Every year near February 14th our school celebrates Heart Day. Our last Heart Day was celebrated in a unique way.

The entire grade level came to the gym during PE time. Upon arriving, students were told there was a special guest in class today to teach them more about having a Healthy Heart. The guest was Mrs. Heart, which was me dressed in a heart costume I rented from a local costume shop. Once introduced, my assistant and I role played the script from "an interview with a heart" available from the American Heart Association. The script lets students know the importance of exercise, eating right and getting regular checkups.

After the skit, Mrs. Heart lead the students in a warm up dance to the song "Hand Jive". After performing this dance, students checked their heart rate. Mrs. Heart then taught and lead the students in a paper plate dance to her favorite song "Achy Breaky Heart", afterwhich students then checked their heart rate. The students were asked to compare the 2 dances to see which provided better exercise for the heart. The students correctly answered "Achy Breaky Heart" and the reason was that "Hand Jive" is a dance using only the arms, whereas "Achy Breaky Heart" involved the use of both the arms and legs.

Mrs. Heart then introduced the school librarian who read 2 "heart" stories to the students, thus ending the Heart Day Celebration.

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