Stress Lesson Plan: Identify responses to stress and techniques to manage it

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic, Stress, and supports students in building self-awareness and self-management skills to identify the symptoms of stress and practice strategies for dealing with it. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of creative projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Prompt students to write in their journals.

Column One:

  • Students list what causes them to feel stressed.

Column Two

  • Students identify how each item in column 1 makes them feel, either physically (example: headache) or emotional (example: worried).

Step 2: BUILD BACKGROUND

  • Read aloud the description below the Movie player.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding.
  • Have students read one of the following Related Reading articles: “In Depth,” “In Practice,” or “Etc.”  Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY

Students synthesize their ideas and express them through one or more of the following creative projects. They can work individually or collaborate.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a movie about a time you felt stressed and identify all of the physical and emotional ways your body reacted. 
  • Make-a-Map: Create a concept map identifying the physical, emotional and chemical reactions our bodies go through when we are stressed, as well as some things that may lead to stress, and techniques to help.
  • Creative Coding: Code a meme (or more than one!) that shares tips for alleviating stress. 

Step 4: REFLECT & ASSESS 

  • Reflect: After sharing creative projects with each other, students reflect on what they’ve learned about stress. Prompt them by asking questions such as: 
    • What advice would you give a friend who is feeling stress?
    • What techniques will you use to manage your stress?
    • How can you plan to manage stress before it happens? What steps can you take to avoid feeling stress?
  • Assess: Wrap up the lesson with the Stress Challenge. If time allows, return attention to the journal prompt from the beginning. Have students add a third column to identify strategies to manage their stress in each of the written events.

Step 5: EXTENDED LEARNING

Expand on strategies to reduce stress by exploring BrainPOP’s Mindfulness Movie and Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Related:

    Filed as:  3-5, 6-8, 9-12, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.4