Third grade students at Skyline Elementary had an opportunity to hear about health and safety from the perspective of several professionals during their recent Health and Wellness unit. The presentations, which were given by parents of Skyline students via Zoom, featured an anesthesiologist, a firefighter, a physician assistant, and a dentist. During the presentations, parents interacted with the students by asking questions, reading books, and demonstrating how to properly brush your teeth with the help of a puppet!
According to Amy Baumert, 3rd grade teacher at Skyline, “The presentations were both informative and engaging! The students enjoyed the guest speakers and learned about health and safety along the way! We are grateful for the parent volunteers who helped make the Health and Wellness unit a fun one for the kids. It was great to have a way to invite them into our classrooms even if it had to be done digitally!”
While it’s been more difficult to involve parents in the classroom this year, teachers are being creative in finding ways to connect them to their students’ classrooms. Melissa Harrell, another Skyline 3rd grade teacher, commented “I’ve been at Skyline for 6 years now, and one thing that I love about our culture is that we always have parents willing to volunteer. This was the first year that we did these presentations digitally, and we are so thankful we had parents volunteer to try it out on Zoom. The kids absolutely loved having guest speakers, even though it was through a screen, and the parents were thrilled to have a view into the classroom.”
Though the lesson looked a little different than it has in the past, all involved were thrilled to be able to participate and provide students a real-life perspective on different aspects of health and safety that they may encounter!
