If you don't know Arthur, he's an eight-year-old aardvark and the star of an animated series on PBS. The series has a substantial educational outreach program for librarians, teachers, community centers, and families. Two of the lesson plans are ‘All About Asthma’ and ‘Binky Goes Nuts: Understanding Peanut Allergies.’

Buster, Arthur's cartoon rabbit friend, offers the following asthma tips:

1. Ask people not to smoke around you or in your house so you don't have to breathe in their secondhand smoke.

2. Wash your sheets, blankets, and stuffed toys often to help keep dust mites away.

3. Keep your pets off furniture and out of rooms where you sleep. Down, Pal, down!

4. Help keep things clean and dry around the house to stop mold from growing. Yuck!

5. If you spill food, be sure to clean it up, because pests like cockroaches love food! (Cool! I've got something in common with a cockroach.)

6. Since plain ol' dust gets me every time, my mom makes sure to dust and vacuum the house pretty often.

Approved by the Food Allergy & Anaphlyaxis Network, the peanut allergy lesson plan revolves around Arthur's friend Binky, who discovers he has a peanut allergy.

Binky says:

1. I'm allergic to peanuts. If I eat anything with peanuts in it, I get very sick. So I always read food labels really carefully!

2. To be safe, I bring my own food to school. When my friends pack peanut-free lunches, they can eat at the peanut-free table with me.

3. I'm a tough kid, but even tough kids need help from their pals. My friends wash their hands after they eat, help me watch out for peanuts, and know how to get help if I need it.

4. I'm still the same old Binky. I just know a whole lot about peanut allergies now. That's good, because the more you know, the easier it is to stay safe and get back to having fun.

See Arthur's Health Lesson Plans for more tips, activities, and information about asthma, peanut allergies, and other topics.