Since February is the month of love and hearts, of course we had to have a Family Home Evening lesson tied into the theme. The Heart Healthy Exercise game shared by Marie at Make and Takes was the perfect activity for my kiddos: making hearts strong and healthy by exercising in a fun way.I followed her instructions and found some clipart online of the various heart healthy actions I wanted to include and I made some very simple posters.
My poster included the following actions: sit ups, kick, stretch, roll over, push ups, jump, jog in place, and jumping jacks.
I also followed her suggestion and made a heart bean bag to use as a throwing item. Cut two hearts out of red felt, hot glue 3/4 of the edge of the hearts, fill with beans, then glue the rest together. A simple project that took just a few minutes, but my kids loved playing with it.
Lesson Plan
Lead a very brief discussion about hearts. Do you know the word “heart” is found 1473 times in our standard works of scripture? Obviously, hearts are important! It is important to take care of our hearts and keep them healthy and happy.
We can keep our hearts happy by…. (reading scriptures, following the prophet, praying, keeping the commandments, etc).
It is also important to keep our physical hearts healthy. We can do this through regular exercise and activity.
Play the heart healthy game: Take turns throwing the bean bag on the posters, and do the action it lands on. We also had some other hearts to choose from to let us know how many of each action we should do (5, 10, 15, or 20).
End the evening with a discussion of our favorite “heart”scriptures and eat heart shaped cookies for dessert!
Favorite Heart Scriptures
Matthew 22:37 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”.
2 Nephi 4:15 “For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them”
Alma 45:7 “Yea, I will keep thy commandments with all my heart”.
Thanks for sharing! What fun ideas!
You know, exercise and understanding your body are very important things for young children to learn. What a great idea to make them a part of Family Home Evening. Thanks for sharing this great idea with all of us!