Educating Students about Drug Use and Mental Health - Grade 4: Expectation 2

Specific Learning Expectation

Describe the short and long-term effects of first and second-hand smoke, and identify the advantages of being smoke-free.

Hot Tips for Teachers

Young children whose parents smoke at home suffer from twice as many respiratory illnesses (e.g., colds, bronchitis, asthma) as those whose parents don't smoke.

Long-term exposure to second-hand smoke can cause death.

Smoke from the burning end of a cigarette (called side-stream smoke), contains twice as much tar and nicotine and five times as much carbon monoxide as the smoke that is inhaled by the smoker.

Even when a smoker inhales, two-thirds of the smoke from a cigarette goes into the environment.

(Adapted from SmokeFree for Life: A Smoking Prevention Curriculum Supplement, Drug Dependency and Tobacco Control Unit, Nova Scotia Department of Health, 1996.)

Teaching/Learning Strategies

Resources/materials needed: magazines with photos to identify healthy alternatives.

1. Review the harmful substances found in cigarettes.

2. Discuss short-term effects of cigarettes on the smoker. Discuss the long-term effects on the smoker.

3. Complete the "No Butts About It" worksheet.

(Courtesy of American Health Foundation: Know Your Body - School Health Education Program (1996), published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa. Phone 1-800-228-0810)

No Butts About It

Using the "List of Effects" below, write next to each body part what happens to it when someone smokes a cigarette. Write whether this is a short or long-term effect.

Mouth ___________________________________________

Eyes ___________________________________________

Lungs ___________________________________________

Heart ___________________________________________

Teeth ___________________________________________

Nose ___________________________________________

Blood Vessels ___________________________________________

List of Effects:

* become yellow and stained	* nicotine causes this to beat faster
* loss of taste	* they get smaller
* tar stays here and causes damage to cells	* they get clogged
* harder to breathe	* red and teary
* harder to smell	* don't see as well
* bad breath

Ask students for other effects that are not physical (e.g., costs, laws, smell of smoke on clothes and in hair).

Introduce the concept of second-hand smoke. Ask students for personal examples of being around smokers and some of the effects they felt.

In small groups, students work from magazine pictures and personal drawings to develop collages on activities linked with being "Smoke-Free".

Post collages in classroom and discuss the advantages of being smoke-free.

Assessments of Learning

1. Review and discussion of harmful effects of smoking.

2. "No Butts About It" worksheet.

3. Observation of small group work. Development of collages.

4. Discussion about the benefits of being smoke-free.

Rubric for Levels of Assessment

Level 1: Needs assistance with understanding the concepts of short and long term effects of first and second-hand smoke, and the advantages of being smoke-free. Communicates poorly with many errors.

Level 2: Shows understanding of some of the required concepts, communicates with some clarity, making some errors, and sometimes using appropriate terminology.

Level 3: Shows understanding of most of the required concepts, communicates clearly with few errors, and usually uses appropriate terminology.

Level 4: Shows understanding of all or almost all of the concepts, communicates clearly and precisely, using appropriate and varied terminology.

Educating Students about Drug Use and Mental Health - Grade 4: Expectation 2

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