What I Taught This Week - The BEST Model & Vision Board
Let’s take a look at what I taught in health class this week for preschool, elementary, and high school health:
Table of Contents:
This week, we continued to examine the BEST Model in an effort to help students build a strong health ed foundation. As the school year starts, the goal is to introduce and reinforce the understanding that health is multidimensional. It isn’t just about what you eat and how you move your body. If all they learn in the first few weeks is that being “healthy” encompasses our entire being, I’ll be happy!
Let’s dive in!
Preschool Health Class
After doing a craft last week, this week we kept it simple with a book. Together, we read “Elephants Can’t Dance” by Mo Willems. The emphasis was on trying new things:) When the book was done, they were all more than happy to tell me about different times they’ve tried something new!
Elementary Health Class
Next up, elementary health. Here’s a look at what I taught with my elementary students this week:
BEST Model Fortune Teller / Cootie Catcher - Free Access for Members
BEST Healthy Habit Sort - Free Access for Members
Elementary health class kicked off with a fun fortune teller activity. This one was all about the BEST Model and featured discussion prompts related to each dimension of health. I forgot my dice again 🤦🏻♀️, so they just picked random numbers.
BEST Model Cootie Catch - Free Access for Members
Next, we came together for a brief circle time to examine what it means to be healthy. I proposed the question, “What does it mean to be healthy?”, and asked students to share. After hearing their thoughts, I introduced the next activity: BEST Healthy Habit Sort.
Healthy Habits Sort - Free Access for Members
For the BEST Healthy Habit Sort, students started by drawing a grid in their health composition books and labeled each section: Body, Environment, Self, and (Social) Ties (I also had some just put B, E, S, T to make it easier). Then, they took their healthy habit sheet and cut out each habit. Next, they sorted the habits into the correct grid and glued them down.
Teaching Note: For a few kids, this task was a little too complicated. So you could definitely have students do this in pairs and skip the gluing down part. I had them glue it down into their health notebooks so they could reference it later on, but that’s not necessary. Another option would be to do it under a document cam. Ultimately, the goal was for students to be able to identify healthy habits that they could put on their cootie catcher, and there are a number of ways you achieve this goal.
Blank BEST Model Cootie Catcher - Free Access for Members
After they sorted the habits, students were very excited to create their own BEST Model Cootie Catcher. Looking through the habits in their notebook, they selected two for each BEST letter that they could realistically do at home. Then wrote (or drew) them on the blank cootie catcher. The goal is for them to take their cootie catchers home and use them to reinforce healthy habits related to the BEST dimensions of health.
They really enjoyed this activity, and once they were done, students had classmates use theirs. It was fun! The only issue was that the folding was a bit too hard for most of them to do independently.
Middle School Health Class
Middle School didn’t have health class this week:)
High School Health Class
Here’s what I taught in high school health class this week:
BEST Model Cootie Catcher - Free Access for Members
Identity Tree (Your Identity Lesson Plan) - Free Access for Members
Vision Board Questionnaire - Free Access for Members
What’s BEST? - Decision-Making Skill Cue printable - Free Access for Members
High school health kicked off in the same way as elementary and middle school with a cootie catcher. There are two versions of the cootie catcher, one for elementary and one for middle and high school. After this entry task, we checked their Daily BEST check-in sheet.
Daily BEST Check-In - Free Access for Members
Their assignment last week was to do a daily check-in on their Daily BEST worksheet. So we took a few minutes to debrief and reflect on this activity. I was diligent in doing daily check-ins along with them 😜
Next up, we shifted the conversation to values and identity. The intention with this activity and the next was for students to identify what they ideally want their life to look like, essentially, I wanted them to create a health standard for their life. The goal then is for students to use the standards they set for themselves as a guide as they make and evaluate the decisions/choices in their lives. Then, hopefully, instead of being told what’s healthy or not, or what they should or shouldn’t do in terms of health choices (by the adults in their lives), they have their personal standard to reference when they decide what’s wrong or right for them.
To explore this, students did some identity exploration. Using the “Your Identity” lesson plan from our High School Health Curriculum, they examined their:
Identity - Who you are
Values - What’s important to you, what you deem to be right
Link to core values list
Beliefs - What you believe to be true
i.e. I believe everyone is good; I believe if you put goodness into the world, goodness will come back to you
The culture and community surrounding them that support their identity
Your Identity Lesson Plan - Free Access for Members
This activity was a little more challenging for students than I had anticipated. So to give students a more concrete example, I added my own identity map to the whiteboard. I started with my name in the middle, and then I listed identity traits (i.e. runner, mom, teacher, etc). Then, I identified what core values support each aspect of my identity (i.e. for runner - discipline, strength, community, joy, etc).
The example definitely helped. It also helped that I encouraged them to look up lists of common core values on their phones. As they scrolled through their lists, they were able to find values that related to their identity traits.
Your Identity Lesson Plan - Free Access for Members
Once they explored their identity and who they are now, they spent the rest of our extended class period defining who they want to be as they worked on their vision boards. To guide this activity, students began by reflecting on the provided questions. Once they had a better idea of what they envision for their BEST lives, they start making their vision boards.
I couldn’t gather any magazines before the class, so they used Canva to find relevant pictures to print.
Vision Board Questionnaire - Free Access for Members
Everyone was still working on their vision boards when I needed to wrap up class, so they will share and debrief next week. Before dismissing, they took a very quick look at the “What’s BEST?” decision-making skill cue. The hope is for students to be able to quickly check in with the BEST Model/BEST Vision Board to make and evaluate decisions. We’ll explore this more next week!
Vision Board Questionnaire - Free Access for Members
Here’s a look at my in-progress vision board:) Can you guess what some of the images on mine represent (I still need to label it)? Next time, I’ll share pictures of what the students created!
PT School Lecture
No middle school this week, but I did have a lecture at a PT school this week. We chatted about how sexual health and physical therapy intersect. And you better believe I had them do the Play-Doh reproduction system mat activity 🤪 along with a few other favs:
What is Sexual Health? Sorting Activity - Free Access for Members
Play-Doh Mat Activity: Sexual and Reproductive System - Free Access for Members
The Sexuality Gingerbread Person - Free Access for Members
Play-Doh Mat Activity: Sexual and Reproductive System - Free Access for Members
The Play-Doh activity mats were a hit; some of the participants got very creative and were making 3D models 😅. It was interesting to compare the experience of doing this Play-Doh Mat Activity with PT students versus middle and high schoolers. Even though they are studying to be experts of the body, some still benefited from the hands-on nature of this tool to reduce the awkwardness they felt about the lecture topic.
The Sexuality Gingerbread Person - Free Access for Members
This time around, I made the Sexuality Gingerbread Person puzzle a bit easier to cut out. I literally just cut the graphic with random cuts and put them in a bag.
What is Sexual Health? Sorting Activity - Free Access for Members
I also used the “What is Sexual Health?” Sorting activity with them. I love how it works with any demographic! I just adjust it to the audience. For example, with this group, after the initial sort, we spent a lot of time identifying how each element relates to the Biopsychosocial Model..
Well, that’s it for this week. It was a busy one, and a got sick:( See you next week!