Mental Health Lesson – “Tennis Ball Toss” Resiliency

A “fly on the wall” look into our classroom.
Full 8th Grade mental health lesson included!

RESILIENCE: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

Notice the ups and downs of classroom energy throughout the activity. The group of students were presented with a challenge– watch and listen in as the class battles failure to finally achieve success.

The tennis ball toss stirred the classroom with just a bit of movement to boost brain activity. The props are analogies, and this metaphorical look at mental health is meant to create connections and deeper understanding. This also helped create social connectedness, which is a huge piece in a person’s developing mental health.

You’ll hear this group socialize throughout the activity. The reactions and chatter are all on-task; students are engaged and learning– the quick side conversations are allowed because you’ll hear they all involve thoughts about the class activity. Often, teenagers blurt out questions or comments because that’s how they learn. These don’t always need a response. In fact, you’ll hear the group get louder and then quiet down to absolute silence as they internalize specific analogies presented to them.

Subsequent lessons take the focus off of the teacher and allow students to be the central part of activities. We will reflect through small group discussions, journaling, and further activities to develop life skills.

Health concepts in this lesson/unit: resiliency, coping strategies, decision making, influence analysis, bullying, upstanding behavior, peer pressure, self-esteem, and social connectedness.

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