Live: Help Dai Bo and Siu Kan

Objective: Help children learn the facts about drinking water, such as ‘water is more healthy than other beverages’ and ‘we should drink 8 glasses of water every day’.

Time: 25 minutes

Materials: Puppets of the main characters, ‘Dai Bo’ and ‘Siu Kan’, coloured pictures of water and other unhealthy beverages, the ‘magic bag’, and soft mattresses.

Let’s GO!

1. The teacher becomes the princess of water elves and introduces to children the two main characters, Dai Bo and Siu Kan. They like sweetened drinks and snacks and they drink only a little water every day. So one is fat while the other has serious tooth decay.
   
   
2. The princess of water elves (the teacher) asks children to think of how to improve the lifestyle of Dai Bo and Siu Kan. The teacher first posts the pictures of unhealthy drinks on the bean bags.
   
   
3. Divide the class into two groups. A child from each group jumps forward along the mattresses. Each of the children picks up one bean bag (with unhealthy pictures) and jumps back to the starting point.
   
   
4. The child then puts the bean bag inside the hula hoop, and then the next one in queue will continue.
   
   
5. In the end of the game, children have to take the pictures out of the bean bags.
   
   
6. They have to put the pictures into the ‘magic bag’ of the princess.
   
   
7. The princess (the teacher) asks the children to design a spell which encourages others to drink more water and avoid sweetened drinks (such as ‘be healthy and happy by drinking eight glasses of water every day’); then the class read aloud the spell.
   
   
8. The class repeat the spell several times. Then the teacher asks the children to get the pictures of water bottles out of the magic bag one by one, until the 8 pictures are all taken out.
   
   
9. Children have to tell their habit of drinking water. The teach puts the pictures of water bottles beside Dai Bo and Siu Kan and asks the children to think about how to encourage Dai Bo and Siu Kan to drink more water, e.g. ‘drinking water is good for our teeth, our body and health’; ‘we will become obese if we drink too many sweetened beverages’.
   
   
10. The teacher says to everybody, ‘It’s great that we’ve turned the sweetened drinks into water. To appreciate your effort, I would like you all to drink more water every day.’ Then the teacher asks the children to take their cups out and drink water together.

Stage 3: Sharing Platform

Ms. Lau kit Yee , Teacher

• ‘Drinking water’ sounds like an abstract concept, yet it is real in life. We hope to deeping children’s understanding of it through role play. As we did not find any materials concerning the topic ‘drink more water’, we specially designed two roles – the Prince and the Princess of Water Elves – for the children to play. They were asked to participate in a drama show, where they were also reminded to drink more water.
  
  
• The Prince and the Princess of Water Elves visited the class randomly. At first the children were curious. After they got used to it, they prepared their cups for the prince and the princess to come and deliver water. This was how they started the habit of drinking water.

Ms. Wong Hoi Yee , Teacher

• Some kids like sweetened beverages and have ‘fussy eating’ problems. We referred to the guidelines provided by the Department of Health and organised different types of parental activities. Apart from asking the children to drink more water, we also taught them to eat more fruit and the importance of a balanced diet. We hoped parents could participate in the activities to promote a healthy lifestyle. Since the project began, our school has distributed notices and pamphlets to spread health messages and step up the promotion of such ideas, hoping to improve children’s eating habit. Now whenever children are offered sugary beverages, they will go for water instead because they know that water is more healthy.
  
  
• We prepared a ‘Water Cup Award Card’ for each pupil and displayed them in a conspicuous place in the classroom so as to encourage them to drink more water every day. If the children said: ‘I drank 6-8 glasses of water yesterday’, they would be awarded with stickers on their ‘Water Cup Award Card’. Witnessing this, the whole class are motivated to improve.

Parent Blog

Ms. Koo Chun Wah , Parent

• Nowadays most parents only give birth to one to two kids. The kids are abundantly nourished yet their physical health and volume of exercise are ignored. In the StartSmart@school.hk Pilot Project, we arranged our pupils to play games in the community centre. They played hula hoops, did aerobics along music and played simple ball games with each other.
  
  
• My child used to consume soft drinks and unhealthy snacks. With the organisation of healthy birthday parties, and provision of fruit by the school, my child understands that drinking water and eating fruit are good for their health. Since then, my child takes the initiative to ask us for water and fruit at home.

Ms. Pang Kam Mei , Parent

• The school encourages children to drink more water, eat more fruit and have fewer unhealthy snacks. Now there are no longer junk food on children’s birthday party.
  
  
• After the project, my son once showed me the healthy diet information pamphlet with much enthusiasm when he got home. I think it’s good. He did not eat fruit or drink water at home before. Now he asks me to give him fruit and water regularly every day.

Conclusion

The school has successfully designed the roles of Water Elves to remind children to drink more water. Together with interesting water magic and the creative spell of ‘Drink More Water’, the children were guided to build a proper habit of drinking water and avoiding sugary beverages. Besides, the school has also set up a ‘healthy diet’ corner which displays information and newspaper clippings related to healthy diet. These measures encourage both parents and children to pay attention to healthy diet.