Curriculum
The district developed curriculum is based on using all eight components to make teaching health a shared campus responsibility, requiring a minimal amount of time from any one individual on the campus. Our faculty and staff will have a quality product that delivers health content in all of their special areas.
At the core of the curriculum are classroom and physical education "Vignettes" which meet TEKS standards, TAKS objectives, and are aligned with the core curriculum calendars. Administrative, Guidance, Health and Nutrition Services all play a key role with complimentary activities. With this program students will see and hear specific health information eight ways within a given three week window. The curriculum is divided into four themes, corresponding with the nine-week grading periods, and within each theme are three topics.
Classroom
- Classroom teachers are provided with 12 vignettes. The vignettes contain four activities in which important health information is delivered through Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, and Science content. These core content activities are; 5-10 minutes, meet TEKS standards, TAKS objectives, and are aligned with the core curriculum calendars. Each classroom vignette contains extensions and resources from the district adopted McMillan/McGraw-Hill Health & Wellness text books. Page numbers, titles, and hyperlinks, are included where applicable.
Physical Education
- Physical education teachers are being provided with lessons for games that support the TEKS while integrating health information. Through moderate to vigorous physical activity and other fitness movements, our students will be learning the same health content form the classroom in an "Action Based Learning" game.
Family Involvement
- To promote further learning, a "School to Home Connection" will provide an important education link to the families. The "Connections" are broken into Kinder-2nd grade and 3rd through 5th grade activities. Each activity is designed for students to complete with their parent or guardians, activities are provided in English and Spanish, and will be distributed by office personnel each three weeks.
Nutrition Services
- Cafeteria Personnel will provide kitchen tours for each grade level. There will also be visual aids and posters, changing each three weeks, which reinforce the instruction occurring through the vignettes and connections.
Health Services
- Each Campus Nurse will have a variety of suggested activities that will compliment the curriculum. Activities include but are not limited to: providing students with library books related to health topics, displaying posters around the nurse’s office, accessing and ordering free resources from the internet, and posting questions for discussion with students.
Administrative and Guidance Services
- Everyone loves a good riddle or jingle, right? In this component we have both. A prepared morning announcement for administrators to read introducing each topic throughout the school year is included. The first Monday of each new health topic will begin with the "Riddle or Jingle". Each Campus Counselor will be provided with a colorful poster that displays the "Riddle and Answer" or the selected "Jingle". The posters also include either definitions or expansions of the answer.
For specific implementation guidelines and training please log-on to myepisd.org and go through an On-line Education (OLE) training module. This twenty minute video training will give you a program overview, step by step instructions on how to use each component, and provide CPE hours with completion of a brief assessment.
