Classroom Resources

Students will analyze the Pilgrim Flask, identifying that grotesque designs include both ugly and beautiful elements. They will sketch a design of the pilgrim bottle using pencils and a blue crayon.  Students will work in groups to create a grotesque door panel that includes symmetry. They will analyze a grotesque poem and compose a contradiction poem.  

Students will analyze Bernard van Risenburgh's Double Desk. They will design and describe their own ultimate desk. They will listen to and analyze Baroque music. Working in groups, students will construct a desk from cardboard and tape.  They will decorate the veneer for their desk. 

This article is written for teenagers to understand the dangerous effects of using ecstasy or molly. It discusses the effects on the brain and body, the prevalence of teen use, and what to do if someone needs help. 

Students will analyze Villagers on Their Way to Church by Simon Bening.  They will discuss family traditions.  They will write about and create a design of a family tradition.  They will use watercolors, paper cutouts, and sketching.  

Each year, NIDA-funded researchers at the University of Michigan survey students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades on their behaviors and attitudes about substance use. The survey results are released the same year the data are collected. These are the results. 

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a chronic relapsing brain disorder characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences. AUD ranges from mild to severe. Underage drinking is drinking alcohol before a person turns age 21, which is the minimum legal drinking age in the United States. Underage drinking is a serious problem, as you may have seen from your friends or your own experiences. Alcohol is the most commonly used substance of use among young people in America, and drinking when you’re underage puts your health and safety at risk.

Students will analyze Python Killing a Gnu by Antoine-Louis Barye.  They will identify a sculpture as three-dimensional. They will explore creating different textures in modeling clay.  They will make a snake with the clay. They will create a three-dimensional setting for their snake.  

Methamphetamine—known as “meth”— is a laboratory-made, white, bitter-tasting powder. Sometimes it's made into a white pill or a shiny, white, or clear rock called crystal. Methamphetamine use can quickly lead to addiction. That’s when people seek out the drug over and over, even after they want to stop and even after it has caused damage to their health and other parts of their life.

Students will analyze a painting depicting a family. They will use modeling clay to create sculptures of family members. They will use markers to add features and hair and clothe the sculpture using scrap fabric or paper. They will create a room for the family members in a diorama box.  

Students will analyze a photograph and photo collage of the Pearblossom Highway.  They will define and identify linear perspective, horizon line, and vanishing point.  They will draw a road through a desert landscape using one-point perspective.  They will complete the landscape using colored pencils.      

Students will analyze Chandelier by Gérard-Jean Galle.  They will make a papier-mâché hot air balloon sculpture.  They will decorate the ballon by making patterns using shapes, paint, drawings, or stickers.     

Students will analyze A Storm on the Mediterranean Coast and A Calm at a Mediterranean Port by Claude-Joseph Vernet.  They will choose to paint a stormy or calm landscape.  They will use colored pencils to draw objects in the foreground and middle ground.  They will use watercolors to paint the sky.    

Students will analyze Jacques-Louis David's painting The Sisters Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte.  They will compose a fairy tale based on the painting.  They will illustrate a scene from their original fairy tale.  

Students will analyze Waiting by Edgar Degas.  Working in groups, students will create a story about the two women in the painting.  They will create a pastel drawing of a time they had to wait for something.  They will write a story describing their painting.  They will compare and contrast their painting and Waiting.

Prescription drugs are often strong medications, which is why they require a prescription from a doctor or dentist. Prescription drug misuse has become a large public health problem because misuse can lead to addiction and even overdose deaths.

This resource is informational material written for teen students. 

If you’re in emotional pain and thinking about suicide, the first thing to know is that there are people in your life who care about you and who want to help you feel better.

They may not know the perfect thing to say or do to make a difference, but they can help you find a trained professional with experience in situations like yours. There is immediate help to keep you safe, and there are effective treatments that can help you get better and stay better.  

This resource provides resources to help.

In this lesson, developed in partnership with Scholastic, teens learn how screen time may impact their physical and emotional well-being. An article and worksheet get them to think critically about the short- and long-term health effects, and how they can reduce their screen time.

This online resource is the National Drug and Alcohol IQ Challenge quiz about alcohol and drug use. This quiz is online but does have print and Spanish versions. There are two formats for this quiz- an online quiz and a downloadable PDF document. 

A Jeopardy-style game of drug facts.

Drug Facts Challenge! is a Jeopardy-style game based on scientific findings developed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The questions and answers are based on the NIDA for Teens Drug Facts pages. 

Play as a group or have students play individually. Allow time for teens to review the NIDA for Teens Drug Facts prior to playing. You can print out or have teens access the pages online. Another option is to display each of the Drug Facts on a large screen, allowing teens ample time to read and discuss. Then, use the same large screen to display and play the Drug Facts Challenge! game.

The Mind Matters series is a valued resource for tens of thousands of teachers. Each booklet is devoted to a specific drug or drug group. Hard copies of the booklets in English can be ordered for free, and both English and Spanish booklets are available online as printable PDFs. The accompanying Teacher’s Guide, which includes background information and activities to enhance students’ learning, is available online in a printable PDF format.

This resource is a collection of animated videos that discuss the effects on the brain and body when using specific types of drugs. 

This resource is a test bank of assessment items in True/False, Multiple Choice, and Short Answer formats that are provided for each of the Project ALERT Core (Lessons 1-11). You can choose from these items to create lesson-based assessments, a Project ALERT unit test, and/or for part of a course exam that may include an assessment of the students' success using the Project ALERT curriculum.

Active listening, which includes eye contact, appropriate body position and language, and the acts of asking questions, summarizing, and not interrupting, is an essential skill for making new friends, understanding information, and communicating effectively.

Whether students are building relationships with friends or learning a new concept from teachers, they must engage in good listening in order to be successful. In fact, the benefits of active listening extend beyond the classroom, and is a quality many employers seek when interviewing candidates.

These fun and simple active listening exercises invite students to consider the actions and impact of focusing on what is being said and sharing feelings about being truly heard.

Conflicts in the classroom happen, and when they do, respectful relationships and orderly routines can quickly be set off track, as can be the perfect lesson plan. It can be tempting to dismiss disagreements and move on, settle them yourself as the adult, or even penalize students for a disruption, but it’s important to develop conflict resolution skills with students so they can work through sticky situations.

We’re sure you’re seeing a lot of students dealing with feelings of anxiousness and worry, and it may be difficult to know how to help, especially if you’re trying to cope with your own worries.

With the anxiety worksheets below, you can assist your students by helping them identify the source of their anxiety and with coping strategies that can be used to deal with those feelings.

While the distinction may appear nuanced, there are clear differences behind the meanings and purposes of tattling vs telling. Tattling is generally associated with reputation, such as when students attempt to get one another in trouble for minor incidents or try to gain favor by making themselves appear heroic while telling, on the other hand, is an effort to alert an adult to more serious incidents or safety concerns.

Helping students recognize the difference between tattling and telling is a complicated dance that requires direct instruction, practice, and ongoing support in the classroom. While it’s fairly simple for students to understand the necessity for rules and the expectations that they convey, it can be quite another task for children to determine when rule breaking is something that must be reported.

Most students know that bullying is bad, and yet bullying still happens in our schools every day.

When we say hurtful things to other people, we often can’t see the damage that we’re doing on the inside. Our classmates may appear fine, but they’re really hurting. On the other hand, our kind words can be used to build someone else up, and make them feel beautiful on the inside.

These bullying lessons use apples to provide a memorable, visual to show the damage that can be done with harsh, unkind words.

Topics that are okay with family may not be appropriate to share with a stranger, and conversations that are appropriate with friends on the schoolyard may not be meant for the holiday dinner table at Grandma’s. While teaching kids to initiate and communicate with others is crucial to making friends and thriving socially, students also need to learn what topics of conversation are appropriate with different types of people. 

Understanding the pragmatics of social communication is an essential life skill. We’ve created this set of lessons that can guide students through the different phases of appropriate and safe conversations as they meet and make friends, both in real life and digitally.

When we think about emotional awareness, we typically focus on situations that trigger negative emotions. But it’s also important that we identify and focus on the things that make us happy. By understanding both the positive and the negative, we become much more emotionally resilient.

In this lesson, you will help your students improve their emotional awareness by thinking about what makes them happy or gives them a “happy heart.”

Anything someone does that makes someone else feel bad or unsafe is bullying. It can take many forms: name-calling, leaving someone out, or hurting them. Kids bully other kids for all sorts of reasons: for having lots of friends or very few friends, or for being different. Bullying is never okay. If you're getting bullied, you can ignore it, surround yourself with friends, try talking it out, or tell a trusted adult. If you're bullying other kids, please stop. It's way cooler to be nice to people!

This resource is a BrainPOP video. 

Most kids should get between 10 to 11 hours of sleep each night. Why so much? Sleep gives the body a chance to rest, repair itself, and prepare for the next day. The following activities will help your students learn why sleep is important for a healthy body and mind.

This resource describes and discusses carbohydrates. Written in student-friendly language, this resource could be used for assigned reading or as part of student-led research. Additionally, links to other relevant material and resources are included. 

Life can be frustrating. You’re not always going to get along with your friends and family, and they won’t always get along with you. And anger and frustration are natural human emotions, so there’s no way you can avoid feeling them. But there are ways to disagree without being disagreeable—and in this BrainPOP movie on conflict resolution, you will learn all about them! First, you’ll find out why it’s a good idea to take a deep breath and collect yourself before you respond to a situation you’re not thrilled about. You’ll discover different ways to compromise, and how placing yourself in another person’s shoes can change a potential screaming match into a friendly discussion. Why risk alienating your friends and hurting people’s feelings, when you can settle your differences fairly

Students will analyze Jan Brueghel's painting The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark focusing on shape, color, and texture.  They will choose their favorite animal and draw it using color and lines to imitate the texture of the animal's skin, feathers, or fur.  

Students will analyze Edmund Teske's photographs that use montages and double exposures.  Using a 35mm camera, students will create double exposure photographs.  Students will take pictures of landscapes, the teacher will rewind the film, and students will then take classmates' pictures on the same roll of film.  Students will cut printed photographs in half and draw the other half of their faces using colored pencils.  They will compose a diamonte poem based on their artwork.