Explain to students that exercise is a
great way to lift mood and relieve some symptoms of
depression.
Allocate each student with a pedometer. Explain to students that
they are going to be using the pedometers to measure their activity
levels during the lesson and then are going to compare that to
their mood.
Walk class through a series of activity stations that have been
set
up. Explain any safety considerations. Divide students into teams
of 6 and allocate each to an activity station. Students participate
in that activity for a total of 10 minutes. They record their total
steps taken
on their Exercise
Your Mood handout as well as recording their mood or how they
felt about the activity (excited, happy, bored, exhausted,
anxious).
Once students have completed all of the activity stations ask
them to discuss and complete the following questions on their handout and discuss as a
group:
- Which activity made you feel the 'best'?
- Was this the activity with the most steps?
- What influence does enjoyment have on the level of activity and
change in mood?
- What do you think are the most important things to consider
when deciding how to exercise your mood? E.g. likes, skills,
whether you feel successful at the activity, whether your friends
will do it with you? How regularly you can do it?
Set students a homework task of planning and participating in
30-60 minutes of physical activity every day for the next week and
ask them to record their steps, activity and mood on their handout.
This activity is taken from the HeadStrong
curriculum resource.