Healthy Living
July, 2019
A colleague and I spent most of our summer working as Educators in a summer camp; we planned our lessons to work in both our own classrooms and together with all of our students. He taught the early years (rising JK- rising gr. 2) and I taught the primary/junior level students (rising gr.3 – rising gr. 6) . Our first semester was spent exploring the theme of Healthy Living. Fortunately for me, my colleague studied Kinesiology.
During this 3-week period, we taught students to be conscious of their health. We focused our learning on keeping a healthy body, healthy mind, and healthy relationships.
Working alongside my fellow teacher gave me insights on the value of teaching health. We discussed a variety of important subjects: exercise, on thinking positively, and in thinking about what we say to others. Not only did his passion in health science brought forth an appreciation for teaching about health, but the student responses to these topics were surprisingly productive.
For example, we discussed our relationship with plants. After prompting my students with questions on we interact with plants on a daily basis, the camp altogether came up with ways we could protect our plants. After giving students the task of building their own plant pots out of clay and painting them, the students were proactive in making sure the plants had what they needed. They asked about getting fresh soil from outside, watering them regularly, and keeping them in sunlight. When students were given the responsibility in caring for the plants, they always went out of their way to keep it healthy. This opportunity helped me see healthy living as a practical and crucial teaching subject that shouldn’t be compromised for core subjects.
Freedom = Accountability
In the preceeding paragraph, I mentioned giving students freedom. By freedom, I mean that students should be given options to choose from. In the above artifact, students set out to make dioramas of ecosystems. They first chose an animal given to them from the following group of ecosystems: rainforest, ocean, desert, tundra, and grassland. Then, students decided how they were going to create a diorama that represented the animal living in its natural habitat.
The process of making the diorama was organized in a way that the students did similar things at the same time:
1. Make the animal out of clay
2. Paint the container in the colour of the ecosystem (tundra would have cloud-like colours, whereas the desert would have a golden-yellow touch).
3. Fill the container with materials found in the ecosystem it represents (sand for the desert, salt as snow for tundras, pebbles for the ocean floor, etc.)
Each individual student were immersed in their task. They double-checked their ecosystem to ensure their representation was accurate; they also brought in materials from home (e.g., fake plants); and each of them were detail-oriented.
When given freedom, students don’t worry about doing enough. With freedom, students tend to become accountable in accomplishing their task to the best of their ability, which I learned leads to some amazing work on their part.
