Overview
Resource for elementary health educators with 70 new lessons. Lesson Planning for Skills-Based Elementary Health Education, Second Edition With Web Resource, is a highly practical resource for elementary health educators looking for innovative, engaging ways to implement health education. The text offers effective skills-based learning activities, lessons, units, and assessments for your classroom that you can use as they are or with modifications to meet the needs of your students. You can use this text to build a completely new curriculum or to supplement your existing curriculum, providing a smooth transition from a content-based approach to a skills-based approach. The authors explain the rationale and foundation for making that transition, putting the lesson plans, activities, and assessments into context as you learn how to implement a skills-based approach. The 70 lessons and activities in Lesson Planning for Skills-Based Elementary Health Education have been created by the authors and experienced teachers broadly recognized for their expertise in skills-based health education, organized in accordance with the skills in the 2024 SHAPE America National Health Education Standards and aligned with a five-step skill-development model, designed to be adaptable to meet the needs of all students, and enhanced with student worksheets that are available in both English and Spanish. Lesson Planning for Skills-Based Elementary Health Education is an ideal companion to The Essentials of Teaching Health Education, Third Edition, a foundational text by Benes and Alperin that presents teaching and assessment strategies for planning and implementing a skills-based approach to teaching health education. Together, these two books can help you effectively teach skills-based health education from day one. Lesson Planning for Skills-Based Elementary Health Education offers a detailed, easy-to-use learning activity template and employs a teacher-friendly format that has been proven effective in the field. It comes with a web resource that provides digital versions of the book's many worksheets, available in both English and Spanish, plus all of the lessons from the previous edition. The text is organized into two parts. Part I delves into key aspects of planning, implementing, and assessing a skills-based approach, offering you a strong foundation in the core concepts of the approach. Each of the part II chapters is devoted to a skill addressed in the 2024 SHAPE America National Health Education Standards, providing you with the following material: An overview of the skill Key considerations for teaching the skill Unit outlines Assessments Lesson plans Activities Lesson Planning for Skills-Based Elementary Health Education offers you all you need to put a skills-based approach into practice: the solid foundational information that explains the concepts and the resources, strategies to help you implement the lesson plans, and activities that will aid your students in developing proficiency in the skills emphasized in the national standards. Human Kinetics is proud to publish this book in association with SHAPE America, the national organization that defines excellence for school-based health and physical education professionals across the United States.
Full Product Details
Author: Holly Alperin ,
Sarah Benes
Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers
Imprint: Human Kinetics
Edition: Second Edition
ISBN: 9781718240155
ISBN 10: 1718240155
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 16 March 2026
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Availability: Not yet available
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.
Author Information
Holly Alperin, EdM, MCHES, is a clinical associate professor at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) with over 20 years of experience in both public health and education. As a faculty member and program coordinator of the department of kinesiology's health and physical education teacher preparation program, she focuses on preparing preservice educators to teach using a skills-based approach. Prior to UNH, she worked at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in a variety of roles that supported schools in their efforts to strengthen policies and increase capacity around school health education and programs, school nutrition programs, and professional learning experiences for educators. Through her work at the local, state, national, and international levels, Alperin provides guidance to schools and community programs as they work to create a culture of health and well-being for each young person. Additionally, her scholarly interests include the socialization of health educators, equity and justice in health education and health promotion programs, and examination of health education and health promotion programs for youth populations across the globe. In addition to other volunteer roles, she is a past vice president of health education for New Hampshire Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance; served on the task force to revise the National Health Education Standards; and is a past chair of the Health Education Council for SHAPE America. Alperin is completing her doctorate in education from Plymouth State University. She received her master's degree in education in policy, planning, and administration from Boston University and her bachelor's degree in health education and health promotion from Central Michigan University. She holds the Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES) credential. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and two daughters. In her free time, you can likely find her in the mountains or at the beach enjoying the best New England has to offer. Sarah Benes, EdD, MPH, CHES, is an associate professor and the coordinator of the school health education program at Southern Connecticut State University. She earned a bachelor's degree (BS) in athletic training at University of Connecticut, a master's degree (EdM) in human movement from Boston University in 2006, and a doctorate (EdD) in curriculum and teaching from Boston University in 2010. In 2021, she also completed a master's degree in public health. She worked as a graduate assistant athletic trainer and an assistant athletic trainer at Boston University before transitioning to teaching full time and running the physical and health education programs for six years. Benes then held a position as an associate clinical professor in the School of Health Sciences at Merrimack College. Benes' research and scholarship interests include skills-based health education, equity and justice in health education, supporting students with disabilities in health education, physical activity in the classroom, and enhancing school-based physical and health education programming. She is a past president of SHAPE America, after serving on the board for three years and serving as chair of the Health Education Council. She has done curriculum development with many districts in Massachusetts, has conducted skills-based health education professional development in multiple states across the country and internationally, and has written more than a dozen health education presentations and publications. She currently lives in Natick, Massachusetts, with her husband and two daughters. She enjoys yoga and meditation, reading, hiking, and going on adventures with her family.
