Short description of the session: 

Workshop on body positivity!

With the aim of promoting group cohesion and an atmosphere of confidence among students, and especially to improve their self-esteem, well-being and gain confidence by focusing on their qualities, this session is designed to create a meaningful and positive experience through a kind of “workshop” consisting of three activities that will help them to rediscover some aspects of their personality. 

Related to the project, this activity will come in handy when thinking about the message they want to give in their commercial

 

Materials needed:

1) Video: students are going to watch a video(1) through TubeQuizard in order to practice listening and writing. 

Purpose: worrying about body image is a natural part of growing up, especially during puberty, since the body goes through a lot of changes. Sometimes this can be overwhelming, and pre-adolescents may notice that they don’t like everything about the way they look all of the time. This 

Allotted time: 20’

Grouping: whole group

Verification: Teachers inquiries 

 

2) Mirror: Children seat in the circle and the teacher explains that they will pass around a small box [in which there is mirror] and open it individually. As it is a surprise, they cannot say anything about what they see inside, but they need to think about how they feel and why they think there was that person inside. Before starting, this is a sample of what the teacher might say to spark further debate:

“Now I am going to show a box one by one and nobody can say that there is inside. You will open it in silence and we will wait until everyone has got their turn. I am going to give you some clues to see if you can guess. But watch out!  You can’t say anything!

Inside there is a very important person, the most important of your life. S/he is a beautiful and worthy person that has many qualities and strengths. You will discover someone who is loved by many of you…”            

Purpose: To create a safe environment in order to develop emotional competence and boost own body image

Allotted time: 15’

Grouping: whole group

Verification: short discussion led by the teacher focusing on how they felt, what they expected, what they thought their classmates were looking inside the box.

 

3) “I see [STUDENT] as…”: Each student is given a set of stickers with suggested positive adjectives but they can also propose their own (and use online dictionaries, if needed). Each student writes their name on a sheet of paper and the sentence “I see [student’s name] as”. Then, while sitting on a circle, pupils pass around the paper and each one sticks a good quality that relates to this classmate. 

Purpose: to reduce appearance-focused conversations and promote group cohesion as well as self-esteem.

Allotted time: 20’

Grouping: whole group

Verification: Students receive their sheets and read through. They should comment at least one surprising comment.

 

 

Closure:

Using pallet, students post key ideas of what they learned and if possible they propose catching sentences for their final advertisement, or thoughts about the message they want to give, based on what they experienced.

 

 

1. AMAZED.Org (2016). Bodies: “Different Shapes and Sizes. All Beautiful!” Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcy_VQZG5Dg