have fun!