Fondé P. Bridges - “Healthy Words” – Global Orchards of Inspiration Workshop.

The “Healthy Words” – Global Orchards of Inspiration Literacy Workshop Ó

Summary

The “Healthy Words” – Orchards of Inspiration is a visual arts and creative writing workshop designed to inspire, promote, and encourage the use of positive and beneficial vocabulary in the lives of young people and positively enhance class climate.  Each class will create a tree of inspiration and as they collect and label 5 leaves with “Healthy Words” each.  Participants will use a “Healthy Words” Orchards Vocabulary Builder - Worksheet. Students receive 5 blank leaves at the beginning of the session to label with a healthy word. After choosing and writing a healthy word on their leaf, they will decorate the leaf in various colors using crayon, marker, colored pencil, watercolor, etc.   Once the leaf is decorated and a healthy word is written one side of the leaf, students will place it on there classes healthy word tree.  Over the 5 sessions parents, teachers, and staff will also be encouraged to label and decorate a leaf with a healthy word as well.  Each student will also receive a “Healthy Words Vocabulary Handbook”. The “Healthy Words” – Orchards of Inspiration Project covers five healthy words, each word is a step from the “5 Healthy Word Steps to Success”. The steps are as follows:  Inspire, Desire, Inquire, Aspire, and Acquire. From the collection of all these words students will conclude each session by decorating, labeling, and placing their leaf on their classes “Healthy Words” – Orchards of Inspiration.

 Goals of “Healthy Words” – Orchards of Global literacy

            •            Provide participants a nurturing avenue to creatively express   

                 their self.

         •      Enrich, enhance, and reinforce a positive classroom environment.

            •            Build self-esteem through cultivating creative self-awareness

            •            Reinforce creative writing tools.

            •            Share, expose, explain, and utilize at least one healthy word with a    

                 child everyday.

            •            Visually create a symbol of health, positivity, and goodness, in the

                 classroom positively enhancing class climate.

            •            Develop ideas from concept to creation.

                   •     Provide every child in the workshop, an opportunity to identify and use at least five healthy words to describe them.

           

            •            Assist participants in maintaining, developing, and/or reinforcing

                               self – esteem, self – worth, and self – efficacy.

Supplies

Black Permanent Marker

Brown Paper Bag

Crayons or Paint or marker

Dictionary

Healthy Words – Worksheet

Paper (preferably) recycled

Pencil/Pen

Scissors

Tape (preferably) 2-sided

Procedures

Hand – out the “Healthy Words” Vocabulary Builder - Worksheet.  The worksheet titled  “Healthy Words” Seeds from A to Z”.  Define Inspire. The “Healthy Seeds” session encourages students to collectively assign a healthy inspirational word to each letter in the alphabet. Hand out a blank leaf to every child.  Instruct the students to decorate their leaf with various colors or one color of their choosing.  They will also label their leaf with a healthy word from their class’s alphabetical list of healthy words.  Once their leaf is labeled and decorated they will complete the session by placing their healthy word leaf on their classes “Healthy Word Tree”.

Summary

The “Healthy Words” – Orchards of Inspiration Project was developed to balance out the widespread use of negative words in children’s lives, to highlight the need for a conscious effort on the part of adults to expose, explain, and utilize at least one healthy word with a child everyday, to visually create a symbol of health, positivity, and goodness, in the classroom. To provide every child an opportunity to identify and use at least one “healthy word” when describing themselves.  To assist participants in maintaining, developing, and/or reinforcing there natural self – esteem, self – worth, and self – efficacy.  I’ve heard people say “a man is what he thinks”, well, a child deserves to think great, marvelous, and glorious ideas, this workshop provides the building blocks – “Healthy Words”

Preparation

Steps

1.    Collect enough scrap paper or recycled paper to make 5 leaves per participant, 2 leaves can usually fit on piece of paper. I use old phone book pages, personally.

2.    On your scrap paper draw to leaves per page, cut them out. Repeat until you have enough leaves to make 5 leaves per person.

3.    One brown paper bag should be sufficient enough to cut out a tree trunk.

4.    Draw a simple tree trunk on the brown bag cut it out.

5.    Print out enough worksheets for each person participating.

Created by Fondé P.  Bridges your  “Healthy Word Advocate”!