When exercise meets cosy…

Olia | Jun 12, 2024Jun 11, 2024

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this speaking lesson are to:

• talk about cosiness and soothing self-care rituals;
• watch a video about a new health and fitness trend;
• discuss fitness and self-care through critical thinking.

In this lesson, students discuss things they associate with cosiness and think of how they can be combined with routine tasks to make the experiences more pleasant. They watch a short video about ‘cosy cardio’, an exercise trend, and engage in talking about fitness trends. Students also share their personal experiences and discuss soothing self-care rituals. In addition, students can do a vocabulary activity.

WARM-UP AND VIDEO

At the beginning of the lesson, you can do a vocabulary exercise with students to revise phrases related to the lesson’s topic. In the task, students match concepts (e.g. soothing ritual, indulging oneself, gentle approach to exercising, etc.) with sentences that illustrate them. Then, they choose two concepts and give an example for each that is true about them. After that, you can move on to a warm-up where students identify things they associate the most with cosiness (e.g. your preferred music, scented candles, hot beverages, etc.).

Next, they imagine how some activities (e.g. writing a report, exercising, going to the bank, etc.) can be combined with something from the previous activity to make the experiences more pleasant (e.g. You can do grocery shopping and listen to your preferred music on your headphones at the same time.). Following that, students watch a video about ‘cosy cardio’, a fitness trend. In the task, they choose a comment that describes their reaction to the video and elaborate on it. Afterwards, students take part in talking about fitness trends and discuss questions about the video and attitudes and beliefs related to exercise and fitness. 

TALKING ABOUT FITNESS TRENDS MORE

In this part of the lesson, students look at different statements about wellness and exercise trends (e.g. Combat sports like kickboxing, mixed martial arts and karate are on the rise, etc.) and say which they find surprising, which should have become popular before, which is a fad and which is a sign of positive societal changes. After that, they continue talking about fitness trends. Students read ideas about creative and engaging ways to incorporate fitness into daily life (e.g. wearables or mobile apps that gamify exercise experiences). In the activity, they choose the one that would be more suitable for improving their health and fitness and explain their thoughts. Afterwards, students discuss questions about personal and societal perceptions of self-care and the influence of social media on these perceptions. Finally, they come up with a soothing self-care ritual for different people (e.g. parent, partner, close friend). 

WORKSHEETS

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