Health Smart Virginia
Class Rules
Scholars complete a worksheet describing their hopes and dreams then work with a partner to discuss the importance of class rules. Learners brainstorm a list of rules to be compiled and displayed for all pupils to reference.
Health Smart Virginia
Conflict Resolution
Peers discuss the importance of conflict resolution and share their thoughts with the rest of the class. The same partners then role-play a Peace Talk using a script. Finally, an exhilarating game of Sharks and Minnows allows scholars to...
Health Smart Virginia
Inclusion
Inclusion is the focus of a lesson that looks closely at how to make equal groups in cooperative settings. Using physical education activities, scholars are challenged to create groups quickly and inclusively. After several activities,...
Health Smart Virginia
Create a Game
Challenge scholars to create a lesson plan for their peers. Small groups use a template to name the activity, list the materials, write an objective, describe how to encourage sportsmanship, and detail the day's game. Pupils answer three...
Health Smart Virginia
Happiness
There's power in a flower. After taking a happiness survey and watching a PowerPoint about the habits of happy people, pupils decorate a paper flower with six positive affirmation statements that they feel they can benefit from reading...
Health Smart Virginia
Mental and Emotional Health
Working in groups, sixth-graders identify internal factors that negatively impact them. Then, explain how they could change that factor into a positive influence. Finally, individuals create personal mind maps that identify their...
Health Smart Virginia
Wrinkled Heart
Contrary to the old saying, words, like sticks, can hurt. That's the central idea in a lesson about the importance of considering another person's perspective, stopping, thinking, and listening before responding in anger to a conflict....
Health Smart Virginia
Compliment a Character
Compliments are true, specific, and positive. Crafting those compliments can be a challenge. Graciously accepting a compliment can also be a challenge. The first lesson in the Health Smart series designed for sixth graders provides them...
Health Smart Virginia
Social Emotional Skills Lessons Overview
The Unit 1 - Overview of the Health Smart Grade 6 series provides instructors with the rationale and goals of a five-resource unit designed to support scholars' social and emotional development. Packed with activity ideas, the resource...
Health Smart Virginia
Tinkle Times
The big idea in the last lesson 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 short video and...
Health Smart Virginia
The Do Over
Middle schoolers are offered an opportunity to use what they have learned about effective communication in a "Do-over." First, they create a storyboard of an argument they had with a friend or family member that wasn't productive. Then,...
Health Smart Virginia
Life Saver
Tweens and teens learn how to be a lifesaver and help a peer who may be struggling with thoughts of suicide. They identify risk factors and warning signs, and strategies to get an individual to seek help.
Health Smart Virginia
Stress Management - Doctor Disease
Doctor, doctor, help me please! As part of their study of the correlation between disease and illness, middle schoolers take on the role of doctors. They rotate through 10 learning stations, read about patients' symptoms, and write a...
Health Smart Virginia
Stressed Out
Stress, eustress, distress. A step-by-step plan leads middle schoolers through a lesson about coping with stress. To gather background information, scholars watch a presentation, examine a list of positive coping skills, and read...
Health Smart Virginia
Mental Health PowerPoint and Notes
A 15-slide presentation summarizes key concepts from the Mental Health unit designed for freshmen. Viewers record the information on the provided worksheets. The notes prepare learners for a game of jeopardy.
Health Smart Virginia
Mental Health Stress
Improve circulation! Strengthen muscles! Reduce hypertension! Research has shown that stress balls provide these and many other benefits. Freshmen create their own stress balls in a fun, engaging activity.
Health Smart Virginia
What's Up with Mindfulness
Mindfulness is all about paying attention to the present. Introduce freshmen to a stress-reducing tool that helps them pay close attention to what is happening, choose their behavior, and respond. Learners use a timeline to track their...
Health Smart Virginia
Ending the Silence on Mental Illness
To end the silence on mental illness, groups research a mental illness. They then create a scene-by-scene script, cast parts, and record a video that details the symptoms, causes, and treatment of the disorder. They also include what...
Health Smart Virginia
"SuperBetter" Stress Management
The goal of this Health Smart lesson is for freshmen to develop a personal system for coping with stress. They create a power-up list of things that make them feel happier, healthier, or better connected, identify people in their lives...
Health Smart Virginia
Suicide Prevention - Finding the Words
Acknowledge, Care, Tell! Freshmen learn how to ACT to help a friend demonstrating warning signs for depression and suicide in a carefully scaffolded, scripted lesson. Scholars also learn positive coping skills, information about support...
Health Smart Virginia
What Is Mindfulness?
Stop. Breathe. Think. A richly detailed lesson on mindfulness introduces freshmen to meditation as a coping strategy to deal with stress.
Health Smart Virginia
Social Networking and You
The positive and negative impacts of social networking are the focus of a powerful lesson for high school freshmen. Class members explore the risks of oversharing online and watch a video of one girl's experience. The lesson ends with...
Health Smart Virginia
I Hope I Can Cope
Teach your freshmen stress management techniques that help them cope with distress and stress. Class members create a Relaxation Station where they practice the C.O.P.E strategy for dealing with stress. They then choose from a menu of...
Health Smart Virginia
Networking
Sometimes it really is about who you know. High School freshmen engage in a series of activities to learn about the importance of networking.