Health Smart Virginia
Parachute Stress
Stress isn't necessarily a bad thing. The key, however, is learning how to appreciate eustress and manage distress. "Parachute Stress," a instructional activity designed for high school freshmen, has them identify 10 major stressors as...
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...
Canadian Mental Health Association
Busting Stress: Stress Management Lesson Plans
Feeling stressed? Who are you going to call? Why stress busters, of course! A 15-page booklet includes activities designed for tweens and teens. Participants first take a stress test to determine their level of stress. They then learn...
Overcoming Obstacles
Who Are You?
Personal involvement in any class is essential! That's the takeaway from the first lesson in the Getting Started module. Class members participate in games to learn each other's names and details. The goal is to create an atmosphere...
Overcoming Obstacles
Gathering Information and Making the Commitment
Scholars create and commit to a contract for their Service Learning project. The contract details who is responsible for which tasks on the action plan they developed in a previous lesson.
Sacramento Country Day School
7th Grade Character Development Workshops
Be proactive. Begin with the end in mind. Synergize. These are just a few strategies outlined in Sean Covey's ground-breaking best-seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. With a series of five character development workshops...
Western Justice Center
Analyzing Conflict
Conflicts happen, conflicts grow, and learning how to deal with conflict is what this lesson wants learners to know. A series of short videos teach viewers how to identify the source of a conflict, how to identify different types of...
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum
What Does It Mean to be a Good Citizen?
Civics scholars are challenged to determine what it means to be a good citizen. Class members select three adults in their lives and interview them to discover what the term "good citizen" means to each of these people. The class then...
University of Maine
Don’t Fall Into the Thinking Trap
The final lesson in a three-part healthy living series has class members examine five thinking traps that distort how they perceive themselves and/or situations. They also learn strategies that help stop the downward spiral and get them...
Florida Department of Health
Exploring Healthy Relationships Unit
A four-lesson unit on healthy relationships begins by helping individuals develop a positive sense of self-worth by identifying their own positive characteristics. Participants also examine data from the YRBS Online Tool about the...
California Department of Education
Hitting the Write Note: Writing a Proposal
To whom it may concern ... Scholars undergo the process of writing a letter to an authority figure. The lesson asks writers to compose a formal letter requesting a music therapy space. Pupils learn how to submit a project proposal to any...
Health Smart Virginia
Suicide Prevention: Finding the Words
Provide young people with the information they need to identify the warning signs for depression and the risk factors for suicide. The lesson helps high schoolers learn positive coping skills, role-play how to support friends who may be...
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.
Health Smart Virginia
Mindfulness Breathing
The more you practice, the better you get. That's the big idea behind a lesson for middle schoolers about using mindfulness breathing techniques to reduce stress. Class members practice Star Breathing and Rainbow Breathing exercises and...
Health Smart Virginia
Mindfulness Yoga
Standing pose, tree pose, warrior pose, easy pose. Middle schoolers learn several basic yoga exercises and poses that can help them relax. They also keep a four-week stress log to track stressful situations and how they dealt with them.
Health Smart Virginia
Decision Making
Researchers have discovered that when making decisions, teens' brains function differently than the brains of adults. After reading an article about this research, middle schoolers learn about a five-step decision-making process and...
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
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.
Overcoming Obstacles
Giving and Earning Respect
RESPECT! High schoolers learn what it means, how to earn it, who deserves it, and why in the first of five lessons in this section of the Overcoming Obstacles course. After brainstorming a list of people they think to deserve respect and...
Overcoming Obstacles
What Is Overcoming Obstacles?
Just like becoming proficient at playing an instrument or sport requires practice, so too does developing the skills to overcome life's obstacles. That's the big idea in the first lesson in a life skills course. To begin, participants...
Nebraska Department of Education
Time Management
As eighth-graders move on to high school, strong time management skills become critical. As part of a career Planning & Management unit, scholars learn how to analyze their time and consider how their choices impact their ability to...
Nebraska Department of Education
Work: Love It or Hate It?
Future job seekers interview adults who love their work and ones that dislike their work. After reflecting on what they learned in a whole-class discussion, participants create a mission statement that details what they want and don't...
Nebraska Department of Education
Managing My Money
Rent, food, utilities, gas, clothing, taxes! It all adds up. As part of a career planning and management unit, high school sophomores learn about financial planning and budgeting.