PKU Clinic - University of Washington, Seattle

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Teaching Earthling Rules

CONCEPT: Understanding the Importance of Responsible Behavior

 

BRIEF SUMMARY

Children pretend they are teaching a friend from another planet how to behave on Earth. They describe "good" and "bad" rules to follow. Because this friend also has PKU, "yes" and "no" food choices for PKU are also discussed.

 

OBJECTIVES

After completing this activity, children will be able to:

• identify "good" and "bad" rules
• identify "yes" and "no" foods

 

METHODS

1. Set the stage: Hand out the picture of Bleep. Explain that Bleep has just arrived on Earth from another planet. Before he can do anything else (like find a job or buy a house) he must learn right from wrong—and he needs you to help him. (It is important to help others if you know more than they do.)

   Bleep has been given a list of rules. He needs help deciding which rules to keep and which rules to throw away.

2. Talk about rules: Help the children decide which rules Bleep should follow. Talk about why each rule is a "good" or a "bad" rule.

   Some ideas for rules to discuss include:

• Treat everyone with respect.
• If you see something you want in a store, just take it.
• If you don't like school, don't bother going.
• Drink all of your formula.
• Eat ice cream until you feel sick.
• Work hard in school.
• Watch as much television as you want; it's good for you.
3. What are some other rules Bleep should follow? Discuss this with the children. As a group, decide which rules Bleep should follow. Have the children stick the "good" rules to a big Bleep picture (hanging on a wall).
4. Teach Bleep about managing PKU: Explain that Bleep is very hungry, but he doesn't know what to eat. He just found out that he has PKU and needs to eat only low protein foods.

   From the pictures that are cut out, have the children pick a meal for Bleep to eat. They can paste the meal to their pictures of Bleep. Discuss the foods they have chosen. Are they all "yes" foods?

 

MATERIALS

• Picture of Bleep (a large picture for the group activity, and one regular size for each child)
• List of Rules, cut-out
• Pictures of foods
• Paste
• Pencil / Pen / Crayons

 

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