Grab & Go Resources

Need a Healthy Living activity or two for an upcoming meeting? Look no further, this page has lesson plans that you can download and take to your next meeting. The lessons are grouped together by topics that correspond with the Healthy Living Officer Resource Guide, with a few additions. Scroll through to find the topic that fits your need.

Mindful Moment

These activities are designed to help educators teach Mindfulness and only take a few minutes to complete. Most activities require very few materials and can be done in person or online.

Action Planning for Health

Taking Action for Health: Create an ActionPlan If you want to take it to the next level and tackle an issue in your community, this action plan downloadable guide moves through the steps of identifying an issue, creating a plan, and evaluating what you did.
What Can My 4-H Club Do to Address Mental Health? Mental health is important because it determines how people handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. This post and activity are a great way to start talking about mental health during a club meeting.

COVID-19 & Public Health

Actions I Can Take All the recent events and how people have responded may have you thinking – Use this activity to learn about what 4-H’ers have done in the past and what you can do now.
Benefits of Staying Home Dealing with COVID-19 is causing heightened levels of stress. Staying home can have great benefits, and this activity helps you identify those benefits in your life.
Imaginary Road Trip Travel is a favorite activity for many, but we are limited for now due to the pandemic. Use this activity to take an imaginary road trip.
Normalize the Mask Design your own mask. Be fashionable, be unique, and make it fun! As vaccines roll out, we still need to wear facial coverings to protect ourselves and others.
Resolution & Goal Writing Use this activity to brainstorm goals that are small, realistic goals that are easier to achieve.
Role Models This activity helps you think about who your role models are, and also how you can be a role model too.

Mental, Emotional, Social Health (MESH)

Mental Health

Keep Calm & Puzzle On Puzzles involve focus and concentration and can serve as a stress reliever, which is what makes them great for your mental health. Try this activity or refer to this post for other puzzle activities.
Learning about Learning Learning is not limited to what happens in a building during certain times of day or months of the year. Opportunities to learn are all around us!
Self-Care Self-care is making sure we pay attention to our own well-being. This post and activity helps you brainstorm ways to practice self-care.
What Can My 4-H Club Do to Address Mental Health? Mental health is important because it determines how people handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. This post and activity are a great way to start talking about mental health during a club meeting.

Emotional Health

Dealing with Feelings Identifying your emotions, understanding how they influence your behavior, and being able to manage them are considered a foundation of social emotional learning.
GIF Us Your Feelings This activity demonstrates how educators can bring GIF technology to the ZOOM platform and encourage participants to visually express and relate to emotions.
Hunt the Good Stuff When things are changing and out of our control, it is easy to focus on the negative. Focus on the positives, and use this activity to “Hunt the Good Stuff” to fill your bingo card!
The Loss of What Might Have Been Sometimes we experience a loss like no other, a loss that means that something near and dear to our life is put on hold, or may not happen the way it was supposed to. This activity helps identify a change of plans that has happened due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Social Health

Earth Day: For the Health of Our Planet Use this activity to identify ways you can help keep the environment healthy.
Five Keys to Virtual Connection

 

Need an activity that can help to jump-start your virtual connectivity during online sessions? View this activity page where each key has a downloadable activity that reinforces a connection concept.
Gratitude Jar Gratitude has a variety of benefits that help promote healthy development. This activity is a great way to think about the good things in life.
Health by the Numbers Ever wondered what influences your health? Did you know your zip code can play an important role in your health? Use this activity to learn more about the social determinants of health in your community.
Mother’s Day Use this journal activity to look at the core of what Mother’s Day means and find ways to spend time with mom.
Thank You Letter Taking time to say thank you makes the recipient and sender feel good. Take a minute to use this journal page to write a thank you letter to a teacher, nurse, or friend.

Nutrition

Where’s the Sodium? And Why Does It Matter? In general, Americans get more sodium in their diet than is recommended. But where is it? Time to go on a sodium scavenger hunt in your cupboards and refrigerator to locate sources of sodium.
Pizza with Pizazz Pizza sometimes has a bad reputation as an unhealthy food, but it doesn’t have to be. Use this activity to learn about making pizza at home and incorporate some new, healthy ingredients!
Tips for Taco Tuesday Making tacos at home allows you to control the ingredients and be more mindful about MyPlate.

Physical Activity

Let’s Get Moving! Physical activity is one part of being fit and healthy. There are many activities you can do to be fit at home.

Creative Well-Being

4-H Meeting Mad Lib Stories come from all places including friends, families, experiences, or even from our imagination. This activity will help you create a fun story for 4-H club members.
Create Your Own Playlist This activity is to create your own music playlist of songs that you enjoy right now. This is a great way to practice mindfulness.
Superheroes What makes a superhero? Superheroes have some kind of extraordinary power. 4-H members have superpowers that they may not even realize; use this activity to learn more!