We've discussed cross-curricular resources on this blog before, but I wanted to focus on something a little more specific today - math and health. As we are all sadly aware, the problem of childhood obesity is one that we have not begun to solve in this country. Don't worry, teachers, I'm not putting this weight (no pun intended) on you to solve, but there are ways to teach some great math activities that also promote exercise and healthy eating.
Exercise is a great way to get the sillies out of your students, utilize that natural energy they arrive at school with, and also teach some math concepts! One way to do this is to have students check their heart rates before and after exercise, with the hope that they will both learn some graphing skills and how exercise positively affects your heart function.
While it's never a good idea to set up shame around certain foods, web resources make it very easy to track the sugar content in our favorite foods. When I did this once in my class, I discovered that my favorite bakery bagel had huge amounts of sugar. I don't think I've been able to eat them since!