Secondhand Smoke Lesson

This lesson has a two-fold purpose:

1. For Head Start Staff: To educate staff members about secondhand smoke (SHS) and give them the tools to incorporate SHS education into their ongoing activities with parents and others.
2. For parents and others:To provide a lesson and materials to be used either formally at “parent nights” or more informally at home visits and when a “teachable moment” arises.

Download a pdf of the Secondhand Smoke Lesson

Activity I: Preventable Causes of Death: Getting in the Mood to Talk about Tobacco

A. Group discussion method (this is the most fun) - Takes about 10 minutes

1. Preparation ahead of time:
   Print out the Preventable Causes of Death – 11x17” format on large paper and glue onto a poster board. Print out the Pie Chart of Preventable Causes of Death in color and glue that to the back of the poster board.
2. Preparation day of:
   Take slips of the small post it notes and cover up the different causes of preventable death on the bottom axis, each with a different slip. Put your poster board on a stand at the front of the room. On another set of post it notes, write the names of all six preventable causes of death.
3. Activity:
   Pass the six post-it notes out randomly to training participants. Ask them to come up together, confer amongst themselves and put the slips of paper on the column they think it goes with. Give them a few minutes. Once they sit back down, do a little “striptease” with the papers hiding the bottom labels, one by one starting at the smallest columns.
   
   Say something like, “You hear a great deal about deaths from homicides, AIDS and these other things, but not very much about deaths from tobacco use.”
   Turn your poster board over and show the percentage of all tobacco deaths combined. People are always blown away by the huge toll tobacco takes. Now they are in the mood to think about tobacco prevention.
   

B. Quiz and Discussion Method - Should take about 15 minutes

1. Preparation ahead of time:
   Print out copies of the Preventable Causes of Death Quiz and the Preventable Causes of Death - Answer Sheet.
2. Activity:
   Hand out quiz. Allow at least 2 minutes for the participants to complete the quiz. When everyone is finished ask staff to share their answers. Hand out the answer sheet and facilitate a discussion. Note that the sources for the information provided in the quiz are listed at the bottom of the sheets.

Activity II: Poisoning Your Children - Approximately 25 minutes

1. Preparation ahead of time:
   Print out copies of Secondhand Smoke Study Questions and Secondhand Smoke Study Questions and Answers. Preview the 12 minute video, “Poisoning Your Children” (available in English and in Spanish - ask your Health Specialist or order the videos). Put Sandy’s email address as a link)
   
   Have a supply of small chocolates or treats to reward those who give answers. (This works wonders in waking up the discussion.)
2. Activity:
   Pass out the Secondhand Smoke Study Questions, have them read through and tell them to be looking for the answers as they watch the video. Play the video.
   
   Afterwards ask them what they think of the video (it is dated, but the best one that still exists on the subject). Ask them if they think this is an appropriate tool to show to smokers themselves (it has a scolding tone and probably is not intended for that audience). Ask them if they think it might be appropriate to show to family members who have spouses or others who smoke around their kids.
   
   Now, go through the study questions and ask the group to respond. Throw chocolates to responders and try to get everyone to participate. Invariably the group will be able to come up with almost every response. Fill in the ones that don’t come out.

Activity III: Getting the message to parents

A. Role-plays for Staff Members – Approximately 20-30 minutes

1. Preparation ahead of time: 
   Print out copies of Secondhand Smoke Role Plays.
2. Activity:  
   Discuss the importance of getting the message to parents and other caregivers through one-on-one discussions, brochures, signs, videos, and newsletters.  Emphasize what a key role Head Start staff can play because they are trusted by the families.
   
   Hand out Secondhand Smoke Role-Plays.  Put people into groups of no more than four, assigning each to a scenario, having more than one group do the same scenario if needed.  Have them pretend that they are actually carrying on the conversations, using the words they would use and not just saying what they would say.  The practice is invaluable.
   Encourage each group to demonstrate their role-play.  Make it a safe, comfortable environment to do so.  The more people get the involved, the more fun it will be and the more everyone will learn

B. Role-plays for parents and caregivers

1. Preparation ahead of time:
   Print out copies of Secondhand Smoke Scenarios for the whole group. The second page of the document includes possible responses for the trainer to become familiar with (the responses are intended for reference and not for distribution to the parents).
2. Activity:
   Form small groups and distribute scenarios. See remarks above on facilitating the session.
   

Activity IV: Sharing of Resources

1. Preparation ahead of time:
   Gather and print out any or all of the resources listed below depending on the audience.

These four items listed are downloadable from lungoregon,org.

• Smokefree Home and Car Pledge
• Sample Newsletter inserts
• 4 Flyers to promote the Oregon Tobacco Quit Line
• Helping Tobacco Users Quit

Free materials available from Tobacco Prevention & Education Program Clearinghouse (http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/tobacco/otec/index.shtml)
We recommend:

• Smokefree Home Stickers in English and Spanish (see them at (http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/tobacco/otec/docs/tobfreeenivron_section3.pdf)
• Please Don’t Smoke in My House (available in Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Cambodian)
• You Can Do Something About Secondhand Smoke (available in Spanish and Chinese)
• Healthy Moms, Healthy Kids/ Madres Sanas, Niños Sanos (English/Spanish) Encourages pregnant women to quit smoking.
• One of the Best Things You Can Do For Your Kids (English and Spanish)

Download a pdf of the Secondhand Smoke Lesson