{"id":13891,"date":"2013-02-15T09:01:24","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T14:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=13891"},"modified":"2013-02-15T09:01:24","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T14:01:24","slug":"pocopson-elementary-students-learn-about-heart-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=13891","title":{"rendered":"Pocopson Elementary students learn about heart health"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Healthy Heart Day\u2019 offers students hands on learning while having hun<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

By Suzanne Misciagna, <\/b>Staff Writer, The Times<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"heart<\/a>

Pocopson’s Physical Education and Health teacher, Allison Tester, teaches students how blood flows through the heart at Pocopson’s Healthy Heart Day.<\/p><\/div>\n

POCOPSON \u2013 Students at Pocopson Elementary School in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School district literally learned about matters of the heart this Valentine\u2019s Day. It was all part of the school\u2019s annual Healthy Heart Day<\/i> \u2013 a hands-on fair for third through fifth grade students focusing on heart health, nutrition, exercising, and living a healthy lifestyle.<\/p>\n

On a day when kids and adults alike feast on candy and other sweet treats, students at Pocopson Elementary learned what it takes to keep your heart healthy and your body healthy too.<\/p>\n

Groups of students filled the school\u2019s gymnasium and lined the school hallways as they participated in various stations testing their knowledge of heart health.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Pocopson Elementary students get some exercise while learning kickboxing.<\/p><\/div>\n

Following a short video on how blood flows through the heart, students were led to the Anatomy Station.\u00a0 There they found an obstacle course, which involved crawling through tunnels, racing down the gym on scooters, and walking on a balance beam \u2013 all designed to mimic the passageway of blood flowing through the heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked learning about how the heart works,\u201d says third grader Emma Martin. \u201cIt was fun to crawl through the tunnels too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students also learned about the importance of exercise in keeping your heart healthy. A representative from the Kennett Area YMCA was on hand encouraging students to get some aerobic activity each day. Students\u2019 heart rates rose as they participated in a fun kickboxing lesson.<\/p>\n

After exercising, each child learned how to use a stethoscope to listen to their heartbeat. They learned how to calculate their resting heart rate and their target heart rate too.<\/p>\n

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Third grader, Emma Martin, races through the obstacle course showing how blood flows from the heart to the body.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cYour heart is always pumping,\u201d notes third grader RaeAnn Dowling. \u201cBut, when you exercise, it pumps faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

No healthy heart fair would be complete without a focus on proper nutrition.\u00a0 Students watched a short video called \u201cThe Fat Brothers\u201d and learned how high fat foods clog arteries in the heart. After, students mimicked a blood cell by crawling through two arteries \u2013 one that was clear and healthy \u2013 and one that was clogged with years of damage. After the obstacle course, students identified high and low fat foods and learned how to make healthy food choices.<\/p>\n

One station that generated a lot of interest was the Smoking Cessation exhibit. Students saw first-hand how smoking cigarettes or chewing tobacco can cause damage to your whole body, affecting your heart as well as your lungs and your mouth too.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmoking isn\u2019t good for you,\u201d says third grader Bella Burch. \u201cIt hurts your lungs and you can die from it too,\u201d says Burch after closely examining two specimens of a pig\u2019s lungs showing the before and after effects of smoking.<\/p>\n

The \u2018jar of tar\u2019 was another great visual to show students the amount of tar that a half a pack a day smoker inhales into their lungs in one year.<\/p>\n

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Third grader Bella Burch examines a pig’s lungs, learning how smoking affects the body.<\/p><\/div>\n

Students learned that stress also puts a strain on your heart and your body as well. The Stress Busters station showed students how easy it is to do relaxation exercises to keep stress at bay.<\/p>\n

Healthy Heart Day was the culmination of Healthy Heart Week at Pocopson. Messages of heart health were spread throughout the school including a special assembly, messages on PETV (the school\u2019s television station), and pamphlets on healthy eating sent home to parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want our students to start now in keeping their body healthy,\u201d says Allison Tester, Physical Education and Health teacher at Pocopson Elementary and coordinator of Healthy Heart Day. \u201cExercising, eating well, and reducing stress now put us on a path for living a healthy lifestyle in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Healthy Heart Day\u2019 offers students hands on learning while having hun By Suzanne Misciagna, Staff Writer, The Times POCOPSON \u2013 Students at Pocopson Elementary School in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School district literally learned about matters of the heart this Valentine\u2019s Day. It was all part of the school\u2019s annual Healthy Heart Day \u2013 a hands-on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,16],"tags":[1027,610,2746,577,633,1286],"class_list":["post-13891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-schools","tag-education","tag-health-2","tag-healthy-heart-day","tag-pocopson-elementary-school","tag-students","tag-unionville-chadds-ford-school-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}