Healthy Start
A New Year/New You-type Project for Students from Grade 3 Through Adulthood
We speak a lot about mental health and well-being in education, especially post-pandemic, and Healthy Start is a great way to foster this. January has become an intentional starting point in my classroom. A new year brings fresh energy, new goals, and a natural openness to change. Over the past six years, I’ve facilitated this BOB (Building Outside the Blocks) project multiple times, adjusting it for grade level, subjects, and the students in the room, but it could work for adults, too.
The Purpose Behind Healthy Start
Healthy Start was inspired by the Ontario Health Curriculum, which emphasizes:
“Maintaining good mental health and emotional well-being involves balancing the different aspects of life: the physical, intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual. It involves the ability to think, feel, act, and interact in a way that allows you to enjoy life and cope with challenges that arise.” (pg. 197)
The project invites students to choose one habit to start or stop that contributes to their mental, physical, social-emotional, or spiritual well-being. It encourages the use of strategies for relieving stress, promoting mental health, and developing lifelong habits of self-care.
Like all BOB projects, Healthy Start integrates curriculum learning with personal growth. Students develop skills in reflection, organization, data collection, and creative expression while building a personal well-being toolkit.
The Process
Students work toward their goal for 21 days, journaling three times per week (or more if needed) in class. Journaling is flexible and can take many forms:
Written entries in the Healthy Start Journal on their digital portfolio
Podcasts
Video reflections
A multi-modal combination of the above
Students track their progress and collect data, creating graphs or charts to visualize their journey. The project encourages experimentation and persistence: even if the goal isn’t fully achieved, the process itself is a learning experience.
At the end of the three weeks, students create a product to showcase their learning. This could be a:
Poster, story, or sculpture
Drawing or visual artwork
Video, sketchnote, or slam poem
Students then share their work through a gallery walk or oral presentation, giving them flexibility to present in a way that feels authentic to their journey.
Student Goals
Some previous student goals have included:
Less screen time
Eating more fruits and vegetables
Going for daily walks in the woods
Walking their dog more often
Getting more sleep
Not biting nails
Eating less sugar
Learning to meditate or practice yoga
Improving athletic skills (running, basketball, karate)
Becoming more active and feeling better
Practicing strategies to manage and reduce stress
Reflections & Takeaways
Students reflected on their progress, the strategies they used, and what they learned along the way. Some reflections included:
“Healthy makes you happy.” – Lea
“I’m so proud of myself.” – Aiden
“I learned to eat so many new foods and I feel good.” – Emelia
“My goal was to stop nibbling my nails. I can now see my beautiful fully grown nails. Even though I haven’t fully broken the habit, I still try to improve. My parents are happy, and so am I.” – Akash
“I think I’ve grown stronger and I slept better because of all the steps I’ve done.” – Sophia
Some students met their goals fully, others did not, and that was a critical part of the learning. Success is not the only outcome; the project emphasizes reflection, perseverance, and learning from the process.
I’ve even facilitated the project twice. In the second iteration, students could learn from their mistakes, try something different, explore new mediums. There is a lot you can do across subject-areas through a cross-curricular approach assessing Health, Math, Literacy and other outcomes, as well as transferable learning skill development.
One parent even shared that she wished she had learned these skills earlier in life and suggested it could be exciting to involve whole families in future iterations—something I’m considering.
Student Learning Skills & Growth
Healthy Start also aligns with learning skill and curriculum expectations. Students practice:
Organization and responsibility: completing tasks, meeting deadlines
Self-regulation and independent work: reflecting on progress and problem-solving
Communication: expressing ideas effectively in journals and products
Data literacy: creating and explaining graphs to represent their progress
The project rubric allows students to see their growth across these areas while understanding the connection between effort, habits, and well-being.
Walking the Journey Together
Healthy Start gives me the opportunity to commit alongside students, modeling persistence and authenticity. This year, I set a goal to practice daily gratitude, which taught me that presence often matters more than perfection. Supporting students through this process reinforces that well-being is a lifelong practice, and failure is part of learning.
Beyond My Classroom
Sharing the Healthy Start, among other BOBs, at conferences and through blogging has extended its reach beyond my classroom. Other educators have successfully adapted it for their students, showing the project’s versatility and impact.
Why I Keep Coming Back
Healthy Start is a project I return to year after year because it:
Gives students agency over their learning and well-being
Supports goal setting, reflection, and habit-building
Integrates meaningful curriculum skills with personal growth
Encourages creativity and authentic expression
Teaches persistence and the power of trying again
Healthy Start works because it treats well-being not as an add-on, but as essential learning. It invites students to see themselves as capable of change, worthy of care, and responsible for their own growth—skills that matter far beyond the classroom.
If we want students who can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally, we must give them opportunities to practice well-being and build their well-being toolkits, not just talk about it. January is simply the beginning.
