Wellness & Safety Teacher Resources

Find balance in your life and encourage your class to do the same with our comprehensive set of instructional ideas and activities on wellness and mind/body well-being. Understanding the mind-body connection is key to a person’s successful development. Help young learners focus on every aspect of their personal health, whether it’s mental, emotional, physical, social, or spiritual health, with Lesson Planet’s teacher-curated resources.

First, introduce class members to the idea of whole-body health with elementarymiddle school, and high school lessons on wellness. For younger learners, a short video helps them understand how to stay healthy, and older students can watch a video on Gilbert Ryle’s The Concept of Mind about the ways emotions can affect behavior.

The negative consequences of how mental and emotional health can affect physical health can be dire. Discuss the risk factors for drug addiction with a series of case studies, and follow up with a lesson on the ways to recover from addiction to prescription or other drugs.

Maintaining learners’ self-esteem can be tricky amidst puberty, peer pressure, and daily stress. Help them reflect on their self-worth with a workbook on several challenging situations, and a lesson that focuses on keeping a healthy body image. When discussing lifestyle changes, use a resource that examines how small daily improvements can contribute to long-term success.

Students need all the support they can get when it comes to their mental and emotional health. It’s your job to help support them—and it’s our job to support you and your curriculum needs.

Showing 800 resources
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Lesson Plan
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Health Smart Virginia

Mental Health PowerPoint and Notes

For Teachers 9th
A 15-slide presentation summarizes key concepts from the Mental Health unit designed for freshmen. Viewers record the information on the provided worksheets. The notes prepare learners for a game of jeopardy.
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Instructional Video9:06
TED-Ed

There's No Shame in Taking Care of Your Mental Health

For Students 6th - Higher Ed Standards
Stigma, shame, silence. A short, powerful video address why people don't take care of and seek help for their mental health and offers suggestions for what can be done.
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Lesson Plan
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health

My Life—My Mental Health

For Students 6th - 8th
Between peer pressure, an onslaught of hormones, and brand new responsibilities, the teenage years can be emotionally volatile. Equip young adults with coping mechanisms and a safe place to discuss their feelings with a guided...
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Writing
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Health Smart Virginia

Mental Health Journals

For Students 8th - 10th
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.
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PPT
Curated OER

Helping Adolescents Deal with Peer Pressure

For Teachers 12th
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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mental Health 3: Mental Health Through Literature

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine the impact and portrayal of mental illness in literature. They develop thier ideas about mental health through the arts in this the third lesson on mental health.
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Worksheet
Curated OER

World Mental Health Day

For Students 5th - 10th
In this World Mental Health Day worksheet, students complete activities such as reading a passage, matching phrases, fill in the blanks, choose the correct word, multiple choice, unscramble the words, sequencing, unscramble the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

My Mental Health

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Pupils define mental health and complete a worksheet about themselves.  In this mental health lesson plan, students evaluate themselves as they score their worksheet.  Pupils discuss critical thinking questions about their...
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Activity
Bethel School District

Health Triangle Self Assessment

For Students 7th - 12th
Measure health as a triangle, with each side representing different aspects of health: physical, emotional/mental, and social. High schoolers complete a self-assessment of their health in all three areas before scoring their progress and...
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Lesson Plan
Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Maintaining Your Health and Well-Being

For Teachers 9th - 12th
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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mental Illness: Could It Happen to Me?

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students investigate the effects of depression and the brain's influence on metal illness. The factors that may affect a person's ability to develop depression are examined in this lesson.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Can I Do?

For Teachers K - 2nd
Learners explore ways to handle conflict. In this mental health lesson, students investigate ways to tell others how they feel and discover that identifying their emotions can help them resolve conflict.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What can I do?

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students identify feelings and explore positive ways to handle conflict.  In this mental health lesson students discuss feelings and how to constructively handle them.
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Lesson Plan
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Health Smart Virginia

Mental Health/Social Emotional Skills

For Teachers 10th
Looking for social-emotional resources? Check out this seven-page packet that includes activity and instructional activity ideas, as well as links to information resources that support the social and emotional development of tenth graders.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

You're the Expert Now

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students evaluate information about mental illness for accuracy and relevance as they examine brochures developed in the lesson by their classmates. Data about mental illness is revisited and adjusted for additional information obtained...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

In Their Own Words

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars watch a video of people telling about their experiences with a mental illness. They compare and contrast the life stories they saw to reinforce how mental illnesses are biological illnesses that affect a person's thoughts,...
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Lesson Plan
Pecentral.org

Personal Wellness Inventory

For Students 9th - 12th
How healthy are you really? High schoolers assess the aspects of physical, mental, and social health in their lives before applying them to various templates and discerning the unhealthy habits that they can work on changing.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Too Large to be a Lunatic Asylum: South Carolina’s Mental Health

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders examine the history of South Carolina's mental institutions. In this South Carolina history lesson, 8th graders discover details about asylums built in the state in the 1800's. Students analyze primary sources about mental...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Good Mental Health Word Search

For Students 10th - 11th
In this word search worksheet, students identify fifty words related to good mental health in a word puzzle. Examples include hormones, self esteem, and depressed.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Human Organism

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students identify their feelings and learn constructive ways of handling conflict. In this human mental health lesson, students identify their feelings, learn how to tell others about their feelings, and learn how to resolve conflict....
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Instructional Video2:59
Curated OER

Arrested Development: Pride

For Teachers Pre-K - K
Everyone should be proud of their heritage, capabilities, and who they are. This song shares the ways the people on Sesame Street are proud of themselves and accept themselves for who they are.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mental Health Scenarios

For Teachers 9th - 12th
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.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Human Behavior

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers are introduced to the study of human behavior and develop their ideas about the importance of understanding mental health.
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Unit Plan
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Together Counts

Foundations of Wellness

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
You may be physically healthy, but what about mentally and emotionally? How is your social health? Kindergartners and first and second graders learn about the importance of maintaining their health in all aspects of their lives with a...