Christeen Glass * Mental Health Lesson Plan * Grades 6-8
Title: How to Handle Stress
Author: Megan Summers
Source: teAchnology, the online teacher resource
Publication: Teachnology, Inc.
Date: 2012
How to access: http://www.teach-nology.com
Description:
This lesson plan involves how to teach students how to identify and manage stress. The teacher uses various handouts or worksheets that help a student understand the factors that cause stress, how stress affects the body, and effective and ineffective ways to deal with stress. The author also refers to various activities that focus on emotions that cause stress, behaviors that eliminate stress and stress management. Lastly, the lesson plan closes with great ideas for a “stress-less” gift bag for students.
(Gifts: an eraser to erase all your mistakes, a penny so you are never “broke,” a rubber band so you can stretch beyond your limits without breaking, string to tie everything back together when it falls apart, marbles to replace the ones you lost, and hugs and kisses to remind you that someone cares).
Why the Best:
I really enjoyed this lesson plan and think that the author has some great ideas to share with students. Our lives are so busy and distracted with technology that a “quiet time” is so needed and even craved. Students don’t practice being kind to themselves, nor do adults; something I think we all need to practice. When teachers and students are in a mindful state a lot more learning and teaching can happen.
Ease of Implementation:
Teaching stress management is so beneficial and really does not require any material items, so the ease of implementing this lesson plan is at 100% ease. The closing portion of the lesson plan I think is really important. How often does everyone place unattainable expectations on ourselves and I think simple trinkets for students really have an impact. In fact I even wear a rubber band at times to snap me back into reality.
How integrate:
This can definitely be integrated in a health class. I would focus the curriculum on healthy relationships. I think you could also incorporate aspects of Social Studies and of course Science, in particular; anatomy and physiology.
Activity:
(Transcendental Meditation – breathing). I will ask everyone to stand up, close their eyes, take some deep breaths and to focus on their body. I want everyone to attempt to watch their breath from the inside, relax their bodies and stand in silence with their minds “OFF.” After everyone is relaxed, I MAY, pop a balloon. (This was the grabber for the lesson plan!)
HBO:
- HBO 4 Prevent and manage emotional stress and anxiety in healthy ways.
- HBO 5 Use self control and impulse control strategies to promote health
MEH:
- MEH 1.2.2 Identify appropriate ways to experience and deal with feelings.
- MEH 1.5.5 Describe appropriate ways to experience and deal with emotions.
- MEH 1.5.11 Identify positive and negative ways to deal with stress and anxiety.
- MEH 1.5.16 Identify personal stressors at home, in school and with friends.
- MEH 1.5.17 Identify characteristics of someone who has self-control.
Lesson Plan : How To Handle Stress
| Teacher Name: | Megan Summers |
| Grade: | Grade 7-8 |
| Subject: | PE and Health |
| Topic: | Stress Management |
| Content: | Mental and Emotional Health Length of Session: 60 minutes |
| Objectives: | 1. Students will be able to define stress, stress-or, stress response, distress, eustress. 2. Students will list the factors that cause stress in their lives. 3. Students will recognize the effects of stress on their health. 4. Students will describe what body changes they feel when encountered with a stressful situation. 5. Students will be able to define effective and ineffective ways to deal with stress. 6. Students will be able to list and explain 5 techniques for managing stress. |
| Materials: | Worksheets with columns on it for stress situations/managements Worksheets that show the effects of stress on a person 6 cans already labeled with emotions Bag Balloon (optional) Scissors Plastic bags, erasers, string, marbles, hugs, kisses, pennies, and rubber bands for the entire class |
| Introduction: | Grabber: I will pop a balloon that is hiding under the desk in the front of the room. This will startle the class and evoke actions from their bodies that they cannot help. I will ask what happened to their bodies. (For example, pupil�s bigger, heartbeat faster, muscles tense). I will also tell them what I noticed that they may not even know happened. Or To have your students truly experience stress right then and there within the classroom, pose this little “trick” at the beginning of the lesson…Have students put all their books away, take out a sheet of paper and a pen. Explain to them that they are taking a pop exam that will be worth (name a percentage) of their grade. It will be an oral exam and if you miss a question, you will NOT being going back to repeat yourself. Then ask them questions they’ve never heard before, on subjects other than health, and topics they might never have been taught before. Once you see that your students are stressing out, you can stop and explain to them that the way their body just felt is the first stage of the G-A-S. |
| Development: | Activity 1: � We will first explore the concept of stress. I will show the class a PowerPoint presentation that explains the idea of stressors. I will also explain distress and eustress. � We will, as a class, brainstorm to come up with different situations that we consider “stressful”. We will write these on the board. We will discuss if any of these situations can be avoided. Activity 2 (Bag it): � After coming up with stressful situations, I will show the effects of stress on the body. I will begin by asking the class what kind of emotions they feel when they are stressed? I will have 6 cans on the front table. They will be labeled with a different emotion such as mad, sad, scared, frustrated, and tense and ignored. I will ask one student to come forward and they will be given a bag. � They will be asked what feelings they have felt in the past day. If they felt any of the emotions listed on the cans, then they can put them in the bag. These are emotions that stress either brought on or that because of the emotion they have stressed. Either way, it is placed in the bag. � They then must carry the bag around on their back for the next 5 minutes. This adds a lot of added weight to their back. It is not a good feeling to have to carry this around. It will visually show the class that stress has a harmful physical effect on people’s bodies. � During the PowerPoint I will show them a picture/handout that explains what the body goes through when stressed. |
| Practice: | Activity 3: � I will then talk about ways to manage stress. There are certain behaviors that they can choose that will help eliminate or reduce the stress in their lives. � These behaviors are also good for their health. Students will be given a worksheet that they will work on with a partner. They will use situations from activity 1 that cause them stress to fill in one side of it. They will then come up with ways to practice stress management for each situation. As a class, we will compare stress management skills. |
| Closure: | I will ask the class a few questions about what we had talked about. What is stress? What is distress? How many stages does the body go through? What are some stress management skills? We will then make a “Stress less” bag as a reminder to practice the stress management skills when we are stressed or see someone who is stressed. To make the bag, I will give the students a card that tells the ingredients and what each of them means in terms of trying to be stress-free. The students will then go through and get each ingredient and put them into bags with the card. They can keep the bag for themselves or anyone else that would like it. |
| Evaluation: | The students will hand in the worksheet that describes their stressful situations and stress management skills to help their stress. The teacher will be able to evaluate what they learned about stress management. Their participation in class will also help determine what they understand about the concepts being taught. |
| Teacher Reflections: | Recipe for “Stress-Less Bags”: A Reminder to be “Stress-Less” Eraser: To make all your mistakes disappear. Penny: So that you will never be broke. Rubber Band: To help you stretch beyond your limits without breaking. String: To tie everything together when it falls apart. Marbles: To replace the ones you have lost. Hugs & Kisses: To remind you someone cares. |