Health Skills Learning Station Activity - An Introduction to the SHAPE America Health Standards
This interactive learning station activity is an easy and fun way to introduce students to the SHAPE America health skills. It’s perfect for the first day of class, a teaching idea for health teachers.
This health skills learning station activity was a hit with my health students. Students enjoyed working in pairs and exploring the eight health skills along with their corresponding skill cues. When they were done, they had a deeper understanding and awareness of how the SHAPE American health standards related to their lives. Let’s check out how the health skills learning adventure worked!
Table of Contents
What are the Health Skills?
To give some context on what this learning station activity is all about, let’s take a quick look at the health skills outlined in the SHAPE America National Health Education Standards:
SHAPE America Standard #1: Build & Apply Knowledge
SHAPE America Standard #2: Analyzing Influences
SHAPE America Standard #3: Access Resources
SHAPE America Standard #4: Interpersonal Communication
SHAPE America Standard #5: Decision Making
SHAPE America Standard #6: Goal Setting
SHAPE America Standard #7: Self-Management
SHAPE America Standard #8: Advocacy
These skills are essentially the “tools” in our life toolbox needed to manage our well-being. Each station in the activity highlights one of these health skills and the corresponding skill cue. Let’s also quickly explore the definition of health skill cues.
What is a Health Skill Cue?
A health skill cue is a step-by-step process for practicing each health skill in real life. Each of Project School Wellness’s signature skill cues features an action word or phrase and related directives to follow. The hope is that between the action word/phase and the acronym steps, students will be able to quickly recall how to perform each health skill.
For example, here are the SCAN skill cues for analyzing influences. “Scan” is the action word, and here’s the corresponding acronym:
S - Situation - Identify a health situation in your life to analyze (i.e. an element of the B.E.S.T. Model).
C - Core Influences - Make a list of the core influences impacting this aspect of your life.
A - Analyzing - Assess if the influence is positively or negatively impacting the scenario you outlined in Step 1.
N - Now, what? - Create a plan of action for how you will navigate each influence by setting boundaries and/or behavioral expectations for yourself.
During these learning adventures, students are introduced to the skill cues for each of the SHAPE America health skills and have a brief challenge to examine.
Let’s take a look at how the activity works.
Health Skills Learning Station Activity Set Up
The setup for the health skills learning station activity is pretty simple. You’re basically just placing papers around the classroom. Here are the setup directions:
Print and cut student worksheets (each per pair/group needs one)
Print the decoding key or display it on a screen
Print the activity stations and place them around the classroom
Optional: You can laminate each station poster or place it in a sheet protector.
Once it’s all set up, you’re ready for students to start the interactive lesson plan.
Health Skills Learning Station Activity Student Directions
Once students are divided into pairs/small groups, they’ll each choose a different poster to start at and begin:
Step 1: Read the title and skill cues.
Students will begin each station by reading the first two boxes: the title and the skill cues.
Step 2: Read the scenario and learning task prompt.
Next, students will read the scenario and the learning task prompt. They will need to examine the skill cues and do a little inferring to identify the correct answer.
Step 3: Write down the correct answer on the worksheet.
As each pair/group identifies the correct answer, they will write the answer down on their worksheet. Then, they will search for the poster that has the answer they just wrote down in the bottom right corner (in a star with an emoji).
Step 4: Find the poster that lists the correct answer in the corner. Once they find it, circle the emoji that corresponds to the answer.
Once students find the correct poster (with the answer from the previous poster in the bottom right corner), they will circle the emoji beneath the answer. And now this new poster is the station they’re working at.
Step 5: Now repeat the process on the next poster (the one with the answer from the previous poster).
Students will repeat the process until they’ve gone to each of the ten stations.
Step 6: Decode the secret message.
After students have gone to each health skill station, they will use the decoding key to unlock a secret message.
Learning Station Debrief
When students have completed the learning adventure, come together as a class to debrief and then reflect. To debrief, review each of the eight health skills:
SHAPE America Standard #1: Build & Apply Knowledge
SHAPE America Standard #2: Analyzing Influences
SHAPE America Standard #3: Access Resources
SHAPE America Standard #4: Interpersonal Communication
SHAPE America Standard #5: Decision Making
SHAPE America Standard #6: Goal Setting
SHAPE America Standard #7: Self-Management
SHAPE America Standard #8: Advocacy
Reflection Prompts
After the debrief, here are a few of the prompts I used to reflect with the students:
Which health skill were you surprised to see on the list?
Which health skill have you used today?
Which health skill is most challenging for you?
When they were done discussing, I wrapped up the activity by reminding students that the health skills are the tools we use to build a happy, thriving life.