May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we’re giving away A Practical Guide to Mental Health & Learning Disorders for Every Educator by Myles L. Cooley, Ph.D., to five lucky readers! This indispensable resource provides strategies for recognizing, understanding, and helping challenged (and challenging) students succeed.
To Enter: Leave a comment below describing an idea or activity for recognizing Mental Health Awareness Month.
For additional entries, leave a separate comment below for each of the following tasks you complete:
Each comment counts as a separate entry. Entries must be received by midnight, May 24, 2019.
The winner will be contacted via email on or around May 28, 2019, and will need to respond within 72 hours to claim his or her prize or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way affiliated with, administered, or endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram. Winners must be US residents, 18 years of age or older.
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Having the children draw an emotion they may feel and discuss the reasons why they feel that way, many have said “I don’t know” and with young children its a good way to say we may not know why we feel this way, we just do…. and the materials would support our lessons, discussions, etc…
I always get my parents together and check on their mental health. Raising a child with special needs is a hard job.
Counseling is a critical part of education for the special needs child.
Hello,
Mom of triplets with special needs. Teacher assistant with school with children with special needs. This book would be great to have and use.
Let people know that there are resources available to help them and how to find them and also that there are people that they can talk to and how to find that person.
Create a school-wide poster campaign highlighting mental wellness.
I really need this resource as I am an educator and have many children in my school family and personal family who would greatly benefit from this information. I am a college career advisor in a high school and this information would be very helpful.
My son is Kindergarten student diagnosed with Autism. I often encourage him to communicate his feelings through written words and or drawings. Example sentence starters that we’ve used: Sometimes I feel sad because (to which he can write or draw his response) Sometimes others feel sad when (again I guide him to write or draw his responses). This activity helps to set a framework for understanding emotions and self regulating his feelings.
I like shifting the conversation from one of mental illness to mental wellness. We can all agree that we want to feel good and enjoy life so when you put it in that perspective the tasks that make us mentally well are easy to promote. I usually do a happiness challenge or no complain challenge in May to keep people on target with behaviors that support wellness
Many of our students have trauma issues which impacts mental health. I explain the stress response and use Biodots (little stickers that measure the student’s skin temperature, like a mood ring). They love to see the change of color when we practice relaxation or mindfulness exercises.
Create a bulletin board for Mental Health Awareness Month with strategies for self-care and coping.
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We have been sharing tools for SEL and teacher wellness as well as student wellness each week this month. “No is a full sentence” was a big hit for all who feel overwhelmed and under pressure. j
At drop off encourage families to share something with their child that they like about them… Then be sure to give hugs before heading off! Good for children and parents😊
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I have taught Mind Up Curriculum to all K-4 classes to practice mindfulness techniques, feelings, and calming techniques.
In working with children and families simple words to let them know they are cared for in the community, “Thank you for being here.” “I see and hear you.” “Your ideas, concerns and questions are important to me.”
Support mental health month.
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As a school counselor, I validate these feelings that come up often with my elementary students and educate parents around the reality of mental health!
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We a having a Casual for a Cause day at work. Our donations will be sent to MHMR.
I use “Calm Down Kits” with my students and explain to them that all feelings are okay, but some reactions to these feelings may not be (things that hurt ourselves or others). The kits give them ideas of what they can do to let their feelings out and things they can do to help themselves feel better.
I have been teaching a brave breath when things start to get uncomfortable and difficult. Put your hand on your heart and hand on your belly and breathe in for 4 seconds through your nose and out through your mouth. We all need help sometimes.
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We are having a Junior Achievement Career Day and some of our guest speakers are in the mental health field.
I wish all school districts in every state paid as close attention to mental health as they do to test scores and grades.
At our school, we put an article about how to help and encourage your child’s healthy mental health development.
Having awareness learning sessions to explain what various mental health conditions with panels or adults whom have to learn how to manage their feelings and emotions. Possibly even having simulation activities to help other students understand and develop empathy towards others.
Team building exercises are great and afford students an opportunity to interact with other students in different ways. There are many team building exercises for students of all ages that can be found on Pinterest. Choose ones that are appropriate for you and your students and meets their needs..
Have a discussion group with children (ages 5-6 years) about “meaning” in their lives. What creates meaningfulness? It could be as simple as playing soccer, creating art, watching a sunset at the beach, taking care of the family pet, or giving mom or dad a hug. All of these simple things create meaning in a child’s life. It is an abstract concept but so simple and important. We all need meaning.
Our school talked about having a “Spirit Week” for Mental Health Awareness month.
Having a mental health check in chart with students to see how they’re feeling, i.e. I’m good, I’m okay, etc. Follow you on FB and Pinterest.
I work with preschoolers, we talk about feelings/emotions. Let the students know that it’s ok to have different feelings-talk about the different types of feelings and how they make us feel. Do role plays of the different feelings. We also use the I Care curriculum.
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Spreading awareness by making information sheets and available resources and posting them throughout the building.
Focus on positive affirmations every day!
I have a few ideas on how we can recognize mental health month. The first would be to start providing a newsletter to parents with resources and activities to help them. Another would be to donate books to families that provide resources as well.
I work with low income families everyday, and feel as though this would be a great tool to bring to my job!
Mental Health is a serious condition!
As a mental health specialist in a middle school every bit helps
In my classroom (I work with teens and young adults), we talk about what we can do to take care of ourselves as people – whether it’s physical exercise, talking with supportive friends and family, engaging in a hobby – to allow ourselves time to care for our mental well-being.
I work as a paraprofessional in both the middle school and high school alternative education classroom. I greatly appreciate when the school counselors and outside sources come into our room not only for the students but to teach me things that I can look for or use with the students.
Teach students about the importance of self-care and stress relief.
Encourage breath awareness to help students live through the moment (instead of having the moment live through them).
We usually do a kindness activity that also ties in with Teacher Appreciation Week. Random Acts of Kindness are things we regularly do each 9 weeks but have also created “warm fuzzies” for students to help with anxiousness.
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To recognize this – I think sharing small tidbits on a bulletin board or a “thought of the day” email would be beneficial.
Lego Therapy…teaches collaboration, social skills, cooperation, and conversation skills..plus Lego is always fun.
A picture wall of students favorite summertime activities and recognition of them…
Mental Health inSchools and students are on the rise.
Teaching children mindfulness strategies to help them deal with strong emotions such as visualization, deep breathing, grounding techniques, progressive muscle relaxation.
A book study among staff members at school often raises awareness of issues affecting students and provides help in assisting our students.
It is so important to actually give students room to talk and ask them questions that leave the opportunity to talk. I always let them know that I’m a mandatory reporter, but that if they aren’t in danger and the situation has been reported, I will listen to them. I do follow up to make sure that this is the case, but I remind students that they are unique and their feelings are valued even when others might not give them the opportunity to be heard. Sometimes that is all that they need.
May is Mental Health Awareness month and I have shared information and goodies with my staff and students!!
Our school collaborates with our local cos . We discuss topics such as mental health so we are more prepared teachers for all students
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Create a list of phrases or words that drag us down. Things that have been told to kids or beliefs that they have about themselves. A sort of ceremonial ripping apart done with destroying of the paper. Then the kids would write all of these positive affirmations about themselves.
For secondary students I want to hold an open “gratitude ” group. Students can drop in as they are available before/after school, during lunch, during flex time/advisory to complete a portion of their daily-ish gratitude journal. They will build a habit of expressing gratitude, identifying positive things in the midst of their turbulent lives, and see that they are not alone and that this is a safe self care activity to practice.
Have kids learn about emotions, how to recognize their emotions and by teachers and parents validating their emotions.
Morning group with child and parents at drop off. 15min of moving around and face expression , teaching awesome ways of non verbal, how our mental health issues are on us . Interesting how kids find how there parent are feeling .
I ask questions to the group. 😊😊😊☯️
As parent/family educator for 17 years for families with children birth to five years, I have done many lessons on post-partum issues, anxiety in parents and children, and how nature can be healing for people with mental health issues. One of my favorite introductions with parents was having them write on a dry erase board a human body shape and put words/pictures around how anxiety feels in a person’s body. They filled with a time bomb for a stomach, an earthquake in the brain for headache, a worry monster on the shoulder, etc. It was a wonderful talking point for giving them more information. For the young children, I take them for walks in natural nature settings and they become different, calm, focused children rather than in a classroom filled with too many toys. We relate to the animals, bugs and plants we find in nature.
In one local school, the student council members posted encouraging notes for the students who may be struggling throughout their school to recognize Mental Health a awareness month.
Do a discussion starter and use mental health disorders to see what others know on the disorder.
For recognizing Mental Health Week, I pass out large sheets of bubble wrap to each class. Then I do a recorded lesson about “Ready to Pop” and how we hold on to feelings and emotions until we pop. We have to learn healthy ways to release those feelings before they get to be overwhelming.
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I work in early education so we focus part of our morning circle each day on mindfulness, regulation breathing, yoga, etc. We also do alot of teaching on emotions and empathy.
(As silly as it sounds, it was a great activity ..)
I’ve taught for 23 years . 15 of those years have been as a 4th grade teacher..and if 28 students (17/28 boys!) like it, I’m using it;)!
We did an activity called ‘Kitten Videos and Cotton Balls’; I prefaced our morning with asking my ‘kids’ about their favorite YouTube Videos ( yep, could be hazardous/ humorous). Could they identify the number one most watched sort/ genre of video? Some could!
We watched a 4- minute prescreened video called,’Funny Kittens’ ; I asked the kids to notice how we/ they reacted. Lots of ‘awww’ and smiles – and I teach in a LOW SES, tough district. I asked as to why they thought they had reacted that way. ‘It just makes you feel good,’ and ‘They’re just cute!’ were added to the ‘They’re fuzzy and good for hugging!’
That’s the cue to put a HUGE pile of cotton balls in the middle of our ‘team circle’. They could take as many cotton balls 1-10 based on the ‘feel good’ rating of the video.
In turn, they had to give a ‘fuzzy, feel good’ compliment to each student to match the amount of Cotton balls!
It was awesome!!!!
This works with our classroom ‘team building’.
Jenn Fairweather, Teacher
Oakridge Upper Elementary
Being a coordinator/teacher for gifted students I was so impressed by all the studies by our European colleagues on the topic of misdiagnosing gifted students with several mental disorders, including AD(H)D and Bipolar… Thanks for all you do! Ms B
Our school starts each day with a whole school mindfulness activity where we take brave breathes and then each day we have a different choose love thought for the day. This way we always start the day with mindfulness
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Encourage all parents to fill out an ASQ-SE and use the information to support families!
I work with young children, so using “Feely Faces” made out of felt and either putting them on Popsicle sticks or for use in a felt story and singing a song about feelings helps the children know that it is okay to feel different ways.
On the daycare level, our teachers have attended several workshops on using mindfulness, deep breathing, exercise, and light meditation to help themselves as well as their students when experiencing stress or difficult emotional feelings.
We can have students (or participants) create up-lifting/positivity cards for a school/community positivity jar. Alternatively we can have a positivity jar with paper stars /fortune stars (origami) with positive words/phrases that they can pick up and open as if they were fortune cookies.
We use the DECA kits and in our kits, we have a variety of items that we use to work with the children. The one thing that gets the best response is the feeling faces. The children love that.
Educating teachers and daycare providers on mental health awareness and teaching strategies. Also, providing opportunities for networking and partnerships between parents and teachers and mental health professionals
A round table discussion where volunteers share how mental health impacts their or someone they know life. The teacher would start the share and groundwork behaviors stated before beginning.
I would have students role-play what to do in a variety of MH situations.
Have age appropriate discussions with children about Mental Health. Discussions could take place in assemblies through role play for older children and simple games and stories for younger children. The goal is to spread awareness but in ways that are conducive for the children being served. Provide opportunities for children to connect with others.
I have been supporting my students in my Food & Nutrition classes by looking at how food choices impact our mood. In addition, we are discussing ideas on how to combat loneliness in our school and adding “food” to those potential solutions.
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Shared with staff some current statistics on mental health: 1 in 5 adults in the US experience mental illness.
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Designate a day in school for students to dress in “comfy clothes” to encourage comfortable thougths and feelings for Mental Health Month!
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have a bulletin board where kids can leave post-its with positive messages and encouragement
In addition to activities happening in our classrooms, we incorporate this theme into our Professional Development by having local health organizations come it to present to staff on topics related to mental health. This opens up a partnership and makes staff feel more comfortable in reaching out to these resources.
We are doing mindfulness activities daily.
First, acknowledge the feeling and then share that it is okay to not be okay at times and help to think of strategies in the moment that work as a substitute.
Talk cards
I have the kids give “verbal gifts” which are compliments or something they like about a peer’s character.
All educators can use helpful ideas concerning this area.
Group picture posted on Facebook Page (everyone needs to wear green)
Luckily we have a wonderful counselor at our school. In my class, we talk a lot about kindness and respect for all.
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I have my staff members (early childhood education trainers and mental health consultants) work on self-care and mindfulness activities throughout the month and we collaborate on how the activities we do for ourselves can be made available to teachers and children in the classrooms.
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We are using announcements including a mindfulness activity.
I have my high school students download a specific mindfulness app on their phones and then as a class, we utilize throughout the school year.
The Calm app is free for all educators!
https://www.calm.com/schools
Using buddha boards in a quiet corner in classrooms.
Mental health awareness needs to be spread.
Read books on social emotional and have group discussions. Use open ended questions. Model acceptable behaviors with children. Play board games that teach/promote waiting and taking turns.
Mindfulness training for parents
It has been mentioned but Youth Mental Health First Aid is an amazing training to help provide support to all of our students.
I have done mindfulness activities from the Breathe Like a Bear dvd. It is a great resource.
Teach students to recognize and respond to the warning signs of suicide and to tell an adult.
Give the national suicide hotline number :1-800-273-8255 (1-800-273-TALK)
Developing a hashtag!
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Share basic mindfulness practices with students beginning in Kindergarten. Breathing exercises are simple, and then you can teach them simply about how their brain works so they learn how to manage their emotions.
As a mental health provider this book would be an excellent addition to my library
I did a whole professional development session yesterday to implement lessons and materials at our school for next year and some tips and tricks for anxiety to use right away in the classroom!
Classroom discussion on what mental health means
Our school really gets into feelings identification through video clips and power-points on Inside Out during our Mental Health Awareness Day. Speakers (business representatives) from the community come in to present and do activities with classrooms on this day on the topic of mental health awareness.
Encourage students to look at new ways they can overcome persistent challenges. Remind them that success is a result of their continual efforts to find solutions that bring desired results.
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Balance butterflies mindfulness activity
Reinforce the practice to my PreK’s of taking relaxing breaths when feeling anxious by trying to move the space shuttle floating above our carpet.
Mental Health First Aid should be included as core curriculum for all school and child care personnel. It should be funded as well so that the incentive is greater.
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I give away free decorated journals and diaries to fill to any middle schooler who comes to my school library for a book at the urging of our social worker, psychologist, counselor, or therapist.
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Provide Mental Health Disorders/Disabilities information as a training to our Head Start and Early Head Start staff.
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Wearing a special color or shirt!
Learn about Brief Solution Focused Therapy strategies that teachers can use with children. Listen to what the children need to be more comfortable and successful in the classroom.
Provide mental health in service opportunities
Have a discussion with preschoolers about emotions:-)
Use this book.
I like having students write and share affirmations before difficult tasks
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Showcase successful people who have lived with and overcame mental illness.
Fliers about mental health and how to get help/help a friend.
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School counselors need to share with every teacher!
Share characteristics of various disorders along with examples of What successful people with those disorders do /have done to persevere and succeed. “Just Like Me”
As a school nurse I teach mental health awareness to students in the Red Flags course.
Include mental health/learning disorder awareness articles, facts, quotes in newsletters
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School psychologists need all the mental health assistance we can get!