Featured SEL Activity: My Roots

Distance learning and social distancing are leaving many youth feeling isolated and lonely. 

Cultivate awareness of connection with a reflection and drawing activity adapted for Zoom and remote learning.

My Roots

Objective: To encourage participants to think about how their family and community has supported them.

Materials: My Roots worksheet, paper, tape, pencils and markers.

1. Read this saying to participants: “No person is an island.”
2. Ask participants to share why this saying means to them. 
3. Explain to participants that we are all supported by many people; none of us are “islands” floating in the ocean of life by ourselves, even if it feels that way sometimes. 
4. Explain that in this activity participants will explore the questions of who supports them in their lives and will consider the strength and wisdom they gain from these people. 
5. Ask participants to think of four people, who have helped them, taken care of them, or taught them something valuable. 
6. Play music to build inspiration. Check out our primo selection on Spotify. 
7. Break participants into small groups to share out. 
8. Bring the group back and share the My Roots worksheet. Tell them to use the handout to draw their own tree to add the names of the people they named. Tell them they can add fruits to the tree to represent the things they are able to do because of these people. 
9. Designate a time each week to invite two to three students to share. 
10. Ask a debrief question such as “What can you do to show gratitude?” or “ What can you do to sow some seeds to be someone else’s root?”

My Roots is one of 48 activities in Experiential Activities to Introduce Identity, Culture, Class, Gender and Inclusion. a curriculum box on topics that support young people in making sense of themselves, their peers, their communities, and the world around them.