Introduction

Engaging Students in Healthy Living through Drama is meant to be a starting point, a resource to support educators in planning and exploring new approaches to teaching healthy living through drama-based activities. Drama-based activities may include students: exploring conflict through role-play and analysing their character’s motivation for their actions; creating skits, a spoken word poem, or song to express their perspective about a situation or topic; and/or to demonstrate their understanding of a healthy living concept. This resource may be used by Health and Physical Education teachers and educators when addressing the healthy living expectations from Grade 9 to Grade 12 and/or to create a cross-curricular learning experience utilizing The Arts curriculum. This resource provides important information that should be considered before getting started, activity ideas, opportunities for assessment, and sample assessment strategies and tools.

As you consider the information in this resource, feel free to change and customize the activities to meet the needs of your class. It’s important to think about the age and developmental stage of your students as well as the size of your class when selecting activities. Other considerations may include the age of your intended audience and whether you're planning activities for a large or small group. Most activities can be adapted for different ages and group sizes.

If you’re not sure if an activity is appropriate, consider connecting with your administrator and/or colleagues at your school.