“The Risky Game Show” - Wellness Lesson in Middle School

A "fly on the wall" look into our classroom. Full wellness lesson included! RISK BEHAVIOR: an action or choice that may cause harm to you or others This 6th grade lesson has the basic objective of helping students comprehend the difference between risk and risky behavior. A risk cannot be controlled; it's just the chance that something harmful might happen. Risk behavior, however, is manageable because it is a direct result of our own choices in life. Influences in life that we categorize: environment, family, friends, knowledge/information, and choices/behavior. After covering some basics on risk vs. risk behavior, I jump at this opportunity to be goofy with the students. I pretend to have a guest speaker come into the class for the period. (Guess who?) This allows me to set a silly environment and create a sense of fun for the sake of the game. It also serves as a great reflection piece afterwards. "The Risky Game Show" is included here. 5 envelopes full of (mostly) lousy prizes, which you can see in the video. Notice the classroom energy throughout the activity. Watch and listen in as the group of student audience members influence the "contestant" in the hot seat. No one is immune to peer influence. Afterwards, processing includes linking the game to risky behavior and influences on life. Contestants could not control what was in the envelopes. Thus, the name-- The Risky Game Show. If we focus on risk behavior, in contrast, that would be like seeing inside the envelopes. If that were so, it would then be easier to make the best, or healthiest, decision for ourselves. Small group discussions that were cut out for the sake of brevity included linking this silly game to real life. QUESTION PROMPTS: - What was the point of the activity? What real life scenarios can we link to The Risky Game Show? - What if you could see through the envelopes, but still choose the lousy prize? - What behaviors are people engaging in where they know the consequences but go forward with a harmful choice anyway? - How do our major influences in life interfere with our decision making skills? Both positively and negatively?​ - How does our environment impact how we act? Explain how/when certain scenarios cause us to behave and/or make decisions in a manner we wouldn't otherwise. Subsequent lessons will focus on actively preventing risks. We will reflect on habits, both good and bad, and examine specific behaviors like diet, exercise, social relationships, emotional well-being, and disease prevention. Full lesson write-up: tinyurl.com/HealthClass-RiskyGameShow Podcast: Anchor.fm/LifeIsTheFuture Teaching insight, blog posts, and more: LifeIsTheFuture.com/

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