US National Library of Medicine
Mental Health Awareness Project
Here is a thoughtful group assignment for researching mental health disorders. Team members focus on a different aspect of a chosen disorder: symptoms, treatments, and community resources.
Health Smart Virginia
Face of Mental Illness
To develop an understanding of the stigma surrounding mental health problems and the impact stigma and discrimination have on those who would seek help, groups investigate the symptoms of and risk factors associated with eight different...
Curated OER
Helping Adolescents Deal with Peer Pressure
Designed by a mental health center, this presentation is meant to educate educators how to help teens face peer pressure. Tips are provided for identifying at-risk youth and bullying situations. This would be a poignant topic to include...
Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Maintaining Your Health and Well-Being
Future counselors and mental health professionals engage in two activities that give them insight into careers in human services. First, groups of four compare and contrast health and wellness apps and share their findings with the...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Health and the Whole Person
To begin the second year of a health and wellness course, class members review the aspects of social, physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual health investigated the previous year. After completing the provided self-assessment...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Health and the Whole Person
Health is more than measuring your blood pressure and eating nutritious foods. Eighth graders discuss the factors that play into an individual's health, including spirituality, social life and friendships, emotional stability, cognitive...
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
Discrimination and Media: Focus on Mental Health
Students explore discrimination by the media. In this media awareness lesson plan, students examine stigmas concerning mental illnesses as they are portrayed in the media.
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...
Nemours KidsHealth
Stress: Grades 9-12
Everyone feels stress from time to time, but how can you move past it? A seven-page packet of activities guides high schoolers through the process of recognizing and managing their stress. The resource includes discussion topics, a quick...
Sensory Connection Program
The Tree of Self Esteem Game
Create a respectful classroom community and boost children's self-esteem with this collaborative activity. Working in small groups, children take turns filling in each other's tree of self-esteem with compliments, personal strengths, and...
Health Smart Virginia
Surviving High School Awareness Campaign
To demonstrate what they have learned in the Health Smart unit, sophomores design a resource for incoming ninth-graders that includes what they consider the most important information they gleaned from one of the eight topics studied.
Curated OER
Mental Health Scenarios
Students define various mental disorders and list some of their signs and symptoms. They identify mental disorders after being given hypothetical scenarios. They share their results with the class.
Nemours KidsHealth
Suicide Prevention: Grades 9-12
The teenage years are tough. Internal and external pressures lead 1 in 15 high schoolers to attempt suicide. Two activities focusing on suicide prevention provide class members with information about when and how to get help for...
Curated OER
Striking Out Stress- A "Gallery Walk" Activity
Students discuss ways to cope with stressful situations. For this mental health lesson, students identify stressful situations and how they would respond to them. Students discuss their feelings.
Curated OER
Our Interests
Third graders discover what mental health is. They discuss examples and draw pictures of themselves taking care of their mental health. They write a story about a time when they felt good about themselves.
beyondblue
Me, Myself, I: Self-Concept and Self-Esteem
Celebrate the positive qualities of young learners with this collection of self-esteem worksheets. After first listing their interests and personal qualities, students go on to monitor their self-esteem over the course of a week,...
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...
Curated OER
What Can I Do?
Young scholars discuss feelings and ways to deal with problems. In this conflict resolution lesson plan, students identify their feelings and learn ways to resolve conflicts with others.
Curated OER
The Abc's of Healthy Eating
Students examine healthy eating as it relates to physical and mental health. In this the abc's of healthy eating instructional activity, students discuss the effects of unhealthy eating habits. Students examine the My Pyramid Food...
Centre for Clinical Interventions
Social Skills Treatment Programme
Even though they may not be tested on standardized assessments, social skills are vital for students to develop during their years in school. Through a series of discussions, activities, and role-playing exercises, these lessons teach...
Just Health Action
What Makes a Community Healthy?
Young people have an opportunity to make it a beautiful day in their neighborhoods with an activity that asks them to identify what is healthy and unhealthy in their community and develop some ideas about what they can do to fix the...
Curated OER
Calcium Counts
Students evaluate the food pyramid. In this dairy nutrition lesson plan, students identify the position of the milk group on the food pyramid, then determine their daily calcium requirement and how they can meet that requirement.
Whole Person Associates
Teen Self Esteem Workbook
Happy teens are healthy teens! Pupils embark on a self-reflective journey using a series of assessments and discussions to promote personal development. The lessons focus on identifying low and high self-esteem attitudes and behaviors,...