GREAT BODY SHOP

Grade Level Questions and Answers

Questions	Answers
Kindergarten:
Where is the tape with the song we’re supposed to teach?	A copy of the tape should be in the pocket at the back of your GBS notebook. If it isn’t we have extra copies in the curriculum office and would be glad to send one to you if you give us a call at 6545.
Three questions regarding the reinstatement of the CARE curriculum.	There were concerns raised about not having the CARE program to teach because some teachers felt that the GBS did not cover the necessary topics in the same way as CARE did. We will continue this discussion with Kindergarten teachers to see if there is consensus about reinstating the program. At this time, CARE cannot be taught because it is not currently an adopted curriculum. Teachers who use the CARE program must be trained and legal procedures (parent letters, parent review of materials, etc.) must be followed in order to use the curriculum.
Can we teach concepts with varied materials from different sources?	Supplemental materials may be used when teaching the curriculum. Caution must be taken to ensure that materials do not show bias, stereotyping, or contain inappropriate content. If materials are used with an entire class, they would need to be reviewed by the Instructional Materials Committee and follow Board Policy 2311.
Can we pick out relevant safety concerns to teach?	Kindergarten’s required unit is “How To Stay Safe,” lessons 1, 2 and 3. Safety concerns in those lessons need to all be covered.
Does “Great Body Shop” have a website?	Yes, it is www.thegreatbodyshop.net
Are the puppets necessary to teach units?	§ In unit 1, the directions include the use of puppets in lessons 1 and 2. If you feel that the use of the puppets would be helpful in teaching the lesson, the directions for making them start on page 34. If you feel that you don’t need to make the puppets to get the concepts across to your students, you don’t have to make them.
§ Can we share parent letters that we develop or do we need to use letters or brochures provided with the Great Body Shop?	§ There were teachers who said that they would help by writing letters to share with others. They will be contacted after conferences to work on this task.
§ Are field trips for kindergarten supported by the district?	§ Building budgets support field trips, except for the Conservation Site and Maritime Heritage.
§ Are we expected to teach the introduction of the Great Body Shop as a unit? (puppets, graphic organizer)	§ No. The introduction explains concepts that you might need in order to teach the required units.
§ It seems there is a lot of paper waste. Two minute job where kids put an X or O. Is there a better way?	§ Teachers can make decisions about the worksheets, etc. to use to teach a concept. If the worksheet does not enhance the teaching of the concept, or can be reformatted to make more sense, teachers can make that determination.
First Grade:
There seems to be a huge gulf between what we are learning about learning and this curriculum. Why should we put time into teaching this low-level surface learning? “Circle the couch potato” “Is it OK for kids to smoke?”	The GBS is very “activity-based.” Just as we discussed in the grade level meetings, if there is a way to hook the concepts taught in GBS with a ‘bigger idea” or teach the concepts in a different way that goes deeper, that would be wonderful.

First Grade: (continued)
Will more units be required after this year? When the GBS is in full implementation how many units will be required?	No additional units will be required this year. If additional units are added, teams of teachers will help us make the decisions about how many and which ones.
Who made the “CARE” decision? One kit per building? We need to re-look at this.	The curriculum committee made the decision to eliminate the CARE curriculum during the adoption phase of the health curriculum because GBS covered the concepts found in CARE. Some teachers do not feel GBS covers the topics in as great a depth and would like to reinstate the CARE curriculum. We will look into whether or not there are a majority of teachers who are interested. If there is, then we will see what would be needed to move forward with the curriculum.
Can we get more CARE kits back into each building?	To reinstate the CARE kits would be to look at it as a new curriculum. If readopted we would need to repurchase kits, train teachers, etc. If a majority of teachers want the CARE kits back, we can look into reinstating them. CARE kits should not be used this year because, as of now, it is not curriculum that is approved for use in the BSD.
Student issues aren’t in order – so how would it work to cut them apart?	It may not work to cut them apart. You will have to make that decision based on the layout of materials that you have at your grade level.
What about budget for laminating all those books? Especially for Column 1 schools.	There isn’t any budget from the Curriculum Department to cover laminating costs. Laminating items is up to the building’s discretion. As of now, only one student issue per grade level needs to be laminated because only one unit is required.
Frightening to think that personal safety is optional teaching. What happens to the kids across all socio-economic levels that need to know how to protect themselves? (sexual abuse) Unit 6, Lesson #4.	The reduction of required units came from teacher concern about having to teach too many GBS units. The reduction from eight to one required unit was an attempt to lighten teachers’ loads. Teachers can teach more than the required unit in GBS if they feel that students would benefit from the information.
The CARE kit has been such an important part of our curriculum – so why is lesson 6 not required as our first unit?	Lesson 6 can be taught in addition to unit one lessons.
Students are missing CARE or “Happy, Sad & In Between” because it is not required. How can it not be required after all the training we’ve done and importance of issue?	CARE was taken out of the health curriculum during the adoption. Not everyone has been trained that are now teaching in the district. In order for CARE to be reinstated, it would need to be considered a new curriculum and re-adopted with instructional material purchases and training in the correct use of the units.
CARE topics need to be included. How could something mandated for years simply no longer be required?	This was a decision of the curriculum committee that adopted the GBS.
Second Grade:
If each grade level (K-2) decides what they are going to teach in the future – who makes sure that there are no gaps?	Teachers must teach the curriculum outlined in the curriculum guide. The purpose of the guides is to keep the curriculum aligned K – 12 in order to prevent gaps and overlap.

Second Grade: (continued)
Who made the decision to buy the student issues? Could the lessons happen without them? Do we really need them?	The student issues are part of the GBS. The decision to adopt GBS was made by the district health curriculum committee. Every unit in GBS lists the student issues as required materials. It is possible to teach the units without the student issues, but the decision has been made to make sure teachers have access to them if they want to use them for a lesson.
Who will be making future decisions – teachers or district on what resources will be purchased?	Resources that need to be purchased are recommendations made at the time of an adoption. Proposals for the purchase of materials are given to the District Budget Advisory Committee for approval or modification during the district budget process each spring. Final decisions about purchases are made by DBAC.
How can the District/School Board adopt a curriculum and not provide all the materials (student booklets, etc)? I think this is totally irresponsible.	At the time of the adoption it did not seem to have been made clear that the consumable student issues were such an integral part of the curriculum – or, were so expensive. Curriculum committees have a difficult job and make their recommendations in good faith based upon the information that they have at the time.
How can we go “deep” with such watered down materials (sharing)?	Teachers can go deep with any topic depending on how much time they want to spend on it. Some teachers will choose to teach the units in GBS as is, while others will try to integrate the topics with social studies or Second Step so that they can approach the content in a “deeper” way.
With this massive amount of teaching from GBS – How do we do 11 days of 45 minutes of the “Bullying” series and all of Second Steps? How many units in the future will be added to our load?	Teachers are only required to teach one unit from GBS. Second Step is still required. There may be connections between GBS and Second Step that will allow for integration and thus take less class time. Teachers will be involved in the decisions to add additional units from GBS and which units should be required.
PE/Health/Fitness: What are the most important “big ideas” –Why do we have the rest? Why did we buy it? Can I have some books please?	Teachers can choose the big ideas out of the units they are required to teach. When the entire program was adopted teachers were originally asked to teach eight units. Now teachers are only asked to teach one unit. All the GBS materials have already been purchased so teachers have access to more information than they need. Some teachers will choose to teach more than the one required unit and will need access to the rest of the materials.
Has anyone considered calling the Great Body Shop with an “Oops” and selling it to another gullible district, and investing in a less pricey more user friendly product?”	GBS is board-adopted curriculum and is now being used in the BSD. I do believe that people on curriculum committees act in good faith and I hesitate to call their work an “oops.” GBS matches the EALR’s in health and was considered the best curriculum available at the time.
I have huge concerns about the care kit being withdrawn. Our school is impacted by a new housing project that is riddled by sexual abuse issues. Is it possible for our school nurses and/or intervention specialists to teach a portion of the CARE kit? There is so little room left within the school day to do both Great Body Shop and CARE.	CARE is not to be taught at this time. If a majority of teachers want CARE reinstated, a process will be put in place to research the re-adoption of the curriculum, purchase of materials and training for teachers. Until this happens, the CARE curriculum may not be taught.

Second Grade: (continued)
Can I just use “Scholastic News” to teach the same lessons? Much better quality around the same issues.	As long as the material covers the same critical content and major concepts, you could use “Scholastic News” as supplemental material.
Can one set of units/lesson materials be kept at the District Office for check out if a Column 2 school wants and needs to teach a lesson in the fall? Our school, Columbia, really needs to focus on safety right now – this fall. We have been and are still so affected by unsafe people in our neighborhood. Can we get a set of materials now for the “Let’s Stay Safe” unit?	No extra student issues are available at the curriculum office. They have been distributed to the buildings. It may be possible to contact your partner school and see if materials would be available from them at an earlier time. The sharing of materials between schools is just for this year. Next year each school will have their own sets of student issues.
Third Grade:
Could we laminate the copies so they stay in-tack longer? Should it be required since they are so expensive?	Lamination of the student issues is a building decision. You may laminate the issues if you would like.
How “in-depth” are these units? It seems more effective to have the daily discussion about attitude, for example, than to do 3 lessons per year. Hand the responsibility over to the kids à What do you notice? What questions do you have?	GBS units are not very “in-depth.” You may take the content deeper if you would like by connecting it to social studies, Second Step, inviting in a speaker, etc. It sounds like the approach utilizing good questioning strategies might be a good one for going deeper.
Here’s Looking At You 2000 – What happened with this program? Do we teach it?	We do not teach, “Here’s Looking At You 2000” in BSD anymore.
If we order GBS worksheets from the print shop, do we need to send in the worksheets, or do they have copies at the print shop?	The print shop has black line masters of all the GBS worksheets. There are GBS print shop order blanks available in your buildings as in the past.
What can this be covered by on the report card? Science? Social Studies?	The concepts might be covered in Social Studies, Science or Personal Development sections. The report card needs to be revised and the reporting of progress in health will need to be addressed when that happens.
For a ¾ class, do we choose just one unit or have to do both required for each grade?	The required unit in grade 4 should not be taught to the 3^rd grade students. You may need to talk with your principal to see how coverage for the 3^rd grade students can be arranged so that the fourth grade students can be taught the required unit.
DARE officer? We need more support here to help model safety with guns.	Gun safety is covered in unit 1, “Safe At Home, Safe Away” on page 5. School Resource Officers may be able to provide more information if they are contacted.
Does the Parent’s bulletin come in different languages? (Spanish?)	Parent bulletins are available in Spanish by visiting the GBS website www.thegreatbodyshop.net
Will Roeder provide laminating?	The Curriculum Department does not provide laminating. The choice to laminate is a building decision.
Fourth Grade:
Are the utmost required units going to increase each year?	Decisions about how many additional units at each grade will be required will be made by groups of teachers working with the Curriculum Director.
Do we still order forms from the Print Shop?	You may order GBS worksheets and forms from the Print Shop as in the past.
Is there a video that goes with the unit? At a meeting last year I seem to remember one!	Page 6 and page 7 of the BSD revised and condensed version of “Be Cool, Keep Clean” has video information for this unit.

Fourth Grade: (continued)
Do we have to teach the optional section of Lesson 1 (Hormones & Reproductive Organs)?	If it says “optional,” it is up to the teacher to make the decision to teach the lesson.
Do we do Lesson 1 of Unit 6 with boys and girls separately or together?	Lesson 1 – boys and girls are together except for the section called “Hormones and Reproductive Organs’ which covers menstruation and is only taught to girls.
What do we send home to parents notifying them their child will be getting puberty lessons? Is there a district form?	A letter needs to be mailed two weeks prior to teaching the unit. There is a form letter in the BSD revised materials for the unit.
Are there hands on materials available to use? Videos, models, etc.	Page 6 and page 7 of the BSD revised and condensed version of “Be Cool, Keep Clean” has video information for this unit.
During instruction on Unit 6, Lesson 1 (Girls only) What do you suggest the boys do?	Each school handles this in a different way. Usually two teachers cover for each other. If that can’t be arranged, you may want to work with your building administrator to help develop a plan for supervision.
Fifth Grade:
Who teaches the boys?	Each school handles this in a different way. Usually a man teacher in the school teaches the boys. In some buildings the principal helps out with this.
With no male teachers at 5^th grade – how do we train another “male” to teach required separate lessons? Do they get compensated (in addition to their content)?	Buildings usually can work out a trade/coverage plan at the building level. If your building has unique circumstances, the building principal is welcome to contact the Curriculum Director to help with the situation.
How long are people taking to tell about the Endocrine System? If we want to be going deeper – shouldn’t it be longer than cramming it into a week?	The time it takes to cover the topics will be different from teacher to teacher depending on how deep they want to go. You may want to discuss these questions with other teachers in your school, in your grade level meetings or with your principal.