Health Smart Virginia
Summative Assessment
As a summative assessment of the Health Smart unit, middle schoolers create a five-chapter autobiography demonstrating what they have learned about self and social-awareness, decision-making, and communication skills.
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Relationship Skills and Communication
Relationship and communication skills are the heart of a lesson that focuses on passive, aggressive, and assertive communication. After examining examples of each type, teams develop an assertive, win/win solution that resolves a conflict.
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Social Awareness: Empathy
As part of the unit on social, emotional health, seventh-graders examine the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. Pairs then engage in an activity that analyzes a scenario and role play resolution strategies that show...
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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...
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Social Networking and You
The positive and negative impacts of social networking are the focus of a powerful lesson for high school freshmen. Class members explore the risks of oversharing online and watch a video of one girl's experience. The lesson ends with...
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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...
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Networking
Sometimes it really is about who you know. High School freshmen engage in a series of activities to learn about the importance of networking.
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Parachute Stress
Stress isn't necessarily a bad thing. The key, however, is learning how to appreciate eustress and manage distress. "Parachute Stress," a lesson designed for high school freshmen, has them identify 10 major stressors as well as the...
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Cyber Tattoo
Designed to inform high school freshmen about the ramifications of sharing personal information through social media, this lesson focuses on sexting. Investigators first check the validity of websites using a Website Evaluation Tool....
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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,...
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Socially Conscious Social Networking
A powerful, award-winning video launches a lesson about socially conscious social networking. After watching the video and engaging in a full class discussion, individuals share their ideas about healthy social networking in a podcast or...
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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...
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Mental Health Stress
Improve circulation! Strengthen muscles! Reduce hypertension! Research has shown that stress balls provide these and many other benefits. Freshmen create their own stress balls in a fun, engaging activity.
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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...
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What Is Mindfulness?
Stop. Breathe. Think. A richly detailed lesson on mindfulness introduces freshmen to meditation as a coping strategy to deal with stress.
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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...
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"SuperBetter" Stress Management
The goal of this Health Smart lesson 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 in their lives...
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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...
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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,...
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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.
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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...
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Stressed Out
Stress, eustress, distress. A step-by-step plan leads middle schoolers through a lesson about coping with stress. To gather background information, scholars watch a presentation, examine a list of positive coping skills, and read...
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Social Emotional Skills Lessons Overview
The Unit 1 - Overview of the Health Smart Grade 6 series provides instructors with the rationale and goals of a five-resource unit designed to support scholars' social and emotional development. Packed with activity ideas, the resource...
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Happiness
There's power in a flower. After taking a happiness survey and watching a PowerPoint about the habits of happy people, pupils decorate a paper flower with six positive affirmation statements that they feel they can benefit from reading...