The Tikkun Project
Understanding Wellbeing
Add a Title
Understanding Wellbeing
Goals
- Health & Phys-Ed (A1.1): Use self-awareness and self-monitoring skills to help them understand their health and well-being.
Social Studies (B1.1): Describe some of the ways in which people’s needs are met by the community.
Thinking and Learning Skills
- Thinking (Critical Thinking):
Communication (Non-Verbal):
Concept
Lesson Outline
The Wellbeing Barometer
Explain that "Wellbeing" has three parts:
Body (physical),
Brain (readiness/calm), and
Heart (emotions/belonging)
Feeling great means that our bodies, brains and hearts all feel good.
Make a tape line on the ground and explain that one end represents "Feeling Terrible," the other represents "Feeling Great."
Ask students to stand on the line to show how they are feeling today.
Ask students to explain why they chose to stand where they did. Prompt questions might include:
"Why are you standing there?"
"How do your body, brain and heart feel?"
Observation: Note which students can articulate a reason for their placement on the line.
Are they connecting their position to a physical feeling (Body), an emotion (Heart), or a thought (Brain)?
Introducing the Core Text
Introduce Ve’ahavta L’reyacha Kamocha with gestures:
"Love" (hands on heart)
"your neighbor" (point to friend)
"like yourself" (hug self).
Tell students: "We are going to become world-repairers and show care for others, and to do that, we need to know what helps people feel well. To learn more about what helps people feel well, we are going to make a list of the things we do at home to keep our bodies, brains, and hearts feeling good.
Ask students to list things that:
Help their bodies feel healthy
Help their brains feel ready for learning
Help their hearts feel happy
Record student responses in a chart with three sections (Body, Brain, Heart)
Homework:
Distrubute the "My Wellbeing Tool Kit" and explain to the students, "Your first job is to go home and interview your experts (your family)".
Critical Challenge Note
This lesson identifies the criteria that students will use to define well-being and asks them to demonstrate their understanding by explaining how they feel on a continuum from not well to great.
Assessment
Are students able to explain how certain actions can help more than one aspect of well-being?
How effectively can students justify their opinion about the well-being of themselves or others using specific observations?
How effectively can students use gestures to translate the Hebrew core text?