The Medicine Wheel: Finding Your Balance
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
Duration
45-60 minutes
Materials
Definitions and Vocabulary
Classroom Instructions
Note: Indigenous communities are different in their teachings, and these teachings are from an Anishinaabe perspective. For Indigenous educators, please modify this lesson plan to reflect your teachings, or those of the first peoples land your school is on.
Minds On! Introduction to the Medicine Wheel – 10 minutes
- Watch one of the videos found in the resources section on the medicine wheel teachings.
- After viewing, ask students to share one thing they learned from the video. Alternatively, students can share something that they knew already, or a difference they spotted from a past teaching.
The Medicine Wheel Sections – 15 minutes
- Explain to students that they will be focusing on the four wellness components of the medicine wheel teachings for the rest of the activity.
- Next, explain that there are four components that go in each section: emotional, mental, physical and spiritual. Indigenous communities believe that in order to have overall holistic wellness, these components must be balanced.
- Pause and discuss what students think the word “holistic” means.
- Following that short discussion, give students a short definition of these terms. Display these on the board for students to refer back to.
- Emotional: How we are feeling, how to keep our emotions regulated.
- Mental: How we strengthen our brain,
- Physical: How we keep our bodies healthy.
- Spiritual: How we keep our spirit happy.
Setting Up Our Medicine Wheel – 10 minutes
- Distribute the medicine wheel template to students. While handing out, ask students to reflect on what the four teachings mean to them.
- Before filling in the wheel, tell students that they will need to colour in the sections. Explain that the colours represent the section the teachings come from, and are interconnected to other teachings. Spiritual wellness is white and can be left blank, physical wellness is yellow, mental wellness is red, and emotional wellness is black. Students can label the sections as they colour.
- Note: the template can be printed in colour if available.
Filling in Our Medicine Wheel – 15 minutes
- Explain to students that they will be filling out their medicine wheel based on the following prompts. These can be projected for students to refer back to.
- Spiritual: Draw or write words/items that make you happy. Things that make you deeply happy, or something that you are passionate about.
- Physical: Draw or write words that describe what keeps your body healthy, such as activities or your favourite foods.
- Mental: Draw or write words that keep your brain strong. These can be subjects you enjoy, books you like to read, or puzzles that challenge you.
- Emotional: Draw or write words that describe what helps you calm down and regulate your emotions.
- Allow students time to complete their medicine wheels. Give students a tip that they can put the same thing in different boxes if they find they have overlap.
Consolidation – 10 minutes
- After students have completed their medicine wheel, divide the class into small groups. If students already sit in cohorts, divide them into new groups.
- Have students share their medicine wheel in these groups. Have them discuss if they think they are balanced or unbalanced.
- As an alternative, students can also write a written response of what they selected for their medicine wheel, and if they feel balanced or unbalanced.
Resources
- What is the medicine wheel? (Medicine wheel teachings 101) – Video
- Medicine Wheel Teaching – Video
- Britannica Schools: The Medicine Wheel | Encyclopaedia Britannica – Video
