Healthy Food vs Junk Food

We have been learning about the importance of Prenatal Nutrition. As a class, you brainstormed an alphabetical list of healthy foods, learned how to read food package labels, discovered how much a serving size really is and most importantly, how your food choices will affect your baby for the rest of his or her life.
I'd like for you to consider the differences and similarities between healthy vs junk food by completing the interactive venn diagram from ClassTools.net below. Not only should you think about what's inside the food but what about the outside? What is the difference in the appearance, serving size, texture, and smell of healthy food vs junk food. Is there a difference in how most healthy food is prepared vs how to prepare junk food?
Work on this as a class. When you are finished filling in your answers on the image below, please save a copy of this diagram before leaving this sight.See the bottom right corner for choices and click the circle icon to embed into a blog. Just copy the URL for your diagram and email the link to me.
If you want to post this on your own blog just copy the html then insert the code into a new post.
I will add your completed Venn Diagram at the bottom of this page for visitors to view.

Click here for larger version

Creating a Sugar Addict

Can you rank the following 8 ounce servings of beverages, with "1" having the least amount of sugar and "6" having the most?

• Kool-aid
• soda
• chocolate milk
• apple juice
• white milk

I will give you the answers later. Which of these items will you allow your baby to consume within the first 12 months of life? 

click photo to see other child tooth decay

Sugary beverages, including formula,  will not only cause Baby Bottle Tooth Decay but can set your child up for obesity. How does tooth decay start? The germs in our mouths live in the white, sticky material called plaque. When the germs feed on the sugar in our food, they give off an acid. The acid will eventually cause cavities in the teeth. The more sugar your child eats, the more likely he or she is to have tooth decay. It's important that you limit the amount of sugar that you give your child.

You should never put anything in your baby's bottle besides formula, breast milk or water. And you should never, ever put your baby to bed with a bottle. Even formula, when left in the mouth as baby falls asleep, will cause tooth decay. 

Babies are not born with a desire for sugar. Children may begin to crave sugary foods after being exposed to them. 

Here is a math problem for you: 4 grams of carbohydrate = 1 teaspoon of sugar. You can use measuring spoons and sugar to visualize the amount of sugar consumed.

• If white milk has 22 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If Kool-Aid has 24 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If chocolate milk has 25 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If apple juice has 29.3 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If soda (only 8 ounces) has 30 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?

By the way, the above beverages are listed in ranking order of least sugar to most sugar. 
Check out The 20 Worst Drinks in America 

View this video from The Real Bears.org to better understand the implications of giving sugar to your child. 

Why Do Babies Cry?

Just seeing this crying baby puts me in distress!

What do you think when you hear a baby crying in public?
What do you want to do?
Would you let your baby cry for long periods of time?
There was an interesting research article in the Wall Street Journal three weeks ago about Letting Babies Cry It Out. Please read this article.

We have heard many relatives assure us that "crying is okay, it is good for their lungs, makes them stronger". But it's really hard for parents and caretakers to let babies cry because of the physical impact it has on each one of us. When a baby cries the hairs on our arms or back of necks will actually rise. This causes us to instinctively want to sooth the baby to make ourselves feel better. But is crying normal? Should you stop a baby from crying? Is your baby in pain?  Check out the Purple Crying website to get a better understanding about crying babies.

I have taught our new GRADS parents about the Happiest Baby approach to calming a fussy baby.
Please skim over these frequently asked questions on Dr. Karp's website about using the Happiest Baby approach. Compare Karp's strategy with the suggestions in this slide show about calming fussy babies.


Please comment in the box below:

1. How do you feel when you hear your baby or any other cry?
2. What is your opinion about letting babies cry it out?
3. What new piece of information did you learn about Purple Crying?
4. Compare the Happiest Baby approach with the slide show for calming fussy babies.

Food For Your Family

Which one of the following is caused by the chemical BPA found in plastic and aluminum cans containing food?

a. obesity in children
b. reproductive development
c. cardiovascular disease

To find the answer please read the following articles, Consuming Canned Soup and BPA In Food Packaging.

After comparing the two articles write a response in the comment box below that answers the following:

1. What is the answer to the question at the beginning of this post.
2. Where does BPA come from?
3. Name something you ate or drank today that was packaged in plastic or a can.
4. Does this research affect your own family?
5. Do you plan on doing anything to protect your child from consuming BPA?

Stressed Out!

Have you ever stopped to think about how your reaction to stress is viewed through your child's eyes? If you are pregnant, how does your baby know when you are stress out?

Life is stressful and there is no way to avoid it! We have covered a great lesson about stress management this week. Here is the Stress Management Lesson Plan for teachers to view.

These are some of the things you learned:

• stress vocabulary
• levels of stress
• stages of coping with stressful situations
• your own stress score
• physical changes you notice from stress
• learning how to cope with daily stress

At the end of this unit your class will write the ABC's of Managing Stress. (Create your own title). We will upload your list onto The ABC's of Life website so other teen parents will be able to learn about stress.

Comment Assignment: Describe how this unit helped you and what are some coping skills you will use in your own life. 

Welcome Back!

It's so nice to be back at school. I hope you had a good summer and you're ready to learn. I am looking forward to spending some quality time together this year.

I'd like you to take a minute to fill out this form: GRADS Student Information


Here is a list of the topics we can cover in class.

UNIT 1   RELATIONSHIPS

v    Personal Development

v    Friendship

v    Healthy Relationship

v    Marriage

v    Family Stress

v    Marriage Conflict

v    Legal Issues

v    Support Teen Parents

v    Sexual Decision Making

v    Family Unit

v    Self-Esteem

v    Coping With Stress

v    Life List

UNIT 2   COLLEGE & CAREER

v    Time Management

v    Personal Goals

v    Career Planning

v    Job search skills

v    Effective communication

v    Going to college

v    School success

UNIT 3   ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE

v    Financial Goals

v    Problem solving

v    Independent living

v    Budgeting skills

v    Community Services

UNIT 4  Prenatal, newborn

v    Parenthood

v    Healthy Pregnancy

v    For Fathers

v    Prenatal Environment

v    Nutritional Needs

v    Labor & Delivery

v    Feeding Baby

v    Newborn

v    Safe Sleep

v    Crying

v    Infant Massage

v    Safety

v    First Aid

v    Medical Care

v    Immunizations

v    Fever

v    Child Care

v    Shaken Baby

UNIT 5  CHILD DEVELOPMENT

v    Nurturing

v    Feeding Children

v    Hygiene Needs

v    Child Development

v    Physical Development

v    Play & Toys

v    Reading & brain development

v    Guidance

v    Cooperative Parenting

Please write a comment below about what you would most like to learn about in GRADS this year?

Warm Regards,

Mrs. Hickman

Gliffy

I found another resources to produce nonlinguistic representations. Gliffy has a multitude of products to create professional flow charts, diagrams and more. Save product as jpeg then insert image into new post on blog.

Venn Diagram

Post-It

Click here for larger version

virtual book
http://www.classtools.net/education-games-php/turningPage

Bubbl.us

Bubbl.us

You can create colorful mind maps online then save and share. This image was exported and downloaded as an image. The image was inserted in this new post. Students can make their own by going to this sight. but they will need to create an account.

Class Tools

Click here for larger version

This Venn Diagram is available on ClassTools.net. You can embed this interactive tool into your blog using the html code. (click the save icon in bottom right corner, copy the html code, paste in to a new post. Click "compose" in the upper left corner of your new post. Publish when finished)

Click anywhere on this image to fill diagram. 

Online Baby Book

Do you have a baby book about your own birth and childhood? Do you know the details of your birth, when you took your first steps, the first word you uttered? Baby books are a way of keeping records of the events that occur on practically a daily basis as a baby grows.
I have found an awesome e-baby book that is similar to a blog. Kidmondo is very easy to use and you can upload photos and videos of baby too! I am going to help each student create an account and journal about their pregnancy and baby. When they get to the end of the book they can order a printed hard cover for a precious keepsake and start a new book for the next year.
Check out the other online baby books I found:

• Mixbook
• Baby Chapters
• My Own Little Story
• Little Chapters

Important Documents About Baby

Last night my husband was filling out some permission forms so our daughter could fly to Chicago with her BPA team from her high school this week. (I'm as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs!) He asked me if I knew when  Katie had her last tetanus shot? She's 15 now and I thought those days of keep track of all of her baby shots were over but apparently we are not done. We do have a file with medical information but couldn't find anything about Tetanus. (will have to call her pediatrician today). There is a lot of information parents need to keep track of, especially with babies - their growth, sleeping pattern, what they eat, how often you change a wet diaper when they are ill and then all of that medical information.

You are going to keep some of these forms them on your blog for easy reference. These are the steps:

1. You can go to the document I have linked below, copy the url, 
2. Open your blog, click "new post", type the name of the document, click "link", paste the url, then publish.
3. Try it out by viewing your blog post with the document, click on the document and begin making changes. 
4. Always save your work. You can print when finished then cut the cards and give to family or childcare giver.

Emergency Contact Card

Understanding Pregnancy

There is probably a lot you already know about pregnancy. Look at this list of pregnancy terms and pick out 5 words you've never heard of and 5 terms you know and understand. You can Google search the terms you're not sure about and be prepared to mention some of the terms in your next blog post.
There are so many things you must be aware of to keep yourself and your baby healthy during pregnancy. Here is an excellent article for you to read, How the First Nine Months Shape the Rest of Your Life, that investigates how a person is affected by many factors out of their control while in the womb. Print a copy of this Fetal Origins Study Guide and answer the questions as you read the article. It's kind of long but filled with amazing information that will explain how we turned out the way we did.
To complete this lesson write a blog post describing the new information you learned about pregnancy terms and  how a fetus is affected by things outside it's control.

Fetal Development

How big is your baby now? What can your baby do at this stage of development?
Your assignment: Search the Internet and find at least 3 reliable websites about fetal development. Gather 10 facts to answer the opening questions.

Build a Brain

This week we learned about the development of the brain before and after birth. The first amazing concept was that a baby is born with 100 billion brain cells. To illustrate the enormity of this number I displayed a table-sized poster containing 1 million stars, which went along with the children's book, How Big is a Million? 
The class calculated how many posters it would take to equal 100 billion brain cells. Answer=100,000! Then the class calculated the number of posters each student in their school would need to equal 100 billion. (1,800 students would each carry about 55 posters). Wow! Can you imagine?

The brain has been ready to learn even before birth and the cells are reacting to each and every experience by connecting to each other called Synapses. The more connections made in the first three years of life the more intelligent your child will be. Check out this video for a demonstration of how brain cells connect.

Visit this site to play with the Interactive Baby Brain to learn how a baby's brain develops during each period of growth.

Baby Talk

How will your baby learn to talk? Listening to you? Watching TV?
Check out The Gift of Gab.
Here are 3 great videos that will demonstrate how children learn language.

View this news video Babies Lip-Read