mental health activities for middle school

Allow everyone to take their hope clouds home and put them on display as a visual reminder of being hopeful.Mindfulness practices have a long history, reaching back through multiple contemplative wisdom traditions, including Hinduism and Buddhism. Ask each person to write on their hope cloud one thing they will do to get closer to their dream and one person that they could ask for support.Ħ.

Ask the whole group how being hopeful might help us to feel able to cope with things that happen or problems we want to solve.ĥ. Ask those who are willing to share to read out their dream/hope.Ĥ. Explain that they can choose to share their dream or hope with everyone else or keep it to themselves. Invite them to write or draw their hopes and dreams onto the hope cloud template.ģ. Some examples might be: for their team to win a match, to visit a certain theme park, or a career or life aspiration.Ģ. The suggestions may be very simple short-term ideas or aspirations that may take a lot more time, effort and support. It might be something that they can change themselves or it might depend on others. Ask the young people you work with to think about their own dreams and hopes for the next week/term/year. It’s good to revisit these activities after some time and see if any suggestions have been put into practice.ġ. Some may struggle to come up with any suggestions themselves, so it’s important that others are able to help with examples and encourage reflection.

Consider how any young person in the group may be affected and how these individuals might be best supported.

If you are worried about a young person’s mental health, speak to your organisation's safeguarding lead. Make sure that there is a space for individuals to speak further about their mental health if they want to.

These activities may be the beginning of a larger conversation for a young person and they might find taking part difficult.

Only invite comments from those who want to contribute.

When giving space for young people to share, allow enough time for everyone to be heard while keeping in mind that not all young people will feel comfortable sharing their ideas.

However, there are many factors that affect how a young person engages so consider how these activities are best adapted to the child or group. We have given a general guide to the age group these activities work well for, based on the experiences of teachers and community workers.

Mental health activities for middle school