The Teaching of Wellness – PRIME Instructional Activities and Strategies #3

This post continues the series focusing on teaching and integrating wellness into the culture of our classes. These prime activities and strategies work for the teaching of all the character strengths. They are designed for elementary school but they can be adapted for MS and HS.

• Personal Wellness Plan – Adapt this wellness plan template with language and strategies that work best for your students. Look to have your students connect their plan to their portfolio. Then use the portfolio during the course of the school year to build in self-reflection writing times for the students to report on how they are doing in implementing their plan.
• Shadow Side (Overuse) – There are times when we can overuse our strengths. There are definite shadow sides to some of the strengths. An example is when one can be too proactive always thinking about and planning for the future. This can lead to being less present which leads to missing out on opportunities for spontaneity. This concept needs to be unpacked and clearly taught for the developmental stage of understanding for our students.
• Wellness Profile – We often start the school year with students completing an “All About Me” graphic profile organizer. Look to include a section in their profiles for who they are in terms of their character strengths within each PERMAH pillar. An end of the year reflection activity is to have your students rewrite their wellness profile. Include a written reflection section in which they explain how their profile changed over the school year. They should include specific examples of actions taken on their part. Possibly include time for students to choose one or more PERMAH pillars in which they really engaged with to share out to the class. This information could be passed on to the following year’s teachers to further their understanding of their new students.

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