Lesson Plans

Download Lesson Plans and materials to help you incorporate Be the Beat into your curriculum.

Celebrate Your
Students' Success

Download a certificate of completion once your students have completed the activities in the lesson plans or on the site.

CPR and AED Training


To take the learning further, the American Heart Association offers products designed especially with teens in mind. The CPR Anytime® all-in-one kit teaches the core skills of CPR in 22 minutes in the classroom or home. CPR in Schools® utilizes a modular format that can be taught over several class periods. Both programs utilize the research-proven Practice-While-Watching method to provide maximum hands-on time and improve retention.

Call 1-877-AHA-4CPR or visit the Class Connector to find an AHA instructor near you.

School Spotlight

Beginning in 2004, Open Door Christian Schools in Elyria, Ohio has been piloting a full-scale program to teach lifesaving CPR skills to students from Kindergarden through 8th grade. Students first learn about emergencies and how to make 911 calls, how to relieve choking and use an AED. In 6–8th grades they get a quick CPR course using CPR Anytime©. By high school, they take a CPR certification course under the guidance of health and physical education teacher Lowana Dunckel and school nurse Kim Shumate. Heartsafe Kids© is enthusiastically received by students and we believe it will pay big dividends in future lives saved.

Spotlight Archives

Nurses to the Rescue!

School nurses are a critical link in the chain of survival, providing crucial ongoing and emergency care for students.
Connie Carmany, RN, BSN, BA
Heartsafe Kids© Program Director

Chairman,
SCAA of NE Ohio
E-mail

Guest Column

Heartsafe Kids©: A model for addressing cardiac arrest in a community

Each year in the U.S., nearly 300,000 people suffer cardiac arrest outside hospitals, and most don't get CPR from a bystander. Without immediate CPR and defibrillation, a victim's chance of survival decreases each minute. For the past 50 years, adults have been taught CPR yet the statistics aren't improving.

I created Heartsafe Kids, an innovative, age-appropriate, reality-based, technology-rich approach to teaching lifesaving CPR and AED use in schools designed to help turn the sudden cardiac death statistics upside down!

From an early age, children will learn critical skills to help save a life which will be reinforced as they progress through school. By the time they graduate, we hope to have created a generation of CPR/AED-savvy students who have the confidence and willingness to save a life.

Through our Heartsafe Kids program, students learn the following skills:
  • K-3: Recognizing an emergency, 9-1-1/EMS access, obstructed airway, AED introduction
  • Grades 4-5: Review, choking prevention and relief, AED use
  • Grades 6-8: Choking prevention and relief, CPR with AED
  • Grades 9-12: CPR/AED certification, risk factors, healthy lifestyle
  • High School: Skill proficiency, mock rescues, emergency rescue system, mentoring younger students

Heartsafe Kids started in 2004 at Open Door Christian Schools in Elyria, Ohio. We now reach schools in a three-county area with the help of many partner and industry organizations.

So, why should you teach emergency lifesaving skills in schools?
  • To meet AHA or federal and state guidelines
  • Training can be integrated with other curriculum goals in health, safety, social studies, PE and technology classes
  • Students are eager and empowered by learning lifesaving skills
  • Helps build self-confidence and good citizenship among students

©Connie Carmany, All Rights Reserved
Guest Archives