This kit teaches positive actions through a variety of projects. Each unit has a cumulative, creative, hands-on project that students work on both as individuals and in groups: Unit 1—Great Thinkers Collage, Unit 2—Health and Wellness Fair, Unit 3—Personal Resources Newsletter, Unit 4—Community Service Video, Unit 5—Art Expressions, and Unit 6—Media Campaigns. The lessons guide the planning, organization and execution of each unit project. This experiential, interactive kit teaches students how to produce tangible products that represent their ability to apply the concepts they are learning.

In Unit 1, students begin with the overarching theme of High School Kits 1–4, “Life’s Big Question: Who Am I?” Project: students research and then select great thinkers who asked that question and create a collage with quotes and pictures. In Unit 2, students hear a funny line in a poem that goes: “how to dance/sitting down.” It encourages them to think about how their thoughts can encourage physical activity by using action verbs, or gerunds and participles, like moving, getting, running and dancing. They then write in their journals using action verbs explaining how exercise will improve themselves. Project: students use the positive physical and intellectual skills they learn to plan and execute a health fair.

In Unit 3, students consider multi-tasking as part of their time management. They are encouraged to remember that there is a limit to how much quality attention you give to a range of tasks before results suffer. Project: students create a newsletter, which features stories, editorials, advice columns, and other content based on the self-management positive actions they are learning. In Unit 4, they use a poster called “Cultivate Kindness” to remind themselves how good they feel about themselves when they are kind. They discuss Carl Sandburg’s biography of Abraham Lincoln for a rich portrayal of a great man who practiced kindness in big and little ways, which we remember to this day. Project: students organize a volunteer community service activity to use their positive actions of getting along with others and treating them with the type of treatment they would prefer, such as by providing entertainment at a care home or helping in a soup kitchen. In a parallel activity, they create a video history of the project from beginning to end.

In Unit 5, the “Clean Slate” poster encourages students to “wipe their slate clean” by admitting their mistakes. They also discuss a saying by Confucius: “A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it is committing another mistake.” Project: each group selects one of six art forms: hands-on, digital, fashion, photographic, dance, or rap and creates art that promotes the unit’s theme of honesty with themselves and others. In Unit 6, they seek to understand their dreams and goals with the help of a poster that inquires, “What Doors Will You Open?” Project: student groups create a media campaign to communicate strategies to reach goals and achieve success. They select a category such as commercials, PSAs/news releases, websites, blogs, brochures, interviews or articles, and create artwork, slogans, and text to articulate their messages.

Materials:

• High School Kit 3 Instructor's Manual with an introduction, materials list, lesson goals and objectives list and 132 15–20-minute scripted lessons.
• Activity sheets
• 30 Student Text booklets
• 10 Full color posters
• 30 Journals and more!

All classroom kits include materials for 30 students.