Media effects on health and body image are the focus of this Grade 6 Health worksheet aligned with the National Health Education Standards (NHES). Students examine how media messages can influence attitudes about food, physical activity, lifestyle choices, and what a healthy body should look like.

What students practice

Students develop media literacy by examining how persuasive messages, edited images, extreme claims, and selected before-and-after results can affect attitudes and decisions. They consider how to check who created a health message, what the creator wants the audience to do, whether information has a reliable source, and whether a claim includes clear evidence and realistic explanations.

The activities address identifying misleading health information, evaluating health and body-image claims, recognizing how media techniques can influence feelings about appearance, and applying critical thinking to decide whether a health message is trustworthy.

Student activities

• Dialogue-based questions introduce the topic of media influences on health.
• A matching activity reinforces key ideas and relationships.
• A cloze passage develops understanding of media messages, sources, evidence, persuasion, and informed health choices.
• A labeled diagram provides a visual task connected to the lesson.
• A reading passage explores media, edited images, body image, physical activity, persuasive messages, and media literacy strategies.
• Multiple-choice questions apply concepts to realistic health and body-image situations, including online claims, advertisements, supplements, edited images, and before-and-after photos.
• True-or-false statements check understanding of reliable sources, extreme claims, judgment, and media messages.
• Short responses ask students to explain why sources matter, describe effects of edited photos, and question product-related before-and-after images.
• An extended response asks students to explain media's influence on health and body image and describe two media-literacy strategies.

Teacher-ready support

The purchase includes a separate PDF answer key plus a separate PDF Teacher Guide with Learning Objectives, Teaching Tips, Discussion Questions, and Common Mistakes. These supports give teachers practical guidance for classroom discussion, instruction, and reviewing student responses.

Use this Grade 6 health worksheet for a lesson on analyzing influences on health, guided classroom practice, independent work, or written assessment. The combination of reading, visual work, selected-response questions, short responses, and extended writing gives students multiple ways to apply media literacy to health and body-image messages.