The Classroom

16 World Mental Health Day Activities for Students

Christy Walters

Sep 26, 2024

In 1992, the World Health Organization and the World Federation for Mental Health declared October 10 World Mental Health Day. On this day, we advocate for mental health awareness, advocacy, and education on the topic, and remember that taking care of our mental health is just as important as monitoring our physical health.

You can recognize this day in your ELA and science classrooms with lessons about why mental health matters and how our brains work to process complex emotions like grief and stress:

Use reading and writing to navigate mental health in ELA classes

Help students understand why mental health matters and how to navigate emotions like happiness and grief through literature:

Research why mental health matters and how to get support

Mark World Mental Health Day with a research project. Have students choose from two topics:

Why mental health matters: Explore trends, statistics, and influences.
Support for mental health: Discover how schools address mental health issues, how social media affects mental health, and how young people can find mental health resources.

To help students organize their thoughts and collect information as they research, share graphic organizers like our research notes collector, a paired text perspective analysis, or a funnel to help students narrow in on their research topic.

Research common mental and social issues that affect today’s teens

For older students, narrow in on research topics that directly affect middle and high schoolers. Let students choose from one of three issues:

Bullying: Explore how bullying affects people, social media's role, and how we can prevent it.
Healthy relationships: Explore the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships and why empathy and communication matter.
Mental health: Explore what causes most mental health problems among teens and how friendship affects mental health.

Discover how “The Yellow Wallpaper” addresses mental health

Teach students about others’ mental health journeys using this paired text analysis:

Assign the fictional story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which explores themes like depression.
Have students read a nonfiction article about mental health and how chronic diseases and injuries can affect your state of mind.
Complete the paired text analysis worksheet to find evidence in each piece to support the comparison question, “How are the ideas from the articles similar or different?”

Discuss how: “The Ship of Wheat” portrays happiness

Use a paired text analysis to help students consider what it means to be happy and what factors can influence our perception of happiness:

Read the fictional Dutch story “The Ship of Wheat” about how a wealthy woman looked for happiness in money and possessions.
Assign the nonfiction article “Sense of community makes Norway happier than the United States” to have students read about what makes Norway the happiest country on Earth.
Complete a Venn Diagram to compare the two texts while considering the guiding question, “What is the main idea of each text, and how are they connected?”

Teach how to choose joy amid pain using poetry

It’s not easy to remember the little things when life gets tough. You can use poetry to help students recognize how gratitude and perspective can help improve their mental health:

Assign the poem “Praise” by Angelo Geter and explore how it embodies the term “juxtaposition.”
After reading, have students respond to the prompt, “How does using juxtaposition and irony help make the author’s point about praise and joy?”
Extend the lesson by having students write their own juxtaposition poem, using a T-Chart to help organize their ideas.

Teach about the ups and downs of grief using literature

Navigating grief can feel like a rollercoaster of emotions for anyone, but especially for young people. Use a fictional story to help them understand how grief isn’t linear and the steps they can take to work through it:

Start the lesson with a Write-Pair-Share activity that answers the question, “Why can a happy memory make people feel sad?”
Assign the story “The Sun Stands Still” by Josephine Cameron, about a young girl’s first experience celebrating the winter solstice without her grandfather.
Extend the lesson by having students draw a roller coaster and plot Izzie’s emotions throughout the story as she navigates the highs and lows of her grief.

Teach students about perseverance using poetry and nature

Can trees teach us humans a lesson on not giving up? Students can explore this question through poetry:

Assign Ada Limón’s poem “Instructions on Not Giving Up” and have students consider what lessons they can learn from trees about adapting when conditions get tough.
Use the annotation feature to highlight details throughout the poem that show Limón’s feelings about trees and their resilience.
Extend the lesson by asking students to write poems that create their own metaphors, comparing strength and determination to another aspect of nature.

Discover how Sandra Cisneros uses writing as therapy

Writers create for many reasons, even to help their mental health. Students can use a real author’s experiences to explore this concept:

Before reading, ask students to consider the question, “How can reading and writing be therapeutic?”
Assign the article “Author Sandra Cisneros explains how writing is a therapy,” and have students note examples and the text that Cisneros uses to explain how writing is therapeutic.
After reading, use details from the article to complete an empathy map about Cisneros.

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Explore how to develop emotional intelligence

Emotions can affect our everyday lives, including our mental and physical well-being. Teaching students how to be emotionally intelligent can help them better understand how emotions affect them and how they can regulate what they feel. You can use resources like:

The emotional intelligence playbook, which helps students understand their feelings and how to use them.
An article that explains how empathy may be genetic.
An article that looks at what compassion is, how it works, and if it’s an asset to mental health.

Guide students to develop a growth mindset

A growth mindset can help students stay motivated to do better and achieve their goals, which can also benefit their mental health. Help students learn more about developing a growth mindset with content that looks at:

The sensory regions of the brain and what each one does.
Why your mindset matters to help you achieve your goals.
The way curiosity can affect your brain to boost learning and memory.

Discover the science behind stress management and improving mental health

Use these science resources to teach students about science-backed techniques to improve mental health and manage their stress:

Explore the benefits of meditation in school

Meditation is a great way to calm your body and reduce stress and anxiety. It’s so beneficial that some schools practice meditation with students daily. Use this science in the news text set to help students explore how the practice works:

Read an article about how schools in the US take meditation breaks to help students’ mental health.
Share an article about how to meditate and its benefits.
Extend the lesson by having students write a letter to their principal or superintendent explaining why adding a meditation program in their school or district would be helpful. If your school already has a meditation program, ask students to write a letter listing how to improve it.

Discover how walking makes people happier

Walking greatly benefits physical health, but did you know it can help mental health, too? Especially when the walk is awe-inspiring. Help students learn more about “awe walks” with resources like:

An informational article that explains the emotion of awe and the things that can cause it.
An article about the psychological benefits of things called “awe walks,” meant to inspire awe and improve mental health.
Complete the reflect and respond graphic organizer to answer the prompt, “Think of a time when you felt awe. What made you feel that way, and do you think having the emotion regularly could make you happier?”

Learn more about the benefits of music therapy

Music can affect our mood and mental health. That’s one of the reasons it’s such an effective therapy tool. Help students learn more about the benefits of music therapy and its effects on our brains:

Read an article about how and why music can make us feel different emotions.
Discover what happens when someone has amusia, a condition where a person can’t understand or process musical sounds.
Learn more about Sarah Park, a middle schooler from Florida who invented a personalized music therapy treatment that won her the America’s Top Young Scientist award.

Discover stress management tips

Stress can affect anyone, no matter their age. Teach students the science behind stress and how it affects the brain and body by looking at:

Strategies to help students stay calm when they start to feel stressed.
How to deal with stress-eating and why it happens during times of anxiety.
Why some stress helps build resilience and overcome challenges.

Teach students ways to monitor and regulate their mental health

Do students know what they should do if their mental health starts to feel off balance? Taking cues from the world around them can help. Encourage students to learn new ways to monitor and regulate their mental health by looking at articles that discuss:

Why and how schools can conduct mental health screenings to help their students.
How mental health became an important topic for athletes during the Olympic Games.
If playing video games can improve young people’s mental health.

Explore mental, emotional, and social health lessons for each grade band

The best way for students to understand and listen to their mental health needs is to get in touch with their thoughts and feelings. Use lessons for each grade band to help students get to know themselves better.

Elementary: Focus on self-awareness, self-management, and relationship-building for younger students.
Middle school: Focus on self-care and types of mental, emotional, and social health issues that affect students in this age group.
High school: Focus on self-care and mental, emotional, and social health issues affecting our oldest students.

Incorporate mental health and personal growth into your lessons all year

In addition to these mental health resources, The Newsela SEL Collection brings social-emotional learning into every classroom for Newsela ELA, Newsela Social Studies, and Newsela Science. With this add-on, you can access even more lessons by grade band, subject area, month, or topic to help students navigate essential topics like:

Self-management
Social awareness
Relationship-building
Responsible decision-making.

If you’re not a Newsela customer yet, sign up for Newsela Lite for free and start your 45-day trial of our premium content to access everything you need to teach about World Mental Health Day and other social-emotional topics in your classroom.