The first lesson plan 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Life can be stressful. Class members fill out T-charts identifying stressors associated with school, parents, friends, and life then list coping strategies that can help with each category.

You know hydrophobia, arachnophobia, and maybe even ophidiophobia, but do you recall Zeteophobia, the least famous phobia of all? As part of a Career Development series, job seekers investigate the power of zeteophobia, the...

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...

Students develop an awareness of the behaviors signaling that a friend may be in trouble with alcohol or drugs of abuse. They practice ways to encourage a friend to seek out adult help by viewing a video, role-playing situations, writing...

Students participate in exploring and examining several cross-curricular, hands-on games that encourage active learning and exercise at the same time. They assess games like Freeze Tag, Parts of Speech games and a healthy heart game, etc.

Students explore the trait of integrity. For this character education lesson, students read letters by Steve Williams pertaining to jobs that help others. Students discuss the jobs WilIiams shares as well as integrity in their lives.

As a follow-up activity to being introduced to the Dewey Decimal Classification System, 3rd graders listen to poems from Jackie Mims Hopkins' book The Shelf Elf Helps Out and sort book jackets by category and call number.

The lesson plan would make a stimulating introduction to a space unit. It is highly imaginative and suggests that the teacher darken the room to set the mood and dress as an astronaut. Teams are asked to help solve an imaginary problem...

Boost physical activity as well as concept proficiency with brief bursts of movement. Before taking a test, scholars vote on five exercises to complete from a set of 8 cards. After two minutes, learners begin their work with heightened...

Begin this activity by estimating the cost of a college education and comparing it to actual data. After reading an article, high school seniors discuss the processes of the college loan corporations. They listen to a lecture about how...

Share pupil responses to an interactive slide show about a design initiative intended to help the world's poor. The class works in groups to brainstorm ideas, and then prepares sketches of their own design solutions. Each rendering...

Students learn about wind at different altitudes above the earth. In this wind lesson plan, students use kites or balloons with attached streamers to observe the wind speed, wind turbulence and shear at different elevations. Students...

Why do people argue?  Use the article "A Holiday Medley, Off Key" to discuss the struggles that interfaith couples face when choosing to celebrate certain holidays. Then, in small groups, encourage learners to write dialogues that...

Middle and high schoolers remember their most memorable experiences, and then connect their own narrative with an exposition about the topic associated with their experience. This New York Times lesson would be a great addition to...

Help learners examine racial profiling of Arab-Americans and Middle Eastern Americans in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. They will be asked to look at beliefs, actions, and behavior towards this group of people...

Imagine dumping out a milk can and finding letters from one of the darkest moments in history! Scholars use Holocaust Reading Passages and research to discover how people recorded and hid history during the events of World War II. They...

Explore the current television rating system, its content descriptors, and the new V-chip technology that more readily allow parents to control their child's television viewing. Help learners develop a survey that will determine the pros...

Help your middle and high schoolers reflect on the responsibility of newspapers to act as a vehicle for 'everyday citizens' to voice their opinions. Then, using an article about the first day of the Senate impeachment trial of President...

High schoolers read primary source documents and identify several kinds of service projects conducted by Peace Corps Volunteers; young scholars identify criteria used by the Peace Corps for conducting service projects for the common good.