Health and Wellness

What is Health and Wellness?

Wellness is often described as the measure of a person’s mental and physical health to characterize their overall well-being (GoodTherapy, 2015).  This means that to keep the health and wellness of our students in the forefront of our minds and actions will be important in our classrooms.  How could we expect to educate a whole student if their overall well-being is not attended to first?  We know from decades of research that a student cannot even engage in learning if some basic and psychological needs are not met (Burton, 2012).  A focus on wellness can allow learners to have these deficiency needs met and real learning to occur.

Depending upon the source there are six to nine types or dimensions of wellness that we can consider when designing our classrooms and the lessons we teach.  According to Madeline Weilgus (2016) there are eight that we can use to guide our strategies for keeping students healthy and well.  To help she has created the great Wellness Wheel infographic below.

Here are some ideas for each of the dimensions of wellness that we could use in our classrooms.

Physical Wellness 

Take time often in class to do short physical brain breaks or movement videos.  There is a strong connection between movement and cognition (Jensen, 2005).  You can have students set their smart goals by miming or acting them out to a recorder or even just take a walk.  You can also include drama or role play into your class day to connect movement to material or play small games like tossing a ball to practice spelling or vocabulary (Jensen, 2005).   Also consider taking time for snacks and make sure all your students are getting the food they need.

Here are some physical wellness links:

• GoNoodle - Online movement and brain break videos.

• Playworks Game Library - Large selection of physical activities for kids including social distancing safe games.

• Choose My Plate for Kids - USDA website on nutrition for kids with games and activities.

Emotional Wellness

The key to emotional wellness is naming your feelings.  Naming and expressing your feelings tends to diffuse their power and lessen the burden they can create for you.  In other words “Name it to tame it” (Schwartz, 2015, para. 11).  Taking time in class to talk about emotions and work through them may be tough, but worth it in the long run.  Maybe a chart can help for students that have a hard time with this or are constantly angry or upset.  Teachers can also model the behavior by telling students when they are feeling something as well.

Here are some emotional wellness links:

• Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) - Tiered framework for positive behavior at school.

• Track Student Emotions with Closegap - app that allows students to check in daily with emotions and charts the feelings over time.

• Tame Reactive Emotions by Naming Them by Mitch Abblett (2019).

Spiritual Wellness

A great way to support your student’s spiritual wellness is to ask them big questions.  Wiggins and McTighe (2006) would probably call them essential questions, but helping students to contemplate big subjects with no real answers can be invaluable.  Also, including project based learning in connection to volunteering would be a great step for students (Weilgus, 2016).

Here are some spiritual wellness links:

• The Case for Discussing Spirituality in Schools by Vicki Zakrzewski (2013).

• Yoga Calm - Training program for youth focused yoga practice.

• Divine Theater and Dance - Workshop template for using dance and theater for spiritual insight.

Social Wellness

In general this means forming and cultivating healthy relationships (Weilgus, 2016).  Allowing students time to make connections and friendships will be of great importance for this to happen.  In addition, consider using classroom covenants to set ground rules and restorative justice techniques to teach students how to repair relationships.

Here are some social wellness links:

• Building Positive Relationships with Young Children by Gail E. Joseph, Ph.D., & Phillip S. Strain, Ph.D (2010).

• 52 Essential Conversations for relationships - Article and link to a “go fish” deck of essential questions to ask students.

• Children explain how you make Friends - Video with some tips from kid to kids on making friends.

Intellectual Wellness

This is what teachers do best!  Making students into life-long learners by differentiating material so that each student can find their zone of proximal development or their Goldilocks Zone should be incorporated into our lessons (Anderson, 2016).  Keep challenging students to do just a little more than they thought they could do.

Here are some intellectual wellness links:

• What Is Differentiated Instruction? by Carol Ann Tomlinson (2000).

• How to spark your curiosity, scientifically - Video by Nadya Mason

• Zone of Proximal Development and Engagement - Seen below.

Environmental Wellness

We can live sustainably in our classrooms as well.  Make your space a place your students want to be to increase their environmental wellness. When you are setting up your room, consider how and where students will sit and participate.  Also consider learning outside or in the spaces you're learning about if possible.

Here are some environmental wellness links:

• 12 Ways to Upgrade Your Classroom Design by Jennifer Gonzales (2018).

• Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK) - an inclusive non-profit organization that develops inspired and responsible leaders through science education and outdoor experiences for underserved, urban youth ages 5-25.

• Lessons on Environmental Sustainability - Lesson ideas from Arizona State Sustainability Teachers’ Academy team.

Occupational / Financial Wellness

Although this is more geared toward adult wellness, exploring your likes, dislikes, talents, and downfalls through trying new jobs is something you can do in your classroom.  Have students try out new jobs or institute a classroom economy where students get paid for cleaning or even teaching.  Try producing a video each month and editing it with online video software like WeVideo.  Some students can write, some can act, and some can be backstage.  Trying new jobs will be fun and help students to be curious about future life and goals.

Here are some occupational / financial wellness links:

• Financial Literacy for Elementary Students - Free lessons on financial issues.

• Business Games for Kids - List of games and apps for kids to learn about money and jobs.

• Jobs and Occupations ESL Game - Vocabulary game that introduces any student to jobs.

References

Abblett, M. (2019, September 25). Tame Reactive Emotions by Naming Them. Mindful. Retrieved from https://www.mindful.org/labels-help-tame-reactive-emotions-naming/

Anderson, J. (2018, September 10). The Power of Conversation. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Retrieved from https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/18/09/power-conversation

Anderson, M. (2016). Chapter 1. The Key Benefits of Choice. In Learning to Choose, Choosing to Learn. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/116015/chapters/The-Key-Benefits-of-Choice.aspx

Arizona State University. (2020, February 11). Teacher Resources. Retrieved from https://sustainability.asu.edu/sustainabilitysolutions/programs/teachersacademy/teacher-resources/

Burton, N., M.D. (2012, May 23). Our Hierarchy of Needs. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201205/our-hierarchy-needs

Closegap. (n.d.). Daily Emotional Wellness for Kids. Retrieved from https://www.closegap.org/

Davis, M. (2015). Divine Theater and Dance. Retrieved from https://divinetheateranddance.com/

Environmental Learning for Kids. (n.d.). ELK. Retrieved from http://www.elkkids.org/

Games4ESL. (2020, July 23). Jobs And Occupations: Fun English Vocabulary Game. Retrieved from https://games4esl.com/esl-classroom-games/jobs-and-occupations-vocabulary/

GoNoodle. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved from https://www.gonoodle.com/

Gonzalez, J. (2018, March 18). 12 Ways to Upgrade Your Classroom Design [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/upgrade-classroom-design/

GoodTherapy. (2015, August 28). Wellness [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/what-is-wellness

Gupta, P. (2017, March 23). Business Games for Kids Every Parent Must Explore. EdTech Review. Retrieved from https://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/trends/2707-business-games-for-kids

Jensen, E. (2005). Chapter 4. Movement and Learning. In Teaching with the Brain in Mind, 2nd Edition. ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104013/chapters/Movement-and-Learning.aspx

Joseph, G. E., Ph.D., & Strain, P. S., Ph.D. (2010, February). Building Positive Relationships with Young Children. Retrieved http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/modules/module1/handout5.pdf

Joy, D. (2020, March 26). Financial Literacy for Kids: Lesson Plans for Elementary Students. Retrieved from https://www.incharge.org/financial-literacy/resources-for-teachers/financial-literacy-for-kids/

Playworks. (n.d.). Games Archive. Retrieved from https://www.playworks.org/game-library/

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). (n.d.). Tiered Framework. Retrieved from https://www.pbis.org/pbis/tiered-framework

Schwartz, T. (2015, April 3). The Importance of Naming Your Emotions. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/business/dealbook/the-importance-of-naming-your-emotions.html#:~:text=Noticing and naming emotions gives,even the most difficult emotions.

SWNS Digital. (2018, August 30). Children explain how you make Friends [video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qu2cQnULjE

Tacchini, J., Paul, I., Rosenbloom, D. J., Olson, C., & Gillen, L. (2020, April 04). Yoga for Kids: Yoga Teacher Training: Mindfulness Meditation. Retrieved from https://www.yogacalm.org/

Ted Talks. (2020, May 7). How to spark your curiosity, scientifically [video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMDVTZ-ycaY

Tomlinson, C. A. (2000, August). What Is Differentiated Instruction? Reading Rockets. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-differentiated-instruction

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). (n.d.). Kids. Retrieved from https://www.choosemyplate.gov/browse-by-audience/view-all-audiences/children/kids

Wielgus, M. (2016, October 5). The Types of Wellness. Seattle Pacific University Blog. Retrieved from https://digitalobby.spu.edu/wellness/2016/10/05/the-types-of-wellness/

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2006). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Zakrzewski, V. (2013, January 8). The case for discussing spirituality in schools. Greater Good Magazine. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_discuss_spirituality_in_school

Image Attributions

Health and Wellness image “wellness” by Adrien Coquet from the Noun Project.