Sixth graders will start the year off participating in a curriculum geared towards increasing social and emotional health skills. The curriculum adapted from the Second Step 6th grade curriculum and our predominant skill we will be focusing on is goal setting and Empathy and Kindness for others.

Within this social and emotional framework we will focus specifically on two projects.

1) Setting health goals

2) Promoting Kindness in the community

Dear families, in the month of October 6th graders should be going home and practicing to reach a short term goal they have created for themselves. We will be making vision boards in class to celebrate their accomplishments and any documentation they could bring in such as pictures of themselves trying to reach their goals would really make their vision boards personal and authentic. If you want to email me pictures I can print them out at school. Not sure what a vision board is? Here's an example.

Here is a family friendly resource to talk to your child about bullying and harassment.

To culminate our unit. Students will complete a kindness project. In the Kindness project students will be asked to do two thoughtful acts of kindness.

In this unit we will explore the negative effects of vaping on the human body. We will also analyze advertising techniques used by the vaping industry to try and trick young people into their products. We will also practice refusal skills if placed into a situation in which someone may be pressured to use vape or nicotine products.

7th grade will start off with participating in a curriculum geared towards increasing social and emotional health skills. The curriculum adapted from the Second Step 7th grade curriculum and our predominant skill we will be focusing on thoughts, emotions, and decisions as well as managing social relationships.

Students will be exposed to facts based information about alcohol, marijuana, and brain development. After about four days of teacher led education students will complete a summative assessment that asks them to demonstrate what they have learned as well as advocate for healthy behaviors for teens.

Later on this semester we will focus on depressions and suicide awareness unit. In this unit we will aim to meet the following learning goals.

• Raising awareness of good mental health.

• Raising awareness of the signs of depression and risk and warning signs of suicide.

• Reducing the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

• Encouraging help-seeking skills and, if necessary, additional support services.

Attached is a family letter that provides free resources for families to engage in conversations and support the mental health of their children.

In 8th grade our social emotional second step unit focuses on stress management. We will talk about and practice various stress management techniques. Your child may be coming home to interview you about stress in the workplace as their final assessment asks them to identify a profession that has high levels of stress. They will then recommend a few stress management techniques that could be used for someone in that field and present those to the class.

Our 8th grade body image unit focuses on the following

• identifying facts based information about body image including statistics and prevalence.
• Identifying effects the media can have on body image and self esteem.
• Analyzing advertisements and marketing strategies used in the media and how body types are manipulated.
• Proactively teaching students to recognize signs and symptoms of eating disorders
• Promoting healthy behaviors for building self esteem including positive self talk, using affirmations, limiting screen time, etc.c
• promoting kindness in the community and building self-esteem and group esteem
• advocating on behalf of better practices related to body image and self esteem.

Curricula and resources used in creating the curriculum can be found below. This unit also utilizes the school counselor Jess Poe and there are specific lessons she co-teaches.

The curriculum we use is the Get Real curriculum.

"Get Real emphasizes social and emotional skills as a key component of healthy relationships and responsible decision making. Information provided is medically accurate, age-appropriate and is shown to:

• Delay sex among middle school students who received Get Real
• Empower parents to be the primary sexuality educators of their children and help their kids delay sex
• Reinforce family communication and improve communication skills for healthy relationships" -GetReal.org

I am here to support parents/guardians in being the predominant educators for their children in regards to sex and sexuality. Attached below are optional family activities that parents can use as a free resource to help guide conversations about sex and sexuality with their children. You can also find a "Get Real Family Letter" explaining the curriculum as well as the projected scope and sequence for the unit.

if you have any questions at all pertaining to health education at SMS the best way to contact me is by email at Patrick.kantlehner@lamoillesouth.org