Middle school lesson plan long term impacts of stress

Focus: These lesson plans focus on teaching mental wellness to students. These lesson plans are created for middle school students, but could easily be adapted for elementary or high school students. These lesson plans are designed to be used as supplementary material within class time, but also meet many health outcomes.

• W-7.1) compare personal health choices to standards for health; e.g., physical activity, nutrition, relaxation, sleep, reflection.
• W-7.8) analyze and appreciate differing personal perspectives on safety; e.g., physical, emotional, social safety.
• W-7.10) identify and examine potential sources of physical/emotional/social support.
• W-7.11) identify characteristics of resiliency; e.g., problem-solving skills, positive self- esteem, social bonding.
• R-7.1) analyze how thinking patterns influence feelings; e.g., positive thinking, all or nothing thinking, overgeneralization, perfectionism.
• R-7.2) analyze the need for short-term and long-term support for emotional concerns; e.g., family, friends, schools, professionals.
• R-7.4) analyze and practise constructive feedback; e.g., giving and receiving.
• L-7.7) determine and use knowledge and skills of the class to promote school and community health.

Lesson Plans

• Lesson 1 - Positive Self-Image
  • Information: Self-image is the idea one has of one’s abilities, appearance, and personality. Self-image can be positive, giving a person confidence in their thoughts and actions, or negative, making a person doubtful of their ideas and capabilities.
  • Purpose: Teaching students about self-image can be considered important. Students with positive self-image are more likely to perform well in school, as they are confident in their abilities and willing to contribute to class and small-group discussions.
  • Activity: Students will choose one positive word to describe themselves (e.g., warrior) and write it on a piece of paper. Students can then decorate their paper, and these can be placed in the classroom for the duration of the semester to remind students of their positive attributes.
  • Resources: http://www.mtstcil.org/skills/image-intro.html
  • Information: Mindfulness is a technique in which an individual becomes aware of the present moment, while calmly accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. Mindfulness meditation is the act of leading oneself or others through the act of meditation, where one focuses on accepting feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.
  • Purpose: Teaching students about mindfulness can be considered important, as it is an important technique in managing their emotions, and can contribute positively to their ability to focus.
  • Activity: Begin with a guided imagery exercise (http://www.themindfulword.org/2012/guided-imagery-scripts-children-anxiety-stress/). Afterwards, ask students to describe how they felt during the activity and how they feel following the activity. Ask students what kind of mindful activities they can use in their daily life, and when they might use them.
  • Resources: http://www.themindfulword.org/2012/guided-imagery-scripts-children-anxiety-stress/
  • Information: Self-esteem is having confidence in one’s own worth or abilities. Similar to self-image, students can have a positive self-esteem or negative self-esteem. Positive self-esteem leads to students being more outgoing and believing in their worth and the products they put forward, while negative self-esteem can lead to the opposite.
  • Purpose: Teaching students about self-esteem can be considered important, as it directly impacts the way students feel about themselves, how they treat others and how they might perform on academic tasks.
  • Activity: Begin by having students write their name on a piece of blank paper. Then, have students get up with a pen, and walk around the room writing positive things about each other on one another’s papers. Afterwards, ask students how the activity made them feel. How did complimenting other people make them feel? How did receiving positive comments make them feel?
  • Resources: https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/self-esteem.html
  • Information: Stress, when talking about mental wellness, can be defined as a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. While stress often presents differently in kids (mood swings, acting out, changes in sleep patterns, etc.) there is no question that kids, too, get stressed out from the demands put on them by things such as school, extra-curricular activities, and home life.
  • Purpose: Teaching students about stress is important, because once students learn to recognize the signs of stress in their life, they can begin working on stress management skills, which will improve their mental health significantly.
  • Activity: Have students colour pre-made mandalas or colouring sheets. Colouring, even for adults, is a tried and true method of mindfulness, which is proven to reduce stress. Ask students how they felt before the activity, and how they feel following the activity.
  • Resources: http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/stress.html#kha_21, http://kidshealth.org/en/kids/stress.html
  • Information: Anxiety can be defined as a feeling of worry, nervousness or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. Anxiety presents similarly in kids as it does in adults (excessive worry, lack of sleep, restlessness or fatigue during waking hours, trouble concentrating, irritability, etc.) and can even develop into anxiety disorders.
  • Purpose: Teaching students about anxiety can be beneficial, as the more students know about anxiety, the more equipped they are to combat it.
  • Activity: For this lesson, have a class discussion about what anxiety is and brainstorm ways that we can cope with anxiety. Some ways of coping with anxiety include relaxation techniques and breathing exercises (mindfulness). Many of the topics students brainstorm will likely be linked to mindfulness, so it may be useful to revisit the topic of mindfulness. Other ways of coping with anxiety include getting enough sleep, getting enough exercise, etc. Make a poster with the class about ways to manage anxiety, and put it up in the classroom as a reminder for students (and yourself!)
  • Resources: http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/anxiety-disorders.html, https://www.adaa.org/tips-manage-anxiety-and-stress
  • Information: Self-Regulation, or Emotional Self-Regulation, can be defined as the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range of emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to both promote and delay spontaneous emotional reactions. In other words, it is the ability to feel in control of our emotions, instead of letting our emotions control us. For kids, emotional regulation can be especially difficult.
  • Purpose: Teaching students about emotions and self-regulation is especially important, as it helps with classroom management and student interactions with both their peers and themselves. Helping students understand their emotions (what they’re feeling and why) helps with self-regulation.
  • Activity: Provide students with blank sheets of paper and pencils or markers. Play various types of music that are designed to elicit various emotional responses (for example, happy music, sad music, angry music) and instruct students to draw what they’re feeling in response to the music (using colours that reflect their mood, drawing shapes that reflect their mood). Afterwards, have a discussion about emotions and how students identify them, and how they act when they feel certain ways. Discuss ways that students could act when dealing with certain emotions (for example, anger).
  • Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_self-regulation, http://www.todaysparent.com/family/education/self-regulation-techniques-for-children/
  • Information: Care Plans are plans that we can use when feeling worried, anxious, stressed, or dealing with extreme emotion. Care Plans are filled with ways that we can cope when dealing with any of the above issues. Things that can be included in care plans are things such as favourite movies to watch, favourite books to read, people to call, etc.
  • Purpose: Creating personal care plans with students provides students the chance to utilize the skills they have learned from past units and implement different coping methods into their lives. Students have the opportunity to think about the positives in their lives and write them down to save for a time when they’re feeling negative emotions.
  • Activity: Have students write personal care plans and seal them in an envelope. Instruct them to keep them somewhere close to them (their locker, by their bed, etc.) in case they ever need to use them. You can also create a care plan with the entire class, using your own ideas and the ideas of students to form a plan that all students (and yourself) can use when feeling anxious, stressed, worried, etc.
  • Resources: http://au.professionals.reachout.com/developing-a-self-care-plan
  • Information: This lesson is designed to be a continuation of the care plan lesson. Self-care kits involve taking many of the aspects involved in a self-care plan and creating an actual kit filled with resources to help an individual cope.
  • Purpose: Creating actual self-care kits in addition to care plans helps students follow through on the coping methods that they have laid out in their care plans. This is a culmination activity that wraps up this entire mental wellness unit.
  • Activity: Provide students with paper bags that they can decorate. You can either have students bring in items that they would use for self-care or provide items for them to place in their self-care kit, such as journals, pencils, bath bombs, fuzzy socks, gum, etc. (many, if not all of these items could be purchased at a dollar store). Encourage student to place these self-care kits alongside their care plans and to use them whenever necessary.
  • Resources: http://www.thechaosandtheclutter.com/archives/create-your-own-anti-anxiety-kit-for-children, http://tthumbelina.blogspot.ca/2014/10/self-care-kit.html