Part 1:

Hey all you 6th graders! So you just learned about the Wellness Wheel and the four main areas of our health: Physical, Social, Emotional and Mental. You also learned that you are at your best when these four areas are at healthy balance. But sometimes knowing actually HOW to maintain balance in these four areas can be tricky!

First go through and look at Blue Zone Slideshows from the National Geographic.

After you are done looking through slideshows…

As you are looking at the pictures and reading the captions of the pictures, write down any FIERCE WONDERINGS about what you’re seeing on post its.

• What are you wondering about while looking at the pictures?
• Do you have any questions about what you see?
• What do you notice about the pictures?

Give them about 15 minutes or so to look through the pictures and write down their wonderings.

Come back together as a group and have them bring their post its up to the FIERCE WONDERINGS chart paper and stick theirs up. Have a discussion about this.

Part 2

This is where you come in. We need your help. I know you just saw the slideshows and pictures of people living in BLUE ZONES. It’s crazy! People can’t stop talking about these places and we heard people who live in Blue Zones are special for some reason but we have yet to find out why. For some reason, I think the information we learn about blue zones could help us in some way. So let’s find out more about these BLUE ZONES!!!!

Begin your travels to the Blue Zones by Clicking this link:  Blue Zones Project-Word.

Next, please go to my blog: https://teachinghealthandhappiness.com/

Show them my latest post and read to them the paragraph about Blue Zones. Show them where to get their research sheet, open the link and go over the questions with them. Have them open and save this document in their Health folders.

Begin the research on Blue Zones!

Day 2: Research continues on the Blue Zones…

Next Steps:

PART 3: Setting your Goals

1. Find someone who has the opposite character strengths as you to team up with (this way you can learn from each other!)
2. Write four SMART goals, one for each side of your Wellness Wheel – physical, mental, emotional and social. Make sure your goal is action-based, not circumstance-based. If you’re having a hard time finding goals, remember what we learned from the Blue Zones, and set some based on the strengths you’d like to improve.
3. Type them on the bottom of your Blue Zones research questions.
4. Check your goals with your partner to make sure they’re SMART ones.
5. Check your goals with me for final approval and any tweaking.
6. Print!!

Part 4: The Podcast Interview

1. Write a script with your partner. You need to make sure you include all four of your goals, as well as which side of the Wellness Wheel they’re covering. Don;t forget to make your podcast entertaining and to let your individual strengths shine through!

2. Record your podcast. Using whichever voice recording program you feel most comfortable with, record your interview. It shouldn’t be more than five minutes long in total.

3. Export to a sound file and put it in my inbox on the server.

Good luck and have fun!!