Healthy Habits
The Importance of Hydration
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Introduction - The Power of Hydration
In this activity, students explore the benefits of hydration and its impact on mood, energy, and focus. After watching a video about hydration, students discuss its importance and reflect on their own experiences with drinking enough water.
They write down how hydration benefits their body, set goals, and track their progress over a week. The activity encourages personal reflection, goal setting, and community sharing, helping students understand and promote the value of staying well-hydrated.
This week, we’re learning about how hydration can boost your mood, energy, and focus! We’ll start by watching a video filmed at one of the largest waterfalls in Iceland that shows how staying hydrated helps us feel great and think clearly. As you watch, think about times when drinking enough water has helped you feel better.
After the video, we’ll discuss why water is important for your well-being. You’ll learn how drinking enough water each day—like having a glass when you wake up, carrying a water bottle, or drinking with your meals—can improve your mood, help you stay focused, and make everyday tasks easier. We’ll also talk about how proper hydration helps carry nutrients through your body, supports muscle function, and keeps your mind sharp.
Next, write down three ways staying hydrated helps your body, like giving you energy, keeping you calm, or improving focus. Then, write down three things you’re proud of, three challenges you have now, and three goals you want to achieve, and think about how drinking enough water can help you achieve those goals.
Over the next week, aim to drink plenty of water each day, and monitor how it makes you feel. Write about your experience in your "Healthy Habits" book, and reflect on any changes in your energy, mood, or focus.
Finally, share what you've learned about hydration with your community. You could pass on your knowledge to friends, family, or even other classes at school. Let’s help others understand how important it is to stay hydrated!
Important - Download Your Healthy Habits Booklet
Over the next week, students will design a comprehensive "Healthy Habits" booklet, using a provided template to ensure everything stays organised and properly formatted. It's important that teachers emphasise the necessity of keeping all content within the safe zone (dotted line) to avoid any issues during printing. This project encourages students to express their creativity while also serving as a structured reflection of their journey toward a healthier lifestyle. The final product will be a meaningful keepsake, potentially ordered as a printed booklet, making attention to detail essential.
Over the next ten weeks, you will be working on your "Healthy Habits" booklet, focusing on various aspects of a healthy lifestyle. All the information and designs will be created by you, but we’ve provided a template to help you keep everything organised and in the right order.
Feel free to customise the colours and some of the designs to make the booklet uniquely yours, but be sure to keep all content within the safe zone (the dotted line). This is important because, once your booklet is complete, you might want to upload it to the Upschool library or order a printed copy, and we don’t want any important information to be cut off during printing.
You’ll be using this booklet each day, so make sure to download it today and return to it regularly to add your insights on different aspects of a healthy lifestyle. This booklet will be a reflection of your learning journey and a beautiful keepsake of your work on building and maintaining healthy habits.
Weekly Keywords
In this activity, students receive a task card with foundational vocabulary related to water and hydration. Their challenge is to explain each term in the simplest way possible, helping them build a strong understanding of hydration concepts. This exercise supports comprehension of how hydration affects the body and mind, laying a foundation for future discussions on maintaining a healthy and hydrated lifestyle. It encourages clear thinking and mastery of essential hydration-related terms.
On the task card provided, you’ll find a list of words related to water and hydration. Your challenge is to explain each word in the simplest way possible.
This activity will help you understand important concepts about how hydration affects your body and mind. It’s a great way to prepare for future discussions on keeping your body hydrated, healthy, and functioning at its best.
Quote of the Week - Jacques Cousteau
In this activity, students reflect on an inspirational quote by Jacques Cousteau: "We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one." They will write down or illustrate the quote and discuss its meaning, exploring the connection between water and all living things.
The activity encourages students to value and respect water resources, motivating them to stay hydrated and share this important message within their community, fostering environmental awareness and responsibility.
Each week, we will share an inspirational quote to help you understand the power of water. This week’s quote is from Jacques Cousteau:
"We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one."
Write down this quote, print it out, or create a drawing inspired by his words. After that, take some time to reflect on and discuss its meaning. Think about what it teaches us about the connection between water and all living things, and how important it is to protect and respect our water resources. Use this wisdom to stay motivated to drink enough water, appreciate its value, and share the message with your community about taking care of our planet’s water.
Design Your Information Card - The Power of Hydration
In this activity, students create an "Information Card" focusing on the benefits of hydration. They will design a visual that represents water and include key tips on staying hydrated, such as boosting energy and supporting overall health.
After creating their cards, students will share them with the community to promote hydration awareness. These cards will be added to their "Healthy Habits" booklet, encouraging creativity, self-reflection, and a deeper understanding of hydration's impact.
In this activity, your task is to create an information card that highlights the benefits of hydration. Start by designing a visual that represents water—think about using images like a flowing river, a water bottle, or a fresh glass of water. You can include anything that makes you think of staying hydrated and feeling great.
Next, come up with your own top tips or benefits of staying hydrated. You can use examples from the video, where we talked about how drinking enough water can boost energy, help focus, and support overall health by keeping your body functioning well.
Once you’ve finished, share your card with the community to help others understand the importance of staying hydrated. This will be part of your "Healthy Habits" booklet, creating a valuable collection of tips and advice on keeping your body healthy and feeling its best.
Design Your Hydration Page - 8 Ways to Stay Hydrated (7-Day Challenge)
In this activity, students independently create a "Hydration Page" in their "Healthy Habits" booklet, focusing on 8 ways to stay hydrated. They will select from suggested tips or do their own research to design a visually appealing and informative page. Over a 7-day challenge, they will monitor their hydration habits, reflect on their progress, and understand its impact on energy, mood, and focus, fostering self-responsibility and consistent hydration habits.
In this activity, your task is to create a page in your "Healthy Habits" booklet about 8 ways to stay hydrated and improve your well-being. You’ll start by looking at a list of suggested tips, such as drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning, carrying a reusable water bottle, or having water with every meal.
Using the template provided, design your very own information page on what you think are the best six ways to stay hydrated and boost your energy, mood, and focus. While you can use the template and ideas provided, it’s also important to do your own research to discover more creative and effective ways to ensure you drink enough water each day.
Think carefully about how you present your ideas—both in design and in content. Your goal is to create a page that’s informative and visually appealing, helping others understand why staying hydrated is so important for our body and mind.
When finished, this page will be added to your "Healthy Habits" booklet, which will eventually become a special collection of your work throughout the course.
Track Your Hydration - See the Difference It Makes
In this activity, students will reflect on their hydration habits by tracking how they feel each day over the course of a week. Using a provided template and comparing their reflections to a sample, students will assess the impact of regular hydration on their mood, focus, and overall well-being.
This exercise encourages self-reflection and personal responsibility, helping students understand the connection between staying hydrated and well-being, while reinforcing the importance of consistency in maintaining good hydration habits.
Now that you understand how staying hydrated can boost your mood, improve focus, and enhance overall well-being, it's time to see how it’s making a difference in your life.
Over the next week, you’ll track how much water you drink each day and reflect on how you feel to see if your new hydration habits are helping. Take a look at my reflection on the next page, then use the template to track your daily water intake and your feelings over the next 7 days.
Let’s work together to build healthier habits and feel our best every day!
Spreading the Word - Weekly Community Challenge
In this activity, students will select actions from a task card to apply their knowledge of hydration in real-world contexts, focusing on helping others stay hydrated. This encourages leadership by empowering students to independently choose and carry out tasks that promote health in their community.
The emphasis on real-world application helps foster a sense of responsibility and initiative, allowing students to learn from their experiences, whether they succeed or not. This approach nurtures independence and reinforces the value of effort in encouraging others to maintain healthy hydration habits.
Choose an action from the task card and use your new knowledge to make the lives of others better by encouraging good hydration habits. It doesn’t matter which action you choose—what matters is that you share your knowledge to help others stay hydrated, healthy, and happy.
You can choose as many actions as you like from the list, such as reminding someone to carry a water bottle, encouraging a friend to drink a glass of water before meals, or setting up a "hydration reminder" challenge. And remember, it’s all about making an effort and having fun, not about getting perfect results!
Weekly Art Therapy
This weekly art activity encourages mindfulness and relaxation through colouring. Teachers should introduce it with enthusiasm, promoting a calm, creative atmosphere.
Allow children the freedom to choose where they sit—whether in a quiet classroom corner or even outside—and consider scheduling a designated time each week. Additionally, this activity can be sent home to support mindfulness practices with families. Encourage children to focus on the process, not the outcome, and enjoy the benefits of creativity and calm.
Each week, we’ll share a fun and relaxing art activity with you. All you need to do is find a quiet spot—maybe in your room, outside under a tree, or wherever you feel calm. Grab your favourite colouring pencils, set up a soft light or a lamp, and if you’d like, play some relaxing music in the background. Then, take your time to colour in the picture on the next page and let your mind wander.
Doing this can help you feel more relaxed and calm. Colouring gives your brain a little break, helps you focus on the moment, and can even make you feel happier. It’s a way to let your imagination flow while taking care of yourself.
Remember, this is your time to unwind. There’s no right or wrong way to colour—just enjoy yourself and have fun with it!
My Weekly Mood Diary
This activity encourages children to track their daily emotions using a mood diary, fostering self-awareness and reflection. Teachers should emphasise the importance of taking time at the end of each day to reflect on feelings, using symbols provided on the task card.
This process promotes mindfulness and helps children recognise patterns in their emotions. Encourage children to keep their reflections private, ensuring they feel safe to explore their feelings honestly, supporting their emotional wellbeing.
As you work through each activity in this course, we encourage you to take a moment each day to reflect on how you're feeling. A mood diary is a fantastic way to track your emotions and see how your work in this course impacts your overall well-being.
Using the template provided, simply add a symbol from the task card to represent your mood at the end of each day. Over the week, you'll start to notice patterns and shifts, giving you valuable insight into how the activities influence your feelings.
The health and well-being activities in this course are designed to have a positive impact on your mood, and we hope you’ll find this reflection process both enlightening and rewarding.
Remember, this is your personal journey—there’s no need to share your diary with anyone. It’s a space for your own private reflection and growth.
Weekly Quiz: The Power of Hydration
Students will take a quiz on the power of hydration, reinforcing their understanding after rewatching the video. Each quiz includes ten questions, and scoring 80% or higher earns them a certificate. There are 8 certificates to collect, motivating ongoing engagement and learning. This activity encourages retention and provides a tangible reward for their efforts, promoting consistent hydration habits and an understanding of its benefits.
This week, you'll be invited to take a quiz focused on the power of hydration. After rewatching the video, your task is to correctly answer ten questions about the benefits of staying hydrated, such as improved focus, mood, and overall health. Achieving a score of 80% or more will earn you a certificate, which will be sent directly to your email.