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”!
