Lesson Plan 4: Take 2 Herbs and Call Me in the Morning

OBJECTIVES

Students will:

• recite several effective herbal cures
• make and use a compress

MATERIALS

Note to teacher: You will need to obtain ahead of time the chamomile plant or another herb. If you cannot get chamomile, you can substitute another herb (such as a mint) that would taste good as a tea.

BACKGROUND

Students will make a tea recipe and a compress. While there are many different types of herbs from which to make tea, the recipe below uses chamomile.

The chamomile flower can be used as an herb or spice. A topical salve (an ointment that soothes or heals) made from the flowers is a traditional remedy for treating hemorrhoids and wounds. Fresh and dried chamomile flowers are used as a bath additive, in compresses, and as a calming tea (see recipe below). This tea has been used worldwide by mothers to relieve their babies' painful colic. Other traditional remedies of this flower tea help relax the bowels and relieve cramps, irritability, and inflammation (Hobbs, p. 70).

OPENING

Homework from previous lesson: students should have brought in at least two items from home made from plants. Start this lesson with a discussion of what they have brought from home.

Display chamomile flower. Ask, "Would you drink this plant?" Tell students they are going to learn how to use plants to heal.

PROCEDURE

1. Ask students, "Have you heard of the expression, 'Take two aspirins and call me in the morning'?"
2. Explain that today's lesson is "Take two herbs and call me in the morning."
3. Ask students what they take when they are sick. (Solicit responses such as drinking tea and having a cool, wet cloth on their forehead to help reduce fever.)
4. Explain that today they will make an herbal tea and a compress (a soft pad of gauze or other material moistened with water or medication to alleviate pain or reduce infection).
5. Explain that teas are one of the oldest and easiest ways to take herbal medicines. "Infusions" and "decoctions" are other names for herbal teas. Infusions usually are extracted from fragile leaves and flowers, while decoctions use more heat and require more time to obtain the medicine from the woody part of the plants.
6. Follow instructions for making chamomile tea and a compress:

   Recipe for Chamomile Tea: A Basic Infusion

   • 3 tablespoons (45 ml) dried chamomile flowers OR 5 tablespoons (75ml) of fresh flowers
   • 3 cups water (711 ml)
   • Bring water to a boil and remove from heat. Add flowers and cover and steep for 15-20 minutes. Take the flowers out. When cool, store in refrigerator.
   • Save some of the chamomile tea to show how compresses are still made. Herbal tea compresses are used to heal wounds, rashes, and skin infections.

   Directions for Making a Compress with Chamomile Tea

   • A cool compress can be used to sooth sunburn or a skin rash.
   • Take a clean linen, cotton, or gauze cloth and soak in strong tea. Fold the cloth to size and apply to affected area. A cool compress soothes itching and burning pain, while a warm compress is good for aches and infections (Hobbs, p. 89).

The Euro-American rationale of the compress: the herb was thought to draw the poisons/impurities to the surface so they could be eliminated.

Note: If the students really enjoy making herbal remedies, students could research other simple remedies and make them at home or in school. Another simple activity would be to have students crush lavender using a mortar and pestle. Have students place the crushed herb in a small square of cotton (4 x 4 inches). Tie up with string. Students can sniff the lavender and use it as a "headache pillow."

CLOSING

Note that the single most widely used medicine today— aspirin—comes from the bark of the white willow tree and was first discovered by American Indians.

SUGGESTED FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

To be assigned as homework: look up a plant in your region of the country that has curing properties. Write a brief explanation of it. Draw a picture of it and label it.

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