Spreading Messages of Body Positivity and Activism in The Forest Primes (K/1)
During the first few weeks of the school year when we first read the book Every Body, A First Conversation About Bodies By Megan Madison, Jessica Ralli, and Tequitia Andrews to the Forest Primes, we were really struck with how inspired the kids seemed to be to spread messages of body positivity, fatphobia awareness, and activism through making motivational posters. There is just one limiting factor to making and displaying posters in our classroom: We don’t have walls!
A few weeks later we started to notice how many of our students willingly stopped their play to cheer the Middles on as they ran up and down the driveway. Our students noticed that the cheering seemed to make the runners run faster. Even without walls we could certainly hold some signs to the runners as they run past. This event has now become a part of our weekly schedule that we lovingly refer to as ‘Go Middles!’ As soon as someone notices the Middles start to run on the driveway a Forest Prime will cheer “Go Middles!” and then all of a sudden Forest Primes scurry from all parts of basecamp, grab pre-made signs stored in a milk crate and assume cheering positions.
During a lunchtime discussion last week, students brainstormed ways to encourage people while they are hiking. We explained that it can be really hard for some people to hike and we wondered what words of encouragement they might be able to offer people so that they know that their body is a good body. Knowing that Mountain Day would be an opportunity to share our messages with the entire school we took Thursday to scout the hike to Paradise Moss ahead of time and hid signs along the path on the way back down. On Friday when Mountain Day was announced to the entire school the Forest Primes were delighted to meet their Mountain Day Buddy and point the signs out as they enjoyed the hike together. Where will we direct our unbounding love and positivity next?
