Positive Psychology Learning Outcomes: Students will recognize, describe and experience beauty in nature and the world; identify and describe the beauty within themselves and others around them; and practice mindfulness meditation.
Language Learning Outcomes: Students will learn to use sense verbs (see, hear, feel, smell) in simple sentences; use formulaic language to describe nature and the strengths of others; and learn new vocabulary related to nature, skills, and traits.
Lesson Information
Positive Psychology Learning Outcomes
Students will...
recognize, describe and experience beauty in nature and the world.
identify and describe the beauty within themselves and others around them..
practice mindfulness meditation.
Language Learning Outcomes
Students will...
learn to use sense verbs (see, hear, feel, smell) in simple sentences.
use formulaic language to describe nature and the strengths of others.
learn new vocabulary related to nature, skills, and traits.
Explain to students that today they will be learning about something very different from their normal class time. This class will focus on appreciating--being thankful for--beauty and excellence.
Activate Background Knowledge
Have students find a picture of something they think is beautiful.
Give them a minute or two to search for a picture.
Share their pictures in a group and have them try to think of two or three sentences to describe to each other what they think is beautiful in each picture.
Instruct the students to take a couple minutes to look up words that they do not know using a dictionary.
Activity 3: Speaking
Each of the 11 links in the powerpoint Appreciation of Beauty - Foundations (slide 9) contains a video of a nature scene with natural sounds. You can open and spend as much time as needed on each scene.
Instruct students to look at each column and create a sentence that describes the scene they are looking at.
Encourage students to share as a class what they see, hear, and to imagine what they could touch and smell from the scene they are viewing.
After 15 min, ask students to share which scenes they like the most and which they would want to visit using the fluency line examples (slide 10).
Explain to students how they will know which column of words to use for each type of sentence, i.e. skills vs traits found in Slide 12 of the Powerpoint. . Students may need time to look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary.
Direct students to use the fluency lines given in Slide 13 to form simple sentences about the strengths (skills and traits) of someone they know and for their own strengths.
Allow students time to share with a partner or the class the sentences they formed about the strengths (and beauty) of others.
Activity 6: Speaking
Discuss the many places where beauty can be found (Slide 15).
The following are a few examples:
a beautiful building
a song
a sculpture
writing/poetry
A painting
Food / cooking or baking
A type of dance
Inspiring people
Beautiful experiences (walking in the rain, laughter of a child, hugging someone you haven’t seen in a while)
Instruct students to use their phones to find an example of something that they find beautiful besides a picture--could be poetry or book, painting, sculpture, etc.--and have them share in small groups of three or four.
Homework
Challenge students to find a new example of beauty in the natural world around them. Tell them to prepare to share what they find in the following class period.
Follow-Up
Tuesday:
Have students share an example of beauty that they found from their homework assignment.
Wednesday:
Watch a 1-min mindfulness meditation. How does meditation make them feel? What do they think of?
