We speak a lot about mental health and wellbeing in education, especially post- pandemic, and Healthy Start is a great way to foster this. The Healthy Start project was essentially inspired by the Health Curriculum expectation related to the: use of strategies for relieving stress, caring for their mental health and/or promoting their overall health. As with all of my Building Outside the Blocks projects (BOBs), this helps students develop several learning and curricular skills while also helping them build onto their well being tool kit. The project centres around the idea that students have to choose something they want to stop or start doing that will contribute to their positive mental, physical, social-emotional or spiritual well being. I’ve facilitated this BOB project 4 times over the last 6 years, and each time I adjust it for the grade level and who is in the room. This year, I used this Health project along with a Personal Fitness unit in PhysEd.
In essence, the project teaches students about goal setting through a low risk, high yielding project that allows them to track their journey towards their goal in whatever way they choose. This year, students recorded reflections on their 21 day journey in their Mindful Morning journal, as a podcast using Soundcloud, or through Flip. I have been teaching intermediate for many years, so it was interesting to see so many parents involved when executing this project for the Junior students in my 4/5 split. All of my BOBs work well with split classes because the same frame of project can have different expectations by grade level. Student work and feedback is always my gauge for the success of anything we do in class, and this project was no exception.
Some of the goals my students chose:
Less screen time
Eating more fruits and vegetables
Going for daily walks in the woods
Walking their dog more often
Getting more sleep
Not biting their nails
Eating less sugar
Learn to meditate
Doing yoga
Improving running time
Improve basketball skills
Strengthen
Daily workouts
Tracking steps
Go up a belt in karate
Become more active
Feel better
Strategies to manage and reduce stress
Some of their takeaways:
“Healthy makes you happy.”- Lea
“I’m so proud of myself.”- Aiden
“I learned to eat so many new foods and I feel good.”- Emelia
“My goal was to stop nibbling my nails. I had this bad habit for a very long time and finally I can now see my beautiful fully grown nails. I still haven’t yet come out of it fully. Now even though I feel good about it I still try to improve. My mom and Dad were indeed very happy and so am I.” - Akash
“I think I’ve grown stronger and I slept better because of all the steps I’ve done.” -Sophia
Student reflections showed that many students met their goals and many did not. That’s important. Success is not the only outcome, and there is a lot to learn from from this. Meeting the goal is actually secondary to what students discover about themselves through the process. In their final reflections, the students were asked to share to what degree they attained their goal, what they learned from the project, and how they would change it if they had the chance to do it again. Some of the best and juiciest learning came out of those answers. The enduring understanding that I believe most of my students walked away with is that good health and well being is attainable and, with goal setting skills and developing habits of mind and action, they can do hard things. One of the parents even shared that she wished she had learned these skills earlier in life and that it would have been cool to have invited whole families to do it together. I’m considering it. There is a lot of power in authentic projects that help students building skill, autonomy, community and connection to themselves and others. Healthy Start is one of them.
Read more about Healthy Start.
All of my Building Outside the Blocks projects (BOBs) begin by asking students about what lights them up related to the umbrella goal of the project. At the same time, I use a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) when creating them so that all of my learners can be a part of them. They are naturally differentiated and personalizing. My projects contribute to our class community as BOBs are a part of the culture. I am in the middle of our 5th BOB this year: What's in a Name (WIN), Master Storyteller 1, 2 and 3 (in progress). What's coming up? The Personal Playlist Project and Snapshot. Learn more about all of my projects and initiatives through my website.
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