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World Mental Health Day helps you block time on the calendar to introduce students to topics like emotions, stress, and well-being. These mental health activities for students connect to ELA, STEM, and social studies so you can explore the topic in any class, without deviating from the skills you need to teach.
ELA lessons can give students multimodal ways to explore mental health topics through research, writing, and paired text activities. Explore these selections to choose an activity that’s right for your class.
Mental health education matters in school because it affects how students understand themselves, connect with others, and face challenges throughout the day. In ELA, research activities can give them a structured way to explore the topic with evidence instead of relying on opinions or assumptions.
This mental health research project, designed for high schoolers, invites students to investigate what mental health is and what kind of support is available for young people.
Use this ELA research sequence when you want students to explore why mental health matters, what challenges young people may face, and where people can find support.
Focus prompt
What does it mean to have good mental health, and what can people do to support it?
Warm-up
Have students respond silently to the focus prompt, share their thinking in small groups, and then bring a few reflections into a whole-class discussion before reading.
Research topic 1
Ask students to research mental health trends, the role of alcohol and drug use, and what depression is. As they read, have them collect evidence that helps explain why mental health is part of overall health.
Open topicResearch topic 2
Have students investigate how social media affects mental health, where young people can find help, how schools address mental health, and how students can support others.
Open topicSynthesis
Have students use a graphic organizer to organize their evidence. Then ask them to synthesize their findings in a research essay, presentation, public service announcement, or another teacher-approved format.
Graphic organizers and worksheets
Use these linked resources to support students as they narrow a topic, collect evidence, synthesize ideas, cite sources, and present what they learned.
Use these organizers before and during reading to help students choose a focus and track what they notice.
Use these tools to help students compare perspectives, identify problems and solutions, and plan an evidence-based essay.
Use these resources when students are ready to cite sources, teach classmates, or turn their findings into a PSA.
Students can research teen mental health through topics that connect to their everyday social lives like bullying, friendship, or social media. This research can help them move from knowing these issues exist to forming a claim that they can back up with evidence.
This research project is great for middle and high school students when you want them to investigate how teen experiences, relationships, and mental health overlap. They can synthesize their research in an essay, presentation, or any other format you approve.
Use this ELA research sequence to help students investigate contemporary teen issues such as bullying, friendships, relationships, social media, and mental health. Students choose a focused topic, gather evidence, and synthesize what they learn in a research essay, presentation, public service announcement, or another teacher-approved format.
Focus prompt
What teen mental health or social issue do you want to understand more deeply?
Warm-up
Have students respond silently to the question “What does it mean to have good mental health?” Then ask them to share their ideas in small groups before bringing a few reflections into a whole-class discussion.
ELA research topics
Use these Newsela ELA topic paths to help students choose a focused research direction and connect mental health to real issues teens may encounter.
| Resource | Purpose | Sample research questions |
|---|---|---|
| Bullying | Helps students investigate bullying as a social issue and consider what people can do to prevent harm. |
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| Healthy Relationships | Gives students a way to explore empathy, communication, and the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships. |
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| Mental Health | Supports research into children’s mental health trends, friendship, and factors that may affect teens’ mental health. |
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Synthesis
Have students synthesize their findings in a formal research essay, research presentation, public service announcement, or another format you approve. Ask them to include the research topic and question they explored, the most important facts they learned, properly cited evidence from several sources, and a reflection on the research process.
Graphic organizers and worksheets
Use these linked resources from the teen issues research project to support students as they choose a topic, gather evidence, synthesize information, cite sources, and present what they learned.
Use these organizers to help students choose a focused research direction and begin noticing patterns in what they read.
Use these tools to help students compare perspectives, organize problems and solutions, and shape their evidence into a clear argument.
Use these resources when students are ready to cite sources, teach classmates, or turn their findings into a public service announcement.
Paired texts help students discuss mental health issues by giving them different entry points into the same theme. One text may show students a character’s experience, and another may give them informational context or a broader perspective they can use to deepen the conversation.
ELA paired texts
Have students compare how a literary text and an informational article approach the same topic, using evidence from both.
| Text set | Why use it | Selected resources |
|---|---|---|
| “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Mental Health | Compare the narrator’s experience in “The Yellow Wallpaper” with information about mental health and chronic diseases. |
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| “The Ship of Wheat” and Happiness | Compare ideas about happiness in a Dutch story with an article about happiness rankings across countries. |
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Graphic organizers
After students read and annotate, choose an organizer to guide their comparison.
Have students compare main ideas, genre, text structure, author’s purpose, and supporting details.
Literature can help students explore emotions that can be hard to define. Poems and stories give them a shared character, speaker, or image they can point to while discussing abstract emotions like joy, hope, grief, or resilience.
These resources from the Life Skills Through Literature collection can help students examine how writers represent emotional complexity. Choose which emotion you want students to cover or let them choose their own path.
ELA literature lessons
Use these Newsela ELA Lesson Sparks to discuss how poems and stories portray complex emotions. Have students support their interpretations with evidence from the texts.
| Lesson Spark | What students explore | Texts and worksheets |
|---|---|---|
| How We Choose Joy Amid Pain | How juxtaposition and irony in “Praise” show that people can notice beauty while experiencing pain. |
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| Ups and Downs of Grief | How Izzie’s sadness and happy memories in “The Sun Stands Still” reveal the conflicting emotions that can accompany grief. |
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| “Instructions on Not Giving Up” | How trees in spring become a metaphor for accepting hardship and continuing to grow in Ada Limón’s poem. |
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Sandra Cisneros uses writing as therapy by turning memory, identity, and culture into material she can examine on the page. For students, the activity helps them trace how one writer describes the emotional and cultural role writing plays in her life.
With students in grades 8–9, read “Author Sandra Cisneros explains how writing is a therapy.” Have students annotate how writing connects Cisneros to her culture and how she describes her role as “the ambassador of everything.”
How does writing connect Cisneros to her culture?
Highlight examples that connect her writing to family, community, language, or identity.
What does Cisneros mean by “the ambassador of everything,” and how does that role affect her?
Highlight details that explain this role. Annotate how it affects her.
Extension resources
Choose a follow-up activity to connect the authors’ experiences or examine Cisneros’ perspective more closely.
Have students read about Toni Morrison and make two connections between the authors’ experiences.
Have students use article evidence to map Cisneros’ thoughts, feelings, words, and actions.
In a classroom lesson, emotional intelligence means helping students understand how emotions affect daily life and health, then apply what they read to their own choices and relationships. This activity, created by 7th-grade ELAR teacher Angela Murray, works best as a read-and-reflect routine.
Use this lesson with grades 6–8 to connect reading about emotions with students’ experiences and practice supporting ideas with textual evidence.
How can your emotions affect your daily life and health?
Have students read the “Emotional intelligence playbook.” Ask them to use one highlight color for information that matches their experiences and another for information that doesn’t.
After the playbook, have students choose two additional articles from the collection below.
Student reading choices
The playbook is included for reference; students choose two of the other articles.
| Resource | Reading Level | Spanish? |
|---|---|---|
| Dealing with stress and strong emotions | 600L–1300L | Yes |
| In an angry America, a new remedy emerges: compassion | 400L–1170L | Yes |
| If you’re empathetic, it might be genetic | 590L–1470L | Yes |
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| Resource | Reading Level | Spanish? |
|---|---|---|
| Emotional intelligence playbook | 810L–890L | Yes |
| Wellness center supports students’ mental and emotional health at high school | 570L–1240L | Yes |
| Well-being matters | 980L |
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Use these prompts for the playbook and your two additional articles.
Which details in the playbook match your experiences? Which don’t?
Highlight each group in a different color.
What did your two additional articles teach you about emotions?
Highlight information that is new to you.
How could this information help you understand or manage your emotions?
Annotate the details you could use and explain how they might help.
Have students write two or three paragraphs explaining how what they learned about emotions and emotional intelligence could help them manage their own emotions. Ask them to cite evidence from their reading and explain how it supports their ideas.
Have students revisit a past conflict or argument with a friend or family member. Ask them to explain how they could approach it differently using what they learned about emotions and emotional intelligence.
Growth mindset activities can support student well-being by helping them connect effort, motivation, goal setting, and confidence. In this mini-unit, created by 6th-grade humanities teacher Tracy Pompei, students don’t just read about success or motivation. They’ll use sketch notes to process what they learn and then apply it to a goal that matters to them.
In this middle and high school mini-unit, have students use sketch notes to record ideas about growth mindset, then connect their reading to a learning goal.
What motivates people to succeed?
Have students choose a sketch-note video and practice recording important ideas with drawings, colors, different lettering styles, and sections.
Have students choose one resource below. Ask them to use sketch notes to capture important ideas, surprising details, and the author’s main point.
Student reading choices
Choose a resource about mindset and goals or how the brain learns.
| Resource | Reading Level | Spanish? |
|---|---|---|
| Why your mindset matters Article | 580L–1020L | Yes |
| Musical Genius: Is it talent or practice? Article | 360L–990L | Yes |
| Marcus Davenport had to learn to see his own enormous potential Article | 420L–970L | Yes |
| How to set goals Explainer | 380L–940L | Yes |
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| Resource | Reading Level | Spanish? |
|---|---|---|
| This is your brain Explainer | 560L–1420L | Yes |
| Sensory regions of the brain Infographic | 1030L | |
| Curiosity prepares the brain for better learning Article | 580L–1220L | Yes |
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Have students write a “BIG FAT GOAL,” then create sketch notes showing what they learned and what they can do to grow as learners.
Extension
Why Mindset Matters Continue with the lesson from the Brain Science collection.
STEM lessons can help students connect mental health to observable science concepts like stress, brain function, and emotional regulation. Explore activities and lessons you can use to drive these concepts home and tie them to topics you already plan to teach.
Meditation can give students a way to examine the connection between stress, attention, and mental health. In STEM class, you can cover this topic by asking students to investigate how meditation may affect their body and mind, and then evaluate whether the practice belongs in schools.
Use “Explore the benefits of meditation in school” to have students examine a school example and write to their principal about whether a meditation program could work at their school.
Have students use the Think, Puzzle, Explore Worksheet to record what they know about meditation, what questions they have, and how they could learn more.
Have students read “More US schools are taking breaks for meditation.” Ask them to highlight what schools are doing in one color and the reported effects on students and teachers in another.
Have students use the Letter Template to explain whether their school should introduce a meditation program and how it could work. Ask them to support their recommendation with evidence from the article.
Have students read “How to meditate” and try one technique. Then use the Sensory Writing Worksheet for a reflection on the experience.
Reflection question: Would you consider making meditation part of your daily routine? Why or why not?
Awe walks can help students study happiness by turning an everyday action into a science-backed inquiry about emotions. They’ll explore what awe feels like, how scientists study it, and why noticing awe more often may connect to happiness.
Studying music therapy gives students a way to look at the link between sound, emotion, and the brain. In this activity, students start by listening to short music clips and noticing their emotional responses. Then, they’ll read about music therapy and related research to investigate how music can affect mood, memory, and attention.
Students can evaluate stress management strategies by looking for two things: What causes stress and what people can do in response to it. This makes the activity more than a list of calming tips. Instead, it asks them to compare strategies, consider which ones might work for them, and support their thinking with evidence.
For elementary students, mental health lessons can start with student-friendly definitions on topics like how people notice, understand, and respond to thoughts, feelings, or challenges. This activity by educator Chelsea Izzo can help them build the language to talk about mental health, how it affects people their age, and how to explain their needs in their own words.
Use these elementary, middle school, and high school text sets when you want to focus on mental health lessons that match students’ developmental needs. The elementary set focuses on self-awareness, while the middle and high school sets move into self-care, stress management, and emotional health issues.
Generation Genius videos can act as short science anchors before jumping into deeper discussions about stress, emotions, or the human brain and body. Connections are strongest when they focus on biological or systems ideas like senses, brain processing, or interdependence.
Social studies mental health activities can help students think about how these topics affect groups, systems, and cultures. By digging into sociology and psychology, students can connect their own feelings and wonderings to those of larger social groups or populations.
Sociology helps students study mental health themes through a social lens. Instead of focusing only on individual feelings or choices, they’ll examine how culture, social groups, and expectations can shape human behavior.
Psychology helps students study mental health with more precise language. Instead of using vague observations like “I feel stressed” or “people act differently,” they can explain why these things happen and consider how to adapt to them.
As you plan beyond October, Newsela Learning Suite offers so many more articles, videos, and activities to address personal and social issues in the classroom. That makes it easier to revisit themes like mental health, self-management, and responsible decision-making throughout the year.
Sign up for Newsela for free and start your 45-day trial of premium content to access more resources for World Mental Health Day and other mental health topics you may teach in your classroom.
Explore ways to hold healthy, respectful classroom discussions when covering difficult topics with your students.
One concept you may want to consider is that of competence and self-expectancy.
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