Smoking

 

Children and smoking

 The smoke free messages provided by Fit For Football are intended principally for 9-12 year olds. At this age, only about 1% are regular smokers ( ie  smoke at least 1 cigarette per week ). This is an opportune age therefore to provide smoke free messages to encourage children never to take up smoking. By the age of 15 years, 1 in 5 (22%) children are regular smokers in England despite the fact that it is illegal to sell any tobacco product to under 18s.  95% of smokers start during childhood.  Children living in deprived areas and children whose parents smoke are much more likely to smoke. Girls are more likely to smoke than boys. Fit For Football has developed its smoke free resources through working for 5 years with over 130 primary schools all located in areas of deprivation in the Humber area. Games have been chosen which we know children enjoy and at the same time, provide an easily understood message.   Fit For Football resources  In our RESOURCES pack, we provide a range of activities through which children can learn through games about the health risks of smoking, the effect of smoking on lung capacity, saying no to cigarettes and the environmental cost of cigarettes. The games include :-  Tiggy Ciggy   U Smoke, U lose   Smokey Slow race   Ciggy clean up   Bin the Buttz   Blow Football   Say No to Cigarettes   Chemical Nasties  In our WORKBOOK, we explore these issues in more detail through quizzes, word scrambles, poster designs, looking at the cost of smoking and designing a  ‘Show Smoking the red card’.  We do this through following a character called Bethany who has started smoking cigarettes recently.  She started because her best friend asked her if she wanted to share her cigarettes and she didn’t want to upset her best friend.  Bethany has heard that smoking is bad for your health but doesn’t want to lose her best friend.

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Hi I’m Bethany

    bethany before           


 

The workbook explores smoking issues through following Bethany through a number of activities. Afterwards , Bethany says ;-

"I’m not going to smoke anymore!   "    

bethany after"After doing all of the activities I now know that it makes your clothes, hair and breath smell and it makes your teeth and fingers go yucky yellow.  It can also make you poorly and shorten your life. That' not cool is it ? "

 

Quotes from children taking part in Fit For Football “The risks of smoking are scary” – Joshua aged 10  “I don’t want to end up a smoker” – Sadie aged 10  You should see what smoking can do to your body – Daniel aged 10  “It has encouraged me not to smoke because it has shown me what it can do” – Shannon aged 10 “It has encouraged me not to smoke when I am older” – Ryan aged 11  “Smoking is a horrid habit and it could kill you “ “If you smoke it will kill you so don’t smoke”   - Rebekah age 9  “It has made me aware of how much time you lose if you smoke” – Bradley aged 9 “It has taught me not to smoke”  -     Kaya-Marie aged 10 “If you want to be fit,don’t be a twitYou think you look cool, your acting like a foolAnd if you wanna stop choking, you better stop smoking”      Jake aged 10