Practicing Wellness: Book Creator Activity

Activity Objectives

Students will share strategies for practicing kindness toward themselves, especially during difficult situations
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Through this activity, students will learn about how they can support their classmates’ well-being and treat them with care and understanding

This activity supports the development of the following social-emotional skills: relationship skills, responsible decision-making, self-awareness, and social awareness.

Discuss

Engage students in a classroom discussion around the importance of practicing kindness to ourselves. This means that we treat ourselves with care and understanding, and approach our personal, social, and emotional well-being with a positive and patient attitude!

Practicing kindness to ourselves might include:

Building more meaningful friendships by sharing about ourselves with others (e.g., our personality, hopes, dreams, values, and achievements) and learning about others in return
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Practicing gratitude by noticing things that we are thankful for, and acknowledging the people who support and inspire us
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Expressing our feelings in productive ways, and building healthy strategies for managing emotions like frustration, anger, and sadness
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Reaching out when we need help and support from others
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Taking time for reflection, self-care, and physical exercise
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Setting goals for ourselves
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Giving ourselves a judgment-free space to grow, take brave actions, and learn from our mistakes

You might ask students:

What are some ways that you currently show kindness to yourself?
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What is something new that you want to try in the future?
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Can you share about a time recently when you have felt frustrated or upset? How did you manage the situation? What are some ways that your classmates could help you when you feel this way?
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What did you learn about your classmates from their responses? How can you support their well-being based on what they shared?

Create

Invite students to create their own “wellness” book with Book Creator! Students will use a template to add strategies and actions for practicing kindness to themselves. Throughout the school year, when students encounter difficult situations or emotions, they can use their book to remind themselves of healthy well-being practices, and support their classmates’ well-being too!

To create these books, follow the instructions below:

Sign up for a free Book Creator account (if you don’t have one already).
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Navigate to your Teacher Dashboard and add a new library for your class.
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Go to the SEL templates web page and choose the template appropriate for your students’ age. Click on "Remix" to add it to your own library.
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Invite students to join your library using the code provided.
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Students can create a copy of the template in your library, and add their own ideas to their copy. Students can upload photos and videos, record audio, add text, draw, and more directly on the platform.

Book Creator

‍Once students create their books, publish them online! Share the links for your students’ books with your Empatico partner class, and facilitate a live virtual exchange to invite students to discuss how they practice (or want to practice!) kindness to themselves.

Encourage students to share their thoughts and ideas, stories about practicing different strategies, and learn from (and about) each other. How do students approach their well-being in similar ways? What are some different strategies that they can learn from each other?

Empatico Exchange