Physical & Health Education Lesson Plan

Title of Lesson Emotional Changes During Puberty 2 Grade Level 4

Lesson
Subject Physical and Health Education 1 hour
Duration/timing

Understand: Big
Idea(s)/Essential Question(s)
Know & Do: Content &
Curricular Competencies
Learning intention/Lesson
Objective
Key Question Set
Assessment
Adaptations/Modifications
 Understanding ourselves and the various aspects of health helps us develop a balanced lifestyle
 Content:
o Physical, emotional, and social changes that occur during puberty, including those
involving sexuality and sexual identity
 Emotional changes: how students’ thoughts and feelings might evolve or change
during puberty
 Curricular Competencies:
o Explore and describe strategies for managing physical, emotional, and social changes during
puberty
o Describe factors that positively influence mental well-being and self-identity
o Describe and assess strategies for promoting mental well-being
 I can recognize and describe emotional changes that occur during puberty
 I can respectfully participate in conversations about puberty and emotional changes
 I can recognize what a crush is and why they do (and sometimes do not) happen
 How might your thoughts and feelings change as you experience puberty?
 If and when you experience a crush, what strategies might you use to process your feelings?
 Assessment FOR learning: Student voting during quiz, observations, anecdotal records, class dialogue
 Assessment AS learning: temperature check, question box submission
 Multimodal presentation: PowerPoint slides, picture book read aloud, group dialogue
 Learners are able to represent learning in a variety of ways: oral, physical (voting with fingers), writing
 Question box offers learners an opportunity to extend their curiosities in an anonymous and safe way
 Activity offers learners an opportunity to express their learning physically, as this topic is sometimes
challenging to express with words
 Physical & Health Education Lesson Plan
Materials  Projector & screen
 Whiteboard & markers
 PowerPoint presentation
 Book: Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth
 Question Box
 Index cards
 Pencils
 Sticky notes (if creating/adding to wonder wall)

Activity Outline
Estimated
Elements of the lesson Teacher & students
Time
Pre-lesson 5 minutes Community Agreement
Engage students in co-creation of “Community Agreement” which is to create an environment
of trust, safety and comfort. The agreement will be written on the board and then
documented by the teacher for future use/reference, as the agreement will be revisited at the
start of each lesson.

Student ideas for Community agreement might include:

 Respect each other
 It’s okay to pass
 Questions are welcome
 Use correct terms for body parts
 Listen when others are speaking
 Classroom discussions are confidential
 It’s okay to have fun

Another framework for Community Agreement could be GROUND rules:

 G: Giggling is okay but laughing at others is not
 R: Respect for myself and others is important
 O: Option to pass on answering questions is available to all
 Physical & Health Education Lesson Plan
 U: Use dictionary words when describing the body
 N: No question is a silly question!
 D: Do use, "Someone I know…" instead of the person's name

Temperature Check  Offering students a chance to check in with themselves as to how they are feeling
about discussing the topic of puberty
 Using a thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs in the middle or fingers 1 through 5 against
their chest, ask students about their comfort or discomfort discussing, excitement or
2 minutes hesitancy to discuss the topic of puberty. These prompts can be changed.
 This is a practice of body awareness and emotional awareness around topics that can
be challenging for some learners. This is a practice that can be done at the beginning
and end of every lesson, so students can assess how their feelings might change over
time.

APK (Activate Prior APK: “What do we/I know about crushes?”

Knowledge) Optional: Students can brainstorm individually through personal reflection writing, mind map
5 minutes or KWL what they know about crushes and what initial questions they have. This can also be
done as a group as a mind map, KWL or wonder wall. This activity will depend on the students
and relationships within the classroom community.
Hook Pre-quiz: True or False Quiz about “What do we know about crushes?”
 Teacher will pose questions on PowerPoint and students will answer quiz by holding
7 minutes
numbers up to their chest (1=True, 2=False). These responses are just for them to
assess their own beliefs and knowledge.

Introducing the Learning Read “Crushes” chapter from “Sex is a Funny Word” Graphic Novel (pg. 134-141)
Intention/Concept  Group dialogue around the following topics:
o Who might be the object of a crush (friend, classmate, fictional character,
relative)
o Feelings you might experience (excitement, nervousness, frustration, jealousy,
15 minutes
sadness, etc.)
o What to do about a crush: find a trusted person to talk to (if you want), write,
draw pictures, be friendly, review consent
o Normalizing crushes (and lack of crushes): crushes can be a typical part of
getting older, but not everyone has them (which is normal too!)
 Physical & Health Education Lesson Plan
Activity Sequence Post-quiz: True or False Quiz about “What do we know about crushes?”
 Review the same questions as the pre-quiz through the PowerPoint
 Teacher will pose questions on PowerPoint and students will answer quiz by holding
numbers up to their chest (1=True, 2=False).
 Then, teacher will review the answer and explanation.
 Teacher and students can share and discuss.
20 minutes
Review Question Box questions from previous lesson
 Review questions anonymously from the previous lesson’s question box. Questions
can be rewritten on a piece of paper to ensure anonymity. Offer clear, honest
responses to a handful of questions (not every question needs to be answered). This
process of question and answer normalizes the question asking process.
Closing Activity 7 minutes Review question box activity
 Review that it is very normal for people to have a lot of questions when talking about
puberty.
 The question box is your opportunity to ask any questions you have about puberty,
feelings, sex or sexuality
 Each student receives an identical card, will write a question on it, but will not write
their name (this is so it remains anonymous)
 Each student will then fold it and put it in the box
 Teacher will read each of the questions after school
 During the next lesson, teacher will read some questions and offer answers/engage
students in dialogue
 If students are struggling to develop a question, they can complete the following
sentence: "Learning about puberty makes me feel ____”

Guidelines for Question Box

 The Question Box will only be opened by the teacher.
 If you don't know how to spell a word, then sound it out or guess.
 Do not put your names on your slips of paper.
 Physical & Health Education Lesson Plan
 Feel free to change your handwriting if you are concerned that the teacher will
recognize it.
 Do not use people's names in questions.

Teacher Reflections: what

went well, what didn’t, and
how might I improve the
lesson