What is your favorite leisure activity?

• Why is it your favorite?
• What benefits do you get from that activity?

Begin by reminding students about the difference between leisure and free time. Note: perhaps the following discussion might lead to a discussion about unhealthy leisure (e.g., substance use) or it may trigger discomfort in some students if they or family members have unhealthy leisure). Check out Healthy Lamoille Valley’s School Resources for support and contact HLV for additional information. 

Therefore facilitation of this session depends on what you know about your students and how to handle these topics.  You may consider students starting off with some post it notes to hand in and be read out loud (as to be anonymous) and then continue to brainstorm further, or use small group discussions, etc. 

Have students:

• Brainstorm all the things they , and their teachers, friends, parents, others can do in their lives that might be leisure for them: at home, school, and community? (Sometimes leisure can be harmful to oneself or others)
• Next, brainstorm types of benefits people get from the activities just listed. See list of benefits provided. (If some activities can also be harmful or risky, this may be an opportunity for a deeper discussion about activities and environments that can be opportunities for healthy or increase stress or risk of negative outcomes)
• Use follow-up prompts if necessary, start with each grouping of people mentioned in the question-they might enjoy discussing what they think teachers do for leisure. Still we want to avoid stereotyping, which is a topic we will get to later in the sessions.
• Brainstorm what gets in the way of people doing things in their lives that might be leisure for them? How does this impact them?

• Imagine if all the possible leisure disappeared and none of it was there? 
• How would it impact you? Your parents/caregivers, teachers, friends, classmates, others?
• Leisure… So what? Why does it matter? Why care? (including conversation about benefits over a lifetime, now and in the future, work-life balance, etc)

**Note that for some students and others, having too much or too little leisure may be stressful or unsatisfying, or having some leisure activities that are unhealthy disappear might be a good thing.