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Between new commitments, fluctuating hormones, and complicated peer relationships, teens may find their mental health is more volatile than ever. Address emotions, self-esteem, stress management, and social and emotional learning through a variety of youth mental health activities, including high-quality, customized instructional resources for any high school subject.
Good Group Mental Health Activities
Young people (and teachers) often find it difficult to talk about mental health. However, studies show that 4 out of 10 teenagers have chronic feelings of sadness or hopelessness, making high school an important time to talk about it.
Use these group assignments and brainstorming activities for high school students to practice talking about their emotional well-being and teach important mental health concepts for student reference.
- Thought, Feeling, Behavior: Have a group of storyboards and show a comic strip that shows the connections between a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and what the consequences might be.
- Shared Values: Small groups of students make a list of the values they share, and each student shares which three values are most important to them.
- Coping Skills Poster: Have groups research common coping skills, and create promotional posters to display during the weeks of testing.
- Yoga Breaks: Incorporate brain breaks into your instruction and lead your students in beginner-level yoga to reduce stress.
Break mental health discussions into small group channels
While whole group instruction can be helpful for larger mental health topics, small groups can benefit students in a more specific and targeted way. Use the stations to rotate small groups, allowing them to discuss various mental health topics.
SEL & ELA Channels for Mental Health Day | Health Activities and Microsystems
By: Bloom Books and Teaching
Grades: 6th-12th, Adult Education, Higher Education
Topics: Classroom Community, ELA, Social Emotional Learning
Whether you’re focusing on mental health in the classroom, recovering from a stressful test period, or planning a mini day, this wellness activity resource is a great addition to the classroom. Middle and high school students rotate through 6 SEL stations on positivity, gratitude, stress management, and more, each focusing on a different SEL skill.
Stress Management and Coping Skills Activities | Mental Health | FCS
Family and Consumer Science Class
Grades: 7th-10th
Topics: The Science of Family Consumers
This stress management resource includes a variety of mental health activities for high school students to work on coping skills. Five different activities become stations in the classroom, where groups learn different ways to handle stressful situations or anxiety disorders.
Individual Motivational Activities for Mental Health
For many students, mental health is a private matter. Whether high school students are working on emotional intelligence, self-regulation, or stress management, these mental health activities for teens can help them identify and promote better mental health practices.
- Emotional intelligence: Brainstorm a list of emotions on the board, and ask each student to choose one to represent in a painting, sculpture, or other art form.
- Coloring Pages for Teens: Print the silence coloring pages for youth to work on during quiet or stressful moments in the classroom.
- Mood playlist: Have students create playlists or songs to represent their feelings (Happy Playlist, Frustrated Playlist, Sad Playlist, etc.)
- Authentication Channel: Encourage students to write down at least 10 positive affirmations for themselves, and hang them around as lock screens on their phones.
Provide mental health and thought assessments
What do your teenagers really think of themselves? Ask them to think about and monitor important aspects of their mental health with worksheets and handouts that talk about self-confidence and self-esteem.
Mental Health Self-Esteem Worksheet Activities Middle School Counseling SEL
By: Calm and Happy Kids
Grades: 8th-11th
Topics: School Counseling, School Psychology, Social Emotional Learning
Empower students to build confidence and recover from stress and self-doubt with a set of worksheets focused on self-confidence. As high school students complete self-talk and self-improvement activities, and complete a 14-day self-esteem journal, they reflect on who they really are and work on self-care.
Amazing Careers in Academic Mental Health
If dealing with mental health in the classroom seems too difficult with a busy curriculum, find ways to wrap it up in academics. These mental health educational activities invite high school students to use mathematical, scientific, and critical thinking, as well as research skills, when considering important concepts in mental health.
- Science Courses: Have students research research on mental health, and then present the research’s findings and relevance in an easy-to-read poster or slide show.
- Measure Your Breathing: Encourage high school students to measure their breath and heart rate immediately before a stressful event (such as an exam or performance), then compare the results with the time after the stressful event is over to determine the rate of change.
- Mental Health History: Lead a research project on the history of a specific mental health issue, such as women’s mental health, institutionalization, or mood medication.
- Character Mental Health Research: Have students complete a book report by analyzing the character’s mental health changes and development throughout the novel.
Connect mental health awareness to ELA instruction
Integrating psychology concepts and ELA skills is a natural fit for students interested in their mental health. Use ELA-based resources to improve reading comprehension and mental health awareness in your classroom.
Adolescent Mental Health Awareness Reading Comprehension NO PREP | Anxiety Depression
By: SERENDIPIA Bilingual Services
Grades: 6th-12th
Topics: Close Reading, Psychology, Social Emotional Learning
Integrate reading and social-emotional learning skills with CCSS-aligned resources for mental health awareness. High school students read passages about important mental health topics, including depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and the warning signs of poor mental health, before answering reading comprehension questions and completing quick word searches and writing.
Faithful Writing Activities for Mental Health
Regardless of the subject area, high school writing prompts are tried and true mental health activities for teens. Whether they’re journaling, responding to focused information, or creative writing, high school students who write about their emotional state are able to reflect in a way that classroom instruction often cannot.
- Letter To You: Have students write a letter to their past self (about how they are doing now) or their future self (about how they hope to act in the future).
- My Perfect Day: Ask students to write a fictional account about a day when everything went very well in their lives.
- Daily gratitude: During warm writing sessions, students can write a few sentences about something they are grateful for that day.
- Sensitivity and POV: Write an interview of two fiction students talking about the same event but in completely different ways.
Track self-care and emotions with focused journals
Although the question “How are you today?” may seem simple, the answer may be difficult for many students. Guide high school students in tracking how they feel and how they care for themselves with mental health journal resources.
The Year of Mood Trackers
By: The Adventurous Class
Grades: 9th-12th
Subjects: Literacy, Health, Psychology
Teenagers may have many emotions, but they don’t always know how they feel. This mood tracker comes with pre-filled mood and blank spaces for students to add their daily moods for a month, then reflect on any patterns they notice over time.
How to Cope with Mental Health in High School
It’s one thing to know that mental health in high school students can impact every part of their day, but it’s another thing to work it into your busy schedule. Consider these instructional tips when deciding whether (and when) to address mental health, no matter what subject you are teaching.
- Make mental health and assessment a regular part of your warm-up routine.
- Use non-study time during assessment sessions to talk about important mental health concepts.
- Ask students what mental health concepts they would like to discuss in the coming weeks.
- Include Mental Health Awareness Month activities throughout your May curriculum.
- Always talk about the importance of self-care as it relates to the student’s mental health.
- Make your classroom a calm, safe place for students to bring up their concerns or talk about their feelings.
Encourage healthy mental habits in the classroom
Adolescence can be challenging for any young person, especially those who do not understand what is going on with their mental health. By doing mental health activities for the youth in the classroom, you give them the resources and knowledge they need to navigate the difficult times in their day. Find more high school mental health resources for students who need tools to identify their feelings and improve their self-esteem.
