The EU-funded Erasmus+ HealthCraft project presents a dynamic and balanced model for primary health education, combining motivational instructional design, traditional pedagogical strategies, and gamification to engage children aged 8–12 across Europe. Initially piloted in Ireland and Greece, the initiative explores how digitally enriched environments—when thoughtfully aligned with established teaching practices—can meaningfully enhance learning around key health domains: Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, Quality Sleep, and Healthy Minds. Drawing on Keller’s ARCS Model of Motivational Design, HealthCraft embeds the principles of Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction across its suite of resources, while deliberately maintaining a pedagogical equilibrium between innovation and structure.

The Video Training Library offers animated, age-appropriate and curriculum-aligned content enhanced with quizzes, providing a structured introduction to key health concepts. This foundational layer supports consistency and clarity in instruction, while the Minecraft Education Worlds introduce an interactive, student-led dimension that invites exploration, problem-solving, and creative application of knowledge in immersive environments. These worlds are not stand-alone games but thoughtfully constructed learning spaces that extend and reinforce the content introduced in the videos. The Teachers’ Toolkit anchors the digital components within classroom realities, offering detailed lesson plans, guidance, and adaptable activities. The lesson plans have been carefully designed to incorporate a balanced mix of both seated, classroom-based tasks and physically active learning activities, promoting engagement and reinforcing key concepts through varied modes of instruction. Together, these resources form an integrated system where novelty and engagement enhance educational structure, allowing HealthCraft to resonate with both contemporary learning preferences and established teaching practice.

HealthCraft captures attention through diverse media, including short, eye-catching info-byte and story-based animations, interactive quizzes, and immersive, game-based elements like Minecraft Education, where students explore interactive health-themed worlds. These tools complement traditional instruction by retaining attention, enhancing classroom delivery. Relevance is ensured through culturally responsive content and adaptable resources, with Minecraft scenarios reflecting real-life contexts and the Teachers’ Toolkit aligning with national curricula. Confidence is built through scaffolded progression, clear goals, and feedback, while game mechanics like levels and achievements provide visible progress. Satisfaction is supported by combining intrinsic motivation with rewards and reflective classroom discussions.

By harmonizing motivational design theory with both educational technology and traditional pedagogical values, HealthCraft offers a compelling model for reimagining how health education is delivered in schools. Aligned with the European Union’s broader priorities on health equity and social inclusion, this paper presents the project’s design rationale, development process, and emerging findings from multiple pilot implementations. In doing so, it contributes to ongoing research examining the purposeful integration of gamification to enrich education.

Keywords: Gamification, Motivational Design, Minecraft, ARCS Model, Erasmus+, Primary Education, Children's Health.