Ideas for Career Day, 2nd-Graders?

[SkateBetty]

I'll be presenting for a group of 40 second-graders tomorrow, and need some ideas! I tried to get one of those devices you use to check for germs after hand-washing but couldn't find one. What can I do for 20 minutes to keep them entertained? Thanks!

[JenRN1983]

You have to bring in gloves for them! Kids seem to love them! Also, the importance of washing their hands. Maybe the importance of wearing helmets to prevent head injury. If you can get ahold of any blank patient armbands where they can draw in their name, they may also enjoy that. Hope this helps.

[luvschoolnursing, LPN]

are you supposed to talk to them about being a nurse or health issues? if it's being a nurse, you could talk about all the different places nurses can work and about how they have to go to college after high schooll, what types of things they do, etc. if it's about health, nutrition is always a good idea as well as dental hygeine, or general hygeine for that matter. Since you work trauma, you can talk about what a trauma nurse does to help people right away after an accident, about flight nurses, etc. 2nd graders don't have that long of an attention span, especially in groups, so make it colorful, include activities like games, coloring pages, simple word searches etc. you can find good ideas online if you google what you want to talk about and put in games or coloring pages. If you have anything you can give them like bandaids or let them use a stethascope, etc that would be fun. Kids this age are also fascinated by the change in pupils when you shine a light in them-just don't let them get carried away or they will be seeing spots all day!! Moving to different stations with different food choices (pictures of food) and trying to choose a healthy meal is fun, too. One thing I did once was have pictures of tood with calorie counts and activities with calories burned and had the kids figure out how long they would have to walk, bike, swim to work off that ice cream. Another fun thing is to have them tape pictures of food to a blank poster you have made of the food pyramid, in the right places.Good luck. With this age, always plan 1-2 more activities than you think you will need, then if something you think will be great-good fun turns out to be lame, you have something to fall back on. Let us know how it goes!