Being Healthy

What can we do to be healthy and why is being healthy important? In this Year 2 PSHE unit on Being Healthy children will learn everything there is to know about how to stay healthy. From the importance of exercise KS1 to keeping their teeth clean and taking medicines safely, this unit has it all covered!

In the first lesson, your Year 2 class will find out what being healthy means and will gain an overview of what they can do to stay healthy. They will then use their understanding to help someone with an unhealthy lifestyle change their bad habits. In the third lesson on keeping teeth healthy, children will find out how to brush their teeth correctly and will compose a song to show their understanding. How medicines are used to help us stay healthy is the focus of the following lesson and children will also learn the importance of storing medicines safely. In the final lesson of this unit, the importance of exercise KS1 is the focus. Children look at how activity can be included within our daily lives and take part in physical activity to explore the effect of exercise on heart and breathing rate.

This Year 2 PSHE unit on Being Healthy contains everything you need to teach these important life lessons to your class. Every lesson is fully aligned with the PSHE Association objectives and comes equipped with a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an engaging slideshow created by an experienced teacher and all of the printable resources required.

A Knowledge Organiser is available to support the learning in this scheme. It is included in the Complete Series download or can be purchased individually.

You might also be interested in our Healthy Me Topic Bundle - perfect if you're looking for a cross-curricular approach to your teaching!

How we can be healthy

In this lesson, children learn what we can do to stay healthy including taking regular exercise, getting enough sleep, eating a balanced diet and drinking enough water.

Children consider the benefits to both the body and mind of leading a healthy lifestyle. You can either choose for your class to make posters informing others how to stay healthy or, alternatively, children could go on a scavenger hunt around the playground, deciding whether pictured activities are healthy or unhealthy. Finish the lesson with a fun matching game!

This pack contains everything you need including a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an engaging slideshow and all of the printable resources required.

View Lesson 1

Healthy or unhealthy?

In this lesson, children recap on what we can do to stay healthy. Then, they will look at a day in the life of someone with an unhealthy lifestyle and consider why their choices are unhealthy.

Using their understanding of how to stay healthy, children will suggest how this person could change aspects of their life to be more healthy. At the end of the lesson, children will reflect on the healthiness of their own lifestyle and identify changes they could make to become more healthy.

Contained within this pack is a comprehensive lesson plan with differentiated activities, an interactive slideshow and all the high-quality printable resources you will need to teach this lesson.

View Lesson 2

Keeping teeth healthy

In this lesson, children will learn why it is important to keep their teeth healthy. They will watch a video to help them understand how to do this and will learn the correct way to brush their teeth.

Children will then either compose a song that teaches others how to keep their teeth healthy or they will help the tooth fairy on her journey in a fun (but educational) board game! A true or false quiz is used to check children’s learning at the end of the lesson.

This pack contains everything you need including a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an engaging slideshow and all of the printable resources required.

View Lesson 3

How medicines help us stay healthy

In this lesson on medicines, children explore why medicines are needed to help us stay healthy. They also learn how medicines should be stored and why it is important to use them correctly.

They will either create informative leaflets about medicines to put in a doctor’s waiting room or alternatively will create a medicine bottle for a class display that has a useful tip on using or storing medicines safely. At the end of the lesson, children will learn how to stay safe in the sun.

Contained within this pack is a comprehensive lesson plan with differentiated activities, an interactive slideshow and all the high-quality printable resources you will need to teach this lesson.

View Lesson 4

The importance of exercise KS1

Why is it important to exercise? That is the opening question to this lesson on the importance of exercise KS1.

Children will learn the various physical and mental benefits of exercise. Through a practical activity, children will learn about the effect of exercise on heart and breathing rate. They will either design posters to teach others about the importance of exercise or will use drama to show how simple changes can make us more active in our everyday lives.

This pack contains everything you need including a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities, an engaging slideshow and all of the printable resources required.

View Lesson 5

This Year 2 PSHE Knowledge Organiser has been created to complement our PSHE Healthy Lifestyles strand. It is designed to support your children’s understanding of key vocabulary linked to this scheme of work. A thinking question and a big idea have been included to encourage your children to think deeply about this topic.

View Knowledge Organiser