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 361 resources
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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
Students explore ways to handle conflict. In this mental health lesson plan, 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 lesson plan 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 instructional activity by their classmates. Data about mental illness is revisited and adjusted for additional...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

In Their Own Words

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students 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 activity, 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
Learners 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
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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
Students 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...
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Unit Plan
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Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment

Health and the Whole Person

For Teachers 8th
Health is more than measuring your blood pressure and eating nutritious foods. Eighth graders discuss the factors that play into an individual's health, including spirituality, social life and friendships, emotional stability, cognitive...
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Handout
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Delaware Health and Social Services

Set Your Mind, Set Your Goals

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Becoming a woman can be overwhelming for girls. An educational resource assists female learners in setting goals for their reproductive choices, physical health, and emotional and mental well-being.
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Activity
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Health Smart Virginia

Shark Tank - Mental Illnesses

For Students 8th - 10th
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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Cures" Chart

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students chart the "cures" for people with disabilities. In this disabilities lesson, students compare and contrast the care and treatment of people with disabilities in the past and present. Students write accurate summaries presented...
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Lesson Plan
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Health Smart Virginia

Mental Health Stress

For Teachers 9th
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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Unit Plan
TeenMentalHealth

Know Before You Go Teacher’s Guide

For Teachers 12th
A 124-page guide provides instructors with what they need to know before launching a seven-lesson thematic unit designed for high school seniors on issues they will face after graduation. Topics covered include mental health and...
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Lesson Plan
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Health Smart Virginia

Mental Health/Social Emotional Skills

For Teachers 9th
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.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mental Health 2: Bedlam

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students are oriented to the kinds of treatment and care the mentally ill received prior to the 19th century-using the example of England's legendary Bedlam, the world's oldest mental health asylum.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Three Elements of Health

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers identify and discuss three important elements of health: physical, social, and mental health. They go into detail about each and spend a lot of time discussing the dangers of smoking, drinking alcohol, and eating a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Discrimination and Media: Focus on Mental Health

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Students explore discrimination by the media. For this media awareness lesson, students examine stigmas concerning mental illnesses as they are portrayed in the media.