Winthrop Middle School Health & Wellness

Health

Curriculum Night 2020, Click Link Below

  • Hello!

    Welcome to the Health & Wellness page for Winthrop Middle School! Here you can find information for WMS Health Class, and other general wellness topics. 

    For the 2020-2021 school year Winthrop Middle School students will take health consecutively for an entire term. Students will learn about a wide variety of topics that will help lead to a healthy and positive life. WMS Health uses a research-based social-emotional learning curriculum called Second Step.

    We want your child to be successful in school and that means supporting and encouraging their whole development. While excelling in academic classes is important, students also need skills to take on learning challenges, make good decisions, handle strong emotions, and get along with others.

    In health, we’ll be using Second Step® Middle School, a research-based social-emotional learning program designed to improve students’ social-emotional skills, such as emotion management, impulse control, problem solving, and empathy. Second Step skills and concepts are designed to help students both in and out of school. These include:

    • Mindsets and Goals: Students learn how to develop a growth mindset and apply researchbased goal-setting strategies to their social and academic lives.

    • Recognizing Bullying and Harassment: Students learn how to recognize bullying and harassment, stand up safely to bullying, and respond appropriately to harassment.

    • Thoughts, Emotions, and Decisions: Students learn how to recognize strong emotions and unhelpful thoughts, and apply strategies to manage their emotions and reduce stress.

    • Managing Relationships and Social Conflict: Students learn strategies for developing and maintaining healthy relationships, perspective-taking, and dealing with conflict.

    If you have any questions about Second Step® Middle School, please don’t hesitate to contact me for more information at kdegou@winthrop.k12.ma.us

    Thank you for your support as we work to build a safe and supportive school community.

     

     

    Your child's health education at school is a great opportunity for you to have discussions with your child at home! Need help? Check out the website below. 

    CHECK OUT PARENTEENCONNECT.ORG
    ParenTeenConnect.org, a free website for parents and their teens created by the makers of the Second Step Program, is a great resource for middle school families. It provides expert advice and practical tools for dealing with real parent-teen issues.

     

     

Check out the link below for the full Second Step Scope & Sequence for grades 6, 7, and 8

  • WMS Health Update 2020

    Community Building, Class Expectations & Norms

    The first 2 weeks of school were dedicated to building a sense of community and safety in our classroom. We did a lot of activities of allowing students to get to know one another, to work engage with peers, play community-building games, and create a sense of safety in the online class experience. 

    Morning Routines

    Since students are remote learning this year, it is important to their overall health to have a morning routine that still includes many healthy habits even though they are staying at home. Students completed a group project where they created their own healthy morning routine. Students working in groups also allowed for increased social interaction with peers without direct teacher guidance. This promotes social skills, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and teamwork skills. Students presented their morning routines to the class. Students were asked to add one healthy habit to their morning routine from this project and treat each morning as if they were in the school building. A healthy morning routine helps promote a sense of normalcy and routine during remote learning. 

    Movement/ Physical Exercise 

    It is now more important than ever that students are moving their bodies. Remote learning requires hours of screen and time and sitting. The normal amount of activity that students get through being at school is greatly decreased. We have spent the last 2 weeks learning about the physical and mental benefits of exercise. Students are also completing different types of exercise and movement in each class. These include cardiovascular workouts, cardio kickboxing, HIIT interval, dance, yoga, and stretching. 

    Students completed online activities teaching about the benefits of exercise for the mind. Mental health is very important to take care of during remote learning and at least 30 minutes of exercise each day can have great benefits for mental health. Exercise also increases mood by releasing endorphins and increasing levels of serotonin in the brain. Exercise also improves ability to learn and process information, and can even create new neurons in the brain. 

    Coming up....Social Emotional Learning

    Next week we will be starting our Second Step Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum. We will start with the "Thoughts, emotions, and decisions" Unit to help create a platform for students to process difficult emotions during remote learning. 

     

     Coming up: Mental Health

    Along with our SEL skills we will talk about mental health. Class discussion will include defining anxiety, physical symptoms, situations that cause anxiety, and ways to cope. Anxiety is a human emotion that we all feel.  Our goal as a school and community is to expose the negative stigma of talking about mental health and eliminate feelings of fear, shame, and judgment often associated with feelings of anxiety. Students will also be introduced to meditation/mindfulness as a way to cope with anxiety and will have opportunities to practice this skill throughout the year.



     

     

Resources: Talk to your child !