Assignment:

The story ”Grandma’s medicine”

Objectives

During the assignment, pupils learn that:  

  • another person’s medication should not be taken.  
  • if you are taking medicines for another person, you may be in danger. 
  • user of the medicine may be at risk if he or she cannot find the medicine in the familiar location.  

For the teacher

It is a good idea to reserve half a lesson for this assignment. The assignment deals with the basics of the correct use of drugs. This assignment supports the environmental science objective O8 and content area C2 of the Finnish national core curriculum for grades 1–2.

Progress of the assignment:

1.  The teacher reads the story aloud and stops at the marked places. During the pauses, the pupils act according to the instructions depending on whether it is acted correctly (X-jump) or wrong (Squat) in the story. After each break, the teacher shows the correct answer by showing X-jump or squat his- or herself.

2.  After the story has been read, discuss the topic together. Pupils can also prepare plays related to the story in small groups.

 

The story

Anna is spending a weekend at her grandma’s with her parents. Saturday is rainy, and Anna is indoors playing with dolls. She needs a small glass bottle for her play. “I wonder where I could get one?” thinks Anna. She goes to the living room and notices that there is a small brown glass bottle on the bookshelf. Anna recognizes it as grandma’s medicine bottle from which grandma always takes a tablet when her chest hurts. “I don’t think grandma will mind if I borrow this for a while”, Anna thinks and takes the bottle with her. (PAUSE: Squat)  

In the kitchen, grandma feels a chest pain. “I must go and take my medicine”, she thinks and goes to the living room. To her surprise, grandma notices that the medicine bottle is not in its familiar location and in a panic, calls Anna’s mother for help. Anna’s mother comes in and grandma tells her that she cannot find her important medicine! Mother calls Anna to the living room and asks: “Have you seen grandma’s medicine?” Anna answers: “Yes, it’s in the bedroom”. Mother fetches the medicine bottle, grandma gets her medicine, and her chest pain goes away. Mother says to Anna: “Medicines are not playthings. Medicines must be stored in their correct place. You must be able to find some medicines right away when you need them, and take them fast. Your little brother could also have been in danger if the medicine had remained your plaything. He could have eaten grandma’s medicine because he cannot understand yet that it is not intended for children. Fortunately nothing bad happened now, and grandma’s medicine was found in time”. Anna asks grandma to forgive her. (PAUSE: X-jump)  

Grandma, in turn, promises to move the medicine bottle slightly higher on the bookshelf so that children cannot reach it. (PAUSE: X-jump)  

On the next day, Anna comes indoors and notices that father has left grandma’s brown medicine bottle on the living room table while dusting the bookshelf. (PAUSE: Squat)  

Anna goes to her father in the kitchen and tells him: “Grandma’s medicine must not be moved away from the bookshelf. Grandma may be in danger if she cannot find it. Come and let’s put the medicine back on the bookshelf together”. (PAUSE: X-jump) 

Father and Anna go the living room and father moves grandma’s medicine to the top shelf of the bookshelf. (PAUSE: X-jump)  

Father thanks Anna for being so observant and noticing his mistake. Next time, father will also remember not to move someone else’s medicine away from its familiar storage location. (PAUSE: X-jump) 

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