Stop and Think

Key Message

Make a healthy choice!

Objectives

Describe “influencers” as a person, place, thing, or mood that either supports or delays your healthy choices.
Give examples of recharge, mood, food, and move influencers.
Apply a variety of motor skills and movement patterns throughout activity.

Preparation

Safety: Allow enough space to move freely and minimize collisions. Determine boundaries that are a safe distance from obstacles and walls.
Ensure equipment and materials are properly cleaned.
Determine how you will group learners, using best practice guidelines from Effective Strategies for Grouping Learners.
Be prepared to demonstrate fitBoost activity and fitFlow yoga.

Warm Up

Begin with a fitBoost.

Captivate

Say: Show your choice after I read a “Would you rather?” question.

If the weather outside is warm, would you rather jump into a swimming pool or march in a parade? Make swimming motions for the pool or high knees for marching.
If you are feeling silly, would you rather make up a dance or move backwards? Dance in a circle or move backwards.
If you are camping with your family, would you rather sit by the fire and tell stories or go on a nature walk? Smile and laugh out loud for storytelling or move slowly and look around for the nature walk.

Educate

Today we will learn how a person, place, thing, or mood can influence your healthy choices.
An influencer can help you make healthy choices, or they can prevent you from making healthy choices.
For example, your family is an influencer that helps you make healthy choices when you eat healthy meals together or set a bedtime. Your school is an influencer, too. Schools provide recess and recess equipment to give you something to do rather than just stand around.
Your feelings and emotions can be influencers too. If you are feeling bored, you may want to sit and do nothing. If you are feeling excited, you may want to wave your arms in the air!
The number one thing you need to know is that if you stop and think about influencers – or what motivates you to make choices, you can help yourself make healthy choices.
Let’s practice recognizing things that influence our choices!

Activate

Learners begin to move around the perimeter of the activity area using a teacher-selected locomotor movement while music plays. Learners determine their pace, fast or slow.

After 20 to 30 seconds, pause music and ask learners to find a partner by going toe to toe (see Grouping Learners Blog section for grouping learners). Encourage positive social behavior by asking learners to find a new partner each time the music pauses.

Read an influencer statement aloud (see step 8). Partners work together to identify the influencer.

If the influencer is one that helps to make a healthy choice, learners do a star jump and shout, “I’m a healthy kid!” If the influencer makes it difficult to make a healthy choice, the learners do a bear crawl.

Star Jump = Squat down until thighs are parallel to the floor. Jump up and stretch your hands and feet out like a star, landing softly on your feet in the starting position.

Bear Crawl = Start on all fours with knees slightly off the ground, then move your right hand and left foot forward together, followed by your left hand and right foot, keeping your back flat and hips low.

Read aloud the following scenarios. Influencers and choices are in bold text:

You and your family decide to play a game instead of watching TV before bedtime.

You are hungry, so you decide to eat a piece of fruit.

You and your friends decide to play basketball at recess.

You are watching TV, and you want to eat a candy bar that you saw on a commercial. (Point out that the healthy choice would be to think of a snack that doesn’t have a lot of added sugar.)

You feel bored, so you decide to play a video game. (Point out that the healthy choice would be to get active or call a friend to play a game outside.)

You are thirsty, so you drink a glass of water.

You feel upset, so you will not talk to your friend. (Point out that the healthy choice would be to tell a friend or trusted adult why you are upset.)

It is raining outside, so you build a fort indoors.

It is almost bedtime, so you find a cozy spot to read quietly and wind down.

Once the scenarios have been read and discussed, you may repeat the activity with a different locomotor movement between scenarios or challenge partners to make up their own scenarios.

Close the Lesson

Partner learners.
Do fitFlow yoga sets: Select a fitFlow card and work in partners to complete the poses.
Partners do a think-pair-share or turn-and-talk to review lesson. Ask partners to think about different influencers, like mood, or places, family, friends, television, and even the weather! Next, turn and talk about a person, place, thing, or mood that can influence healthy choices.
Assess understanding with the following questions:

Q: What influences you?
A: Can learners name people, things, and feelings?

Q: How do they influence you?
A: Listen for examples of how influencers help or hinder healthy choices.

Q: How would you explain influencers to a friend?
A: Influencers are a person, place, thing, or mood that help you make healthy choices. Influencers can also make it difficult to make healthy choices.
Encourage learners to identify influencers at home, in the community, and at school.

Challenge

Name a person, place, thing, or mood that influences your healthy choices.

What You'll Need

Resources

Materials

Music

Health Education Standards

Standard 1: Use functional health information to support health and well-being
Standard 3: Access valid and reliable resources to support health and well-being
Standard 5: Use a decision-making process to support personal and community health and well-being
Standard 7: Demonstrate practices and behaviors to support health and well-being
Standard 8: Advocate to promote health and well-being for self and others

Social and Emotional Learning Competencies

Responsible Decision-Making
Self-Awareness
Self-Management

Physical Education Standards

Standard 1: Develops a variety of motor skills
Standard 3: Applies knowledge related to movement and fitness concepts
Standard 4: Develops social skills through movement

Extend the Lesson

The fit unit, Be Mindful About Healthy Choices, provides multimedia lessons, activities, and challenges to help learners to become aware of the many times each day they need to stop and think about influencers and fit-check their choices.
Watch What Happens to Your Body When You are Mindful? to learn more ways to pay attention to your choices.
Print and display Healthy Choice Posters to inspire fit recharge, mood, food, and move choices.
Help kids identify and plan for healthy choices with printable pages for grades K-2 Healthy Choices or grades 3-5 Healthy Choices.
Share the fit article, Mindfulness at Home, with families to inspire mindful activities they can do together.

Adaptations and Modifications

Adapt locomotor skills and movement patterns to learners' needs, interests, and abilities. Read our full list of inclusive ideas for Adapting Games for Every Learner.
Seated Exercise: To indicate a helpful influencer, use the action of raising your arms in the air, similar to star jumps. To indicate a more difficult influencer, pretend to climb rocks like a bear.
Sensory Modifications: Adjust if learners are more comfortable identifying the type of influencer as an individual and not as a group.
Use one of our short videos for your daily PE warmup or cooldown!
- fit Workouts: YouTube Playlist

Take me to the full list of fitGames.