Friendzy’s new Middle School program brings relevant character development lessons with biblical integration to 5th-8th grade classrooms.
Friendzy’s Middle School program brings relevant character development lessons with biblical integration to 5th-8th grade classrooms.
Six lesson options
Opportunities for discussion and connection
Practical tools
Leadership opportunities
Teach once a week for 20-40 minutes
This program was developed by middle school teachers for middle school students with their unique developmental needs in mind.
Stress Less–Breathe Easy will help students cope with stress and anxiety through research-based strategies and prayer. Understanding what stress and anxiety feels like in our bodies is vital in learning to manage those feelings. By exploring stress relief strategies, students develop self-awareness and self-management skills. The unit highlights the practical tools for coping and supporting one another.
See this unit in action! Friendzy Lead Program Manager, Laura Reyes, shares the heart behind the lesson and gives you simple, practical ways to bring it to life with your students. Use it to spark discussion, reinforce key concepts, or re-center your classroom culture when things feel off track.
The opening lesson will introduce the feeling of stress through a short clip from a familiar movie. Students will be introduced to the Catchphrase (Stress Less–Breathe Easy), a breathing strategy, and the Key Verse from Philippians 4:6. Then they will work together to identify the stressors of familiar characters (biblical or fictional) and how they have dealt with that stress.
Students will participate in a short obstacle course demonstration while wearing backpacks of different weights. These will represent the “loads” we carry as we navigate life and stressful situations. This object lesson communicates that we need to cast our burdens on God, rather than try to carry them on our own. When we do, we are able to live more freely and do what He has called us to do without being weighed down by stress, worry, or fear.
Students will participate in a Jigsaw Discussion, focusing on five coping skills categories. Each small group will create a poster about one of the categories to present to the class.
Students will make a fidget tool that attaches to a pencil or pen. This can be used as a calming strategy during class or at home when students are feeling stressed. If you have school or class rules about fidgets, include them in this lesson to align with your policies.
Students will play Coping Skills Charades where pairs of students act out different coping strategies while the rest of the class guesses.
Students unpack an additional Bible verse, Galatians 6:2, as they consider how to support others in their lives with the knowledge they’ve gained to stress less and breathe easy. A lot of people never learned the basics of how to deal with stress. This includes adults! This lesson allows students to see that if someone seems irritable or tense, it could be stress-related. Students will learn to put Paul’s instructions to carry each other’s burdens into practice by teaching them how to stress less.
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Six journal pages to help students reflect on their experiences with stress, apply skills they've learned, and commit to supporting others.
