How to Adult: 101 Life Skills for High School Students Vol 1
What do you do when you have 10 minutes left in class, but you don’t want to start the next lesson?
How to Adult: 101 Life Skills gives you 101 ready-to-teach mini-lessons on practical skills students can use in life after high school. Topics range from reading a pay stub and building a budget to jump-starting a car, spotting scams, handling a power outage, and doing laundry.
Use them as bell ringers, warm-ups, brain breaks, discussion starters, or quick 5–15 minute life skills lessons. Each topic includes a student-friendly instructional slide plus detailed teacher speaker notes, so you can pull up a topic and start teaching without extra prep.
Try 9 Adulting 101 Mini-Lessons for Free
Want to see what the mini-lessons are like before purchasing? Try nine free Adulting 101 mini-lessons, with one topic from each category. You can use them with your students and get a feel for how the full resource works in your classroom.
What Is It?
How to Adult includes 101 ready-to-teach life skills mini-lessons, each focused on one practical skill students can use in adulthood. Topics range from reading a pay stub and negotiating salary to checking tire pressure, handling a kitchen fire, spotting scams, and doing laundry.
Each mini-lesson includes an editable Google Slide and PowerPoint slide, plus teacher speaker notes with additional context, discussion questions, teaching tips, extension ideas, and/or optional resources.
Most topics take just 5–15 minutes, making them easy to use as:
A daily warm-up or bell ringer
A brain break or discussion starter
An advisory or homeroom activity
A quick life skills or transition lesson
A meaningful activity when you have a few unexpected minutes to fill
The 101 topics are organized into nine categories, so you can teach them in order, choose topics that connect to what you're already teaching, or simply pull one up when you need it.
Looking for more ways to use the mini-lessons? Read 101 Adulting Warm-Ups to Teach Life Skills.
What’s Included
101 Editable Life Skills Mini-Lessons in Google Slides and PowerPoint
Detailed Teacher Speaker Notes with additional context, discussion questions, teaching tips, extension ideas, and/or optional resources
Printable Life Skills Checklist for students to track skills they've learned or want to practice
Graphic Organizer for note-taking and reflection
Implementation Ideas for adapting the mini-lessons to your needs
Why Teachers Love This Resource
✅ Ready when you need it. Pull up a topic and start teaching without extra prep.
✅ Easy to fit into your schedule. Most topics take just 5–15 minutes.
✅ Built for conversation. Use the notes to get students talking about real-world topics.
✅ Flexible for different classrooms. Choose the topics that fit your students.
What Teachers Are Saying
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This resource sparked meaningful classroom conversations and helped students build practical life skills they will truly use outside of school. The bite-sized lessons were engaging, relevant, and easy to implement.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “My students try to avoid these conversations at all costs. This is a fun resource that makes it easy to build in ‘how to be a grownup.’”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This is a great resource for my elective class of seniors. I used the information from many slides as jumping-off points for longer lessons in the subject area.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Several of these were useful to guide my Paraeducator with activities for quick-finishers and those needing ‘adulting’ skills.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “I bought this to add to my resources for an adulting 101 elective course for high school students. It gave me lots of ideas I hadn't thought of.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This is a great resource. I use this in my secondary life skills classroom and it has helped tremendously!”
Topics Covered
The 101 mini-lessons span nine categories, covering practical skills students can use in everyday adult life:
Personal Finance (budgeting, taxes, credit, investing)
Social Norms (tipping, thank-you notes, small talk, etiquette)
Car Care (jump-starting a car, tire pressure, car insurance)
Health & Safety (prescriptions, food safety, emergency preparedness)
Life & Practical Skills (laundry, grocery shopping, basic sewing)
Civic Engagement (voting, jury duty, misinformation)
Legal Stuff (tickets, identity theft, calling 911)
Technology (scams, passphrases, data backups)
Home Maintenance (frozen pipes, circuit breakers, power outages)
👉 View the full resource on TPT or explore the preview
Who It’s For
How to Adult works especially well for:
High school teachers looking to build practical life skills into their classroom routine
Special education and transition teachers working on independent living and postsecondary transition skills
Advisory and homeroom teachers who need meaningful, ready-to-use discussion activities
Family and Consumer Sciences and CTE teachers connecting classroom learning to everyday adult life
Counselors and adult education instructors helping students prepare for life after high school
Teaching Life Skills Regularly?
If you’re planning to teach life skills more regularly, this resource is also included in larger bundles with even more ready-to-use lessons, activities, games, and student resources.
👉 Explore the bundles on TPT:
Life After High School Transition Activities – Independent Living Skills Unit
Adulting Life Skills – Advisory Activities for Life After High School
If you’re interested in several of the included resources, a bundle may save you money compared with purchasing them separately.
Ready to Use These Mini-Lessons in Your Classroom?
How to Adult gives you 101 ready-to-teach mini-lessons you can use throughout the school year, whether you have 10 minutes to fill, need a quick warm-up, or want to build practical life skills into your classroom routine.
View How to Adult: 101 Life Skills on TPT →
Looking for More?
Want another 101 topics?
How to Adult, Volume 2 includes 101 completely different mini-lessons covering another 10 categories of practical skills for life after high school.
Explore How to Adult, Volume 2
Want all 202 mini-lessons?
Get Volumes 1 and 2 together in the How to Adult Bundle with 202 ready-to-teach life skills mini-lessons in one collection.
