5 Easy Mental Health Activities for Students

Today we’re going to talk about three 5 easy mental health activities for your students.

As of late, there have been so many concerns about our children struggling with mental health issues. As this is the month of mental health awareness, we’re going to look at how we can support our students so that they can build strong social and emotional habits.

The following activities can be used both, in a classroom or at home with individual children.

It’s important to start work on a child’s mental health as early as possible to prevent any future mental health concerns. At least one, if not all of these activities should be implemented at least once a day or once every few days on a regular basis so that they become a natural part of your child’s routine.  

Actionable Steps:

#1. Calm Down Strategies

Teach children how to understand and regulate their emotions so that they can articulate how they’re feeling and the reasons behind it. This can be done in the following way:

1. Create a small calm down area for your children to go to when they need a place to gather their thoughts and emotions
2. Talk to them about different types of emotions and strategies they can use to calm themselves down.
3. Journaling methods so that both, you and your students can reflect on the child’s thought process and growth.

You can find all of this listed in an easy-to-use and step-by-step format by clicking HERE.

#2. Hands-on Activities

Project-based learning allows children to engage the creative side of their brain so that they can assemble, create and innovate. This caters to each child’s strengths which will excite and motivate them to continue learning. These lessons are typically cross-curricular so they cover a range of curricular content and learning needs. You can find done-for-you resources by clicking HERE.

The following is an example of what these activities look like:

#3. Musical Awareness

Music is good for the soul. It allows children to calm down and can redirect them quickly. It also helps to lower blood pressure, boost memory and ease anxiety. You can integrate it into your class in the following ways:

1. Play soft instrumental music in the background to keep the noise level down so that children can focus.
2. Add this to your art lesson by having children create and share their own musical pieces. This can be done individually or in a group setting.
3. Play music to encourage transitions.

#4. Have A Break

Give your students time for breaks to recharge. This will help them focus better and reduce anxiety about transitions or specific topics.

1. Brain Break: Do some art or quiet work together that doesn’t require much brain power.
2. Body Break: Have your students up and moving. They can dance to music online such as a playlist to Just Dance, or have them engage in exercises like doing as many crunches as they can in 30 seconds.

#5. Practice Gratitude

Teach your children about the importance of having an abundance mindset with the following activities. When they come at life from this perspective, they aren’t always looking at what they lack but learn how to enjoy the people and things that are already in their lives.

Each of the packages come with writing prompts and space to either write or write and draw, depending on the age level. This can be a part of your journaling or language arts lesson. All you have to do is print them out and put them in a folder for each child.

Recap:

Let’s recap really quickly. Today, we looked at the following:

1. The importance of integrating mental health activities into your curriculum.
2. Five easy ways to do it: calm down strategies, hands-on activities, musical awareness, have a break, and practice gratitude.

Free Resources:

In the mean time, if you’re feeling stressed out, overwhelmed and burnout, then I encourage you to check out the following: FREE MASTERCLASS: Systematic Plan to Super Passionate.

Next Steps:

If you found this video beneficial, would you do me a favor? Share this with your family, your friends, your loved ones, your co-workers or someone who you think could benefit from this. Thank you!

I’ll see you next Friday at 5:30pm PST.

Until I see you next time, remember to create, experience & teach from the heart.

Take care,

Charlotte