Students Learn ‘Cool’ Body Facts

Ten-year-olds at Valley Beth Shalom Day School know a pulmonologist is a lung doctor and that cantaloupes contain lots of Vitamin C--facts, quite frankly, that many adults don’t know.

Students at the Encino school got a chance to show off that knowledge and learn more during a Health and Safety Festival on Friday. Professionals from the American Red Cross, Los Angeles Fire Department and other agencies gave mini-clinics on topics from nutrition to something called “stress inoculation.”

“See yourself walking into a warm sunny meadow,” a licensed social worker told a group of kids lying supine with their eyes closed. “Feel the sun on your skin. See a misting fog inviting you in. Reach out, touch it, go with it.”

Rowe said the youngsters are at a prime age to begin learning how to alleviate stress because, “let’s face it, everyone deals with stress. The earlier we learn how to deal with it, the better we all get along.”

If 10 deep breaths don’t lift the stress of losing at kickball from their minds, the students also learned a bit of kick boxing. The 15-minute up-tempo session was anything but playtime for instructor Amy Hendel, who was featured in Billy Blanks’ Tae-Bo videos.

Hendel hoped the short introduction to aerobic exercise would inspire the students to join a class. Otherwise, she said, they will add to a “generation in tragic aerobic shape. I say this as a personal trainer and a personal parent: They are overworked in certain areas and most of the kids in this generation are overweight by far.”

Unrelenting on the huffing kids, she also insisted on proper technique in delivering the kicks. “If you don’t do it right, you’ll get hurt here,” she said, pointing to her hip. “And the other guy who’s attacking you will hurt you, too.”

After dealing with six sessions of other such topics, including the Heimlich Maneuver and secondhand smoking, the students were ready for some fun and flash.

Almost all of the 130 children clamored for the chance to sit on Los Angeles Police Department motorcycle with its lights flashing. And, not surprisingly, astounding facts about the human body proved much more memorable to many students than how many servings of dairy products a child should have each day.

“I didn’t know if you spread the lungs out they could cover four football fields,” said sixth-grader David Jacobs. “That was cool.”