Curated OER
The Health Triangle
What else does physical health include besides exercise and nutrition? How can I support my mental health? Does social health just refer to relationships with friends? How are all of these questions vital to the body's overall efficiency...
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
My Life—My Mental Health
Between peer pressure, an onslaught of hormones, and brand new responsibilities, the teenage years can be emotionally volatile. Equip young adults with coping mechanisms and a safe place to discuss their feelings with a guided...
Health Smart Virginia
Mental Health Journals
Eight prompts, designed to accompany the Health Smart series of lessons, provide high schoolers an opportunity to reflect on and learn from the issues raised by the various activities.
Curated OER
Mental Illness: Could It Happen to Me?
Students investigate the effects of depression and the brain's influence on metal illness. The factors that may affect a person's ability to develop depression are examined in this instructional activity.
IRISS
Exploring Self-Esteem 1: What Is Self-Esteem?
Adolescents explore self-esteem and the various factors that influence a person's sense of self in this four-part lesson series. Through a combination of whole class instruction, small group discussions, and independent work, students...
Curated OER
My Mental Health
Students define mental health and complete a worksheet about themselves. In this mental health lesson, students evaluate themselves as they score their worksheet. Students discuss critical thinking questions about their responses.
Purdue University
Healthy Body Image: A Lesson Plan for Middle School Students
This is a very valuable lesson for middle schoolers on the importance of maintaining a healthy body image through diet, exercise, and positive mentality. The resource includes four lesson plans. The first two plans outline the physical...
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
What is Health?
Many indicators of health are beyond a teenager's control, but there are many changes they can make in their daily life that can improve their health. Middle schoolers think about their physical, social, and mental health status before...
Curated OER
World Mental Health Day
In this World Mental Health Day worksheet, students complete activities such as reading a passage, matching phrases, fill in the blanks, choose the correct word, multiple choice, unscramble the words, sequencing, unscramble the...
Curated OER
Emotional Health Awareness
Students examine their emotional health. In this health lesson, students discover the differences between physical, mental, and emotional health. Students consider how to maintain balance in their own lives.
Bolton Healthy Schools
Deal with Poetry
The stated goal of this unit is to use poetry to "improve the emotional health of young people." Budding poets read and then supply their own lines for poems that deal with alienation, loneliness, and rejection.
Curated OER
Too Large to be a Lunatic Asylum: South Carolina’s Mental Health
Eighth graders examine the history of South Carolina's mental institutions. In this South Carolina history lesson, 8th graders discover details about asylums built in the state in the 1800's. Students analyze primary sources about mental...
Curated OER
"Cures" Chart
Students chart the "cures" for people with disabilities. In this disabilities lesson, students compare and contrast the care and treatment of people with disabilities in the past and present. Students write accurate summaries presented...
Health Smart Virginia
Mental and Emotional Health
The first lesson in a social and emotional health unit is designed to help seventh graders develop the skills they need to cope with disappointment and manage stress. Groups practice stress reduction techniques and share ideas for how to...
Curated OER
You're the Expert Now
Students evaluate information about mental illness for accuracy and relevance as they examine brochures developed in the lesson by their classmates. Data about mental illness is revisited and adjusted for additional information obtained...
National Institute of Drug Abuse
Nurturing My Mental and Emotional Health
One exercise does not necessarily work for all! A resource from the National Institutes of Health provides tweens and teens with exercises to help them cope with anxiety and stress. Participants note their stress levels before and after...
Health Smart Virginia
Mental and Emotional Health
Middle schoolers learn about stressors, effective stress management techniques, and the role of resilience and tolerance in handling stress. Individuals then create a personal mind map that includes their own mental/emotional management...
Curated OER
Key to Good Health: Sleep and Mental Relaxation
Students investigate the effect good sleep and rest has on the human body. In this health lesson, students discover the different stages of sleep and discuss ways they can ease their own tension through exercise or meditation. Students...
Nemours KidsHealth
Depression: Grades 6-8
Over two lessons, scholars examine depression—what it is, signs of it, and ways to cope. Through discussion, reading articles, writing a resource, and completing worksheets, participants make their way through the learning process,...
Nemours KidsHealth
Suicide Prevention: Grades 6-8
Suicide prevention—a heavy topic but an important one. Over two lessons, pupils gain knowledge about suicide, particularly in teens, and how to advocate for a friend who feels suicidal or depressed. After researching the topic, scholars...
Curated OER
Striking Out Stress- A "Gallery Walk" Activity
Students discuss ways to cope with stressful situations. In this mental health lesson, students identify stressful situations and how they would respond to them. Students discuss their feelings.
Health Smart Virginia
Tinkle Times
The big idea in the last instructional activity in the Health Smart series is that individuals must practice emotional first aid, that just as we take care of physical injuries, we must take care of emotional injuries. Scholars watch a...
Curated OER
Careers in Health
Middle schoolers will identify several professions in the healthcare field along with the characteristics of effective healthcare providers. They will also consider if any of the occupations covered in class are appropriate career paths....
Curated OER
Treatment Works!
Students consider the goals of a treatment plan for persons who have had the way they think, feel, or behave changed because of mental illness. PET images are utilized to support the evidence of changes in the activity and functioning of...