My Science School

You might think that looking clean is just something that adults worry about. But you should think about it too. Keeping yourself clean helps you stay free of harmful germs.

Whether you play, work, shop or visit a friend, your hands pick up germs all day. If the germs get into your food, or if you lick your fingers or bite your nails, it is easy to see how the germs can get inside your body. But you do not have to let this happen.

You can get rid of the germs you collect. After going to the toilet, wash your hands with soap and water-and don’t forget the backs of your hands. Wash your hands before meals so germs don’t get into your food-and inside you. Also wash your hands after sneezing and coughing, especially if you are sick.

The skin on other parts of your body picks up germs too. These germs may even cause an unpleasant smell. That is because they feed on the oil in sweat. Then they multiply and die-that’s where the bad smells comes from. So take a bath or wash the places where you sweat most.

Keeping clean not only makes you feel good, it also helps you to stay healthy.

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Think about how you feel when you don’t get enough sleep. You feel tired, you can’t think very well, and you may get angry easily.

Sleep helps keep you healthy. When you sleep, your muscles rest. So does your brain.

People who get enough sleep each night are able to think more clearly. They do not make as many mistakes as people who do not get a good night’s sleep. And they may react more quickly.

People who get enough sleep night after night also are better able to fight off diseases. They do not get as many colds and other illnesses as people who are always tired.

The best way to get a good night’s sleep is to go to bed at the same time each night and wake up at the same time each morning. While you may want to sleep late on weekends, try not to. Oversleeping can keep you awake the next night.

The next time it’s bedtime, give your brain a treat. Go to bed on time, and give it the rest it deserves.

If you have trouble falling asleep– or simply do not want to go to bed– try these ideas to make bedtime a good time:

• Listen to a book or soft music on a CD.
• Imagine yourself in your favourite place.
• Think about what you did today, and what you will do tomorrow.
• Imagine sheep jumping over a fence one by one. Count each sheep as it jumps.

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Brushing your teeth several times a day and eating healthy foods are two ways to keep your teeth healthy and white. Another thing you can do is visit your dentist at least once a year.

At the dentist’s surgery, you sit in a special chair. It moves all different ways so the dentist can look into your mouth easily. First, the dentist puts a little round mirror on a handle into your mouth. This helps the dentist see the sides of your teeth. To feel for cavities, or holes, in your teeth, the dentist uses tiny tools called explorers.

Your dentist or the hygienist then cleans your gums and cleans and polishes your teeth to make them shine.

If your dentist finds a cavity in one of your teeth, it will need to be cleaned and filled. Before filling your tooth, your dentist may give you an injection in the gum near the tooth that has the cavity. The injection makes the area numb, so you cannot feel any pain while the dentist works on your tooth.

Remember, that the teeth you begin to get when you are only six years old have to last you the rest of your life. Take good care of them. Ask your parents for a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and dental floss after each checkup.

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There is a war going on inside your mouth. The enemy is plaque, sticky white coating that grows on teeth. Plaque destroys the outside of teeth by sending out an army of acids. It sends poisons into the gums.

How can you fight back? The handiest weapon you have is your toothbrush. Brush with small, round movements to clean the outside of your teeth. Then move the toothbrush up and down to clear away the plaque between your teeth. To hold back plaque, your dentist may also tell you to floss your teeth at least once a day.

You also can help your teeth by choosing healthy foods. The more often you eat sugary things, the worse it is for your teeth. As soon as something sugary is around, plaque sends out a new army of acids. The more often you eat sweets, the more acid you have to fight. That’s why dentists suggest that you eat snacks such as fruit and vegetables.

If you do eat sugary things, eat them at mealtimes and brush your teeth soon afterwards. Try to avoid sweet foods that stick your teeth, such as sugary cereals and mints.

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Go ahead-run, jump, skip, climb! Not only is it fun, it’s good for you, too. Your body parts need exercise to stay healthy.

There are different kinds of exercises. Some building your muscles. Some strengthen your heart and lungs. A strong heart and lungs are better at getting oxygen to the rest of your body. Exercises that build your muscles include climbing ropes and wall bars. You can also try handstand contests, walking on your hands, walking on all fours, and doing push-ups while on your knees.

Walking, running, swimming, skipping, playing saucer, dancing, and cycling are all aerobic exercises. They help make your heart and lungs strong. What is your favourite aerobic exercise? Try it for at least 20 minutes, and you can feel your heartbeat faster.

Get fit and you will be ready for anything-a sports game, a busy day, and a healthy life.

Before you exercise, warm up your body. Warm muscles stretch more easily and are less likely to get hurt. Walk, slowly skip, or gently jog on the spot. These activities increase the blood flow to your muscles. Do these again at the end of exercising. This lets your body cool down slowly.

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You wake up one morning. Your mother asks, “What would you like for breakfast -crisps, chips, ice cream, sweets, or lemonade?”

You think to yourself, “Am I dreaming?” Yes, you are.

Your parents try to limit how much junk food you eat for a reason. Too much junk food is not good for your body.

Junk foods are called “junk” because they contain a lot of substances your body does not need. Some contain a lot of sugar. Others have a lot of fat-far more than your body needs.

But many people eat a whole lot of junk food. And if all you ate was junk food, you would soon be very unhealthy. You would not get enough of the things your body needs, such as protein, vitamins, and fibre. And you would have too much of the things you need only a little of, such as sugar, salt, and fat.

It would not hurt your body if you never ate any junk foods. They are fun to eat, though. Happily, a little junk food now and then will not hurt you.

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What are your favourite foods? Maybe you like fish, hamburgers, or scrambled eggs. These foods all can be part of a healthy diet. But they are not enough. That’s because they are all proteins. Your body needs many different kinds of nutrients to stay healthy.

The best way to get all the nutrients your body needs is to eat many different kinds of food each day. When you eat a variety of foods, you can get the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

Eating a variety of foods means eating bread, rice, and other grains, especially whole grains.

It means eating nuts and beans for protein. It may also mean eating meats, such as beef, fish, and chicken.

Dairy products like milk and cheese are also important for a healthy diet. This food group is especially important for younger people, whose bones are still growing.

Finally, a wide variety of vegetables and fruit is very important for health. These foods contain vitamins and minerals that are critical to our well-being.

Foods that come in a package usually have labels that tell you what is in the food. These labels can help you understand what food groups are contained in a given item. That helps you to look for items with more fruit or vegetables and fewer addictive and preservatives, for example.

Food labels also tell you how many fats, carbohydrates, and other nutrients are in one serving of that food. This helps you to choose foods that are lower in fat and sugar and higher in nutritional value.

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Like a car, your body needs fuel to keep it running. Your body’s fuel is food.

Food contains the things your body needs for energy and to stay healthy. These include proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

Proteins provide energy and help make muscles, skin and other organs, and blood. They also help your body to heal itself. You can get protein from animal foods such as meat, fish, and milk products. You also can get protein from certain beans and nuts.

Fats provide a lot of energy. Your body needs some fats, but not too many. You can get fats when you eat meat, butter, certain oils, and some plant foods such as nuts, olives, and avocados.

Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy. Many foods contain carbohydrates, including potatoes, pasta, and grains.

Food also contains vitamins and minerals. There are many different vitamins, such as vitamins A, C, and D. They all help keep your body healthy. Many fruits and vegetables have vitamins. There also are many different minerals, including calcium and iron. Calcium is good for your bones and teeth. Iron is good for your blood.

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Sometimes you go to the doctor when you are sick. Other times you go when you are not sick at all. This kind of visit is called a checkup.

Checkups are a good way for you and your doctor to see how well you are growing. It is also a good time for you to ask questions about your body and your health.

The nurse usually begins your checkup by measuring your height and weight. The nurse and the doctor keep track of how much you weigh and how tall you are at each visit. This is the best way for your doctor to see how well you are growing.

Next, the doctor listens through a stethoscope, to different sounds inside your body. The earpieces of the stethoscope fit in the doctor’s ears. The flat round part of the stethoscope is placed over the part of your body the doctor wants to hear.

The doctor holds the stethoscope on your chest and listen to the sound of your heart beating. The sound your heart makes is something like this: lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub. Then the doctor moves the stethoscope around on your chest and back to hear your breathing. The doctor will ask you to take a few deep breaths. If you are healthy, your lungs do not make much noise.

Then the doctor shines a light into your eyes. The light helps the doctor look at the inside of your eyes. You might have to read some letters on the chart. The doctor wants to be sure you can see well.

The doctor or nurse might ask you about the foods you eat, how much you sleep, and if you exercise. These are all important questions. To stay healthy, you need to eat healthy foods and get enough rest and exercise. Your doctor may give you some ideas about how to do these things.

Next, the doctor shines a light into your ears. The doctor wants to be sure that all your ear openings are clear. If they are not, you may not be able to hear well.

At certain checkups, your doctor will give you one or more immunization injections. These injections help keep you healthy. Some injections hurt. But a little bit of pain you feel may save you a lot of sickness later. Some medicine has to be in injections, because your body would digest that medicine if you swallowed it, the same way it digests food. Then the medicine would not be able to work as well to keep you healthy.

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Once in a while, some part of your body hurts. It may be your stomach or your head. You feel pain.

It is never fun to feel pain. Sometimes you might even cry. Pain is a warning. Pain usually happens because you are sick or you have hurt part of your body. When you feel pain, nerves send a signal to your brain. Your brain understands the signal. If you did not feel pain, you would not know when something was wrong inside.

When you feel pain, tell your parents or your teacher where it hurts. They know how to make the pain feel better. For example, if you have a headache, your mother might suggest sleep, an ice pack, or medicine to help take the pain away. Other times you may need to see your doctor. Your doctor might have to do medical tests to find out what is wrong and how to make you feel better.

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Sometimes when you bump a part of your body, such as your elbow, the bump pushes a muscle against a bone. Tiny veins and arteries in the muscle break. Some blood leaks out, and soon, you have a bruise.

A bruise is like an inside out cut. A bruise does not bleed on the outside because the skin is not broken. Instead, the blood moves below the top layer of your skin. The blood shows through your skin as dark blue or black.

As the bruise heals, it may change colours. Each colour is lighter than the last. This means that the blood is moving back into your body. The muscle is getting well.

Burns are another way you can hurt yourself. When your skin burns, the burned spot puffs up. A blister forms. A blister is like a puffy little pocket in the layers of your skin. The top layer of skin pulls away from the layers underneath it, and the space fills with liquid. The top layer keeps germs from getting into the blister.

Again, your cells start to heal your burned skin. Slowly the liquid moves back into your body, and your blister heals.

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You are rolling along on your bike when suddenly you hit a stone on the road. You fall and cut your hand. It is bleeding and it hurts.

Right away, your body begins healing the cut. Your cells quickly jump into action and do their special jobs.

When you cut yourself, you begin to bleed. Almost at once the blood begins to clot. The cells stick together. Slowly, the blood gets thick and covers the cut. Then the blood dries and gets hard. It makes a kind of cover, called a scab, over the cut.

The cells along the edges of the cut grow and divide. New cells take the place of some of those that were hurt by the cut.

Still other cells to another kind of job. These are special healing cells. They make a kind of net that joins the edges of the cut together. Each day this net gets thicker, tougher, and stronger.

Soon the scab falls off. Then you can see the new skin underneath. Your body has healed itself.

Sometimes a deep cut leaves a mark on your skin, even after it has healed. That mark is called a scar. A scar forms when a deep layer of skin has been damaged. Scars may be red at first but the colour usually fades over time.

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Have you had a chickenpox or measles, cold, an ear infection, or the flu? If so, your body was under attack!

When you get sick, tiny germs called viruses or bacteria attack different parts of your body. Some of these germs travel from person to person in the drops of fluid that shoot out of your mouth when you sneeze or cough. Some are spread in food and water. These germs can make you feel sick.

Luckily your body fights back. And sometimes medicine helps your body fight the germs.

After you have been sick with certain illnesses, your body remembers the germs. If one of the germs tries to attack again, your body destroys it as soon as it enters your body. That’s why you usually get some illnesses, like chickenpox, only once.

You can get some illnesses, like colds and the flu, over and over again. This is because there are so many kinds of cold and flu viruses. If a new virus invades your body, your body does not know that virus, and so you get sick.

Do your parents tell you to cover your nose and mouth and when you sneeze? That’s because when you sneeze, tiny drops of fluid spray out of your mouth. Tiny germs travel in that fluid and can make other people sick too.

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Have you ever had a pet that died? It hurts. It does not hurt like when you fall and scrape your knee. It is a different kind of pain. It makes you feel sad.

The death of your pet means that you will never see it again. Sometimes people die, too - people you love. This means that you will never see them again in this world. It hurts a lot.

When someone’s friend or relative dies, it is very painful. They miss that person. They feel lonely, strange, and sad. They may become quiet and want to be left alone. They want to think about the person who has died. They may feel angry that the person has left them. The sadness or anger after someone has died is called grieving. People who grieve are trying to understand and accept the death of someone they love.

Grieving takes time. Many people feel they will always miss the person who has died. But after a while, people begin to remember their loved ones with happiness. They remember good times they shared.

Pets and people never leave you completely. They live on in your memories. In this way, they are part of you forever.

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How do you know what is right?

How do you know what is wrong?

These are not easy questions to answer. However, looking for the answers to such questions can help you know yourself and the world around you. You will not find all the answers right away, but you will find the beginnings of the answers. Your understanding will grow as you grow.

You were not born knowing right from wrong. You learn this as you grow. You learn by talking and listening to people you can trust. You learn by watching and copying what the people around you say and do.

As you learn right from wrong, you will make mistakes. It is okay to make mistakes. You can learn from mistakes. You can change how you do things because of your experiences.

There is a feeling inside you that helps you decide what to do. Sometimes it is called an “inner voice” or “gut feeling”. Sometimes it tells you when something feels right. Other time it might say “oops!” Then you know something may not be right. Your inner voice can help guide you in everything you do.

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