Mental Health Literacy
Mental Health and High School Curriculum Guide - Version 3
A 171-page curriculum provides educators with the information they need to help and support high schoolers' mental health. The curriculum targets five domains: learning how to maintain good mental health, learning about mental disorders...
Health Smart Virginia
Mental Health/Social Emotional Skills
A 7-page packet of activity ideas, lesson plans, and information resources provides instructors of high school freshmen a wealth of materials to support teaching the concepts in a Health Smart unit.
Health Smart Virginia
Health/Social Emotional Skills
Designed for instructors, a seven-page packet provides an overview of the Health Smart unit for eighth-graders. The resource includes the objectives and goals of the unit, details suggested procedures and provides links to additional...
Health Smart Virginia
Social Emotional Skills Lessons Overview
Sometimes the hardest part of planning any unit of instruction is determining the activities that reinforce the concepts of the lessons and support the development of student skills. This first resource in the Health Smart series...
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
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
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 instructional activity 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...
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
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
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...
Health Smart Virginia
Shake It Off
It requires more than a twitch to shake off stress. But with the help of the stress management strategies taught in a very dynamic lesson, freshmen can learn to do so. Class members watch videos, examine an infographic, read an article,...
Health Smart Virginia
Stepping Up to Depression and Suicide
Health Smart provides a activity that shows middle schoolers how they can step up and help someone exhibiting self-harming behaviors. After learning the signs and symptoms of depression and suicide, teams research local resources...
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.
Health Smart Virginia
Shark Tank - Mental Illnesses
Young entrepreneurs research and develop a Shark Tank-style pitch for a solution to help people who have a mental illness. After the presentations, research groups complete a rubric for each product and vote for the one product they feel...
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
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...
Nemours KidsHealth
Feeling Sad: Grades 3-5
Everyone feels sad sometimes—aide in the coping process with two activities. In the first activity, scholars discuss sadness then complete a worksheet detailing ways four peers can identify their feelings and ways to feel better. The...
Health Smart Virginia
Mental Health/Social Emotional Skills
Looking for social-emotional resources? Check out this seven-page packet that includes activity and lesson ideas, as well as links to information resources that support the social and emotional development of tenth graders.
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...
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 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...