10 Activities for Mental Health Awareness Month
- angiejowers
- 20 hours ago
- 2 min read
May is Mental Fitness Awareness Month, so here is a collection of games and activities for teachers, parents and caregivers to add to their day to teach important mental health skills to kids, like labeling emotions and a variety of healthy coping skills. (Research shows that learning a variety of healthy coping skills is what matters to help children better self-regulate, have more self-esteem, and achieve more academic success over time.)*
Emoji Scavenger Hunt
Teachers of grades K-3 and preschool teachers can play the emoji scavenger hunt to teach about emotions and healthy ways to cope with big emotions. Parents can also play this at home. Preschool version has 8 emojis and K-3 version has 16 emojis.
PRESCHOOL VERSION
Grades K-3 CLASSROOM VERSION
Healthy Coping Skills Coloring Book
Color My Emotions
Make Copecakes
Listen to a Little Coping Book VideoRead at
Easy Mindfulness Practices for kids
Play Cope2Hope Bingo
Teach kids a variety of healthy coping skills by playing Bingo
Make Emotion Thermometers
Help kids learn to express how much they feel different emotions using the emotion thermometer at the end of the school day or just before bed
Positive Self-Statements
Help kids learn the importance of positive self-statements by helping them acknowledge some of their strengths, things they wish to accomplish and how they be ready to handle big emotions when they come!
Teachers, here is classroom version for positive self-statement
Tangram Puzzle of Healthy Coping Skills
Print out the tangram puzzle and encourage children to CREATE different animals, shapes or unique creations with the tangram pieces.
Check out the other 25+ Free Printables posted for more games and activities to teach healthy coping skills!
*"A count of coping strategies: A longitudinal study investigating an alternative method to understanding coping and adjustment" by Taylor Heffer and Teena Willoughby is licensed under CC BY 4.0