Kids practice important skills and have fun doing it!

This printable matching socks game is the perfect activity to keep your toddler entertained and learning through play. Download it for FREE!

Are you on the lookout for engaging and fun ways to foster social-emotional learning (SEL) skills in your students? Well, you're in the right place! Whether you're a seasoned teacher or a fresh-faced educator, I've included a treasure trove of games that will transform your classroom into a hub of self-awareness, self-management, relationship building, social awareness, and responsible decision-making. These games are not only a breeze to implement, but are sure to have your students begging for more. These activities aren't just about learning; they're about making SEL skills an integral part of your classroom culture. So, let the games begin! Self-Awareness: Game 1: Empathy Chairs This game is similar to musical chairs, but it has a social-emotional learning twist. Start the music as students rotate around a circle of chairs with emotion cards on the seats. When the music stops, they'll need to grab a seat. Based on the card at their seats, students will share experiences that they have had related to that emotion. For ready-made cards and detailed directions, click here. Game 2: Feelings Charades Get ready to break the ice with a classic game of charades, but with a twist! Instead of acting out movie titles or animals, students will express various emotions using only their facial expressions and body language. This not only hones their emotional awareness but also creates a safe space for open communication about feelings. Game 3: Emotion Journaling Equip your students with journals and encourage them to express their daily emotions through words, drawings, or a combination of both. This simple yet effective exercise fosters self-awareness by helping students identify and reflect on their emotions. Bonus: It's a fantastic tool for tracking emotional trends over time. Find my favorite journal prompts for building self-awareness here. Self-Management: Game 4: Mindful Minute Challenge Kick off each class or session with a mindful minute challenge. Set a timer for 60 seconds and guide students through a brief mindfulness exercise, such as deep breathing or visualization. This routine cultivates self-management skills by teaching students to center themselves, promoting focus and emotional regulation. You can also practice mindfulness with these FREE finger labyrinths. Game 5: Goal-Setting Bingo Turn goal-setting into a game! Create bingo cards with various self-management goals (e.g., completing homework on time, staying organized, managing time effectively). As students achieve each goal, they mark it off their bingo card. The first to get a bingo enjoys a small reward. It's a playful way to instill discipline and responsibility. Or turn goal-setting into a group bulletin board. Grab the FREE goal-setting materials here. Game 6: Popcorn Game Play a game called "Popcorn." Have students get into a circle. Explain that the goal is for them to each take a turn popping into the air and clapping at the same time. The only catch is that they must go in a random order. If they "pop" up at the same time as a classmate, they should all start again. This is great way to promote impulse control. Grab detailed directions to play this game and four others here. Relationship Skills: Game 7: Collaborative Storytelling Fuel creativity and teamwork by having students work together to create a story. Each student contributes a sentence, building on the narrative created by their peers. This not only strengthens relationships but also enhances communication and cooperation skills. Plus, it's a blast to see where the story takes unexpected twists and turns! (These reading passages based on SEL learning skills are fun, too!) Game 8: Group Challenges Help students develop their relationship skills as they complete a series of fun challenges as a team. Have teams of students work together to solve 5 different challenges that focus on teamwork, collaboration, and leveraging individual strengths to emphasize the power of working together. Make planning these challenges easy with these ready-made stations. Game 9: Peer Appreciation Circle Form a circle and have students take turns expressing appreciation for the person on their right. This simple yet powerful exercise builds positive relationships within the class and reinforces the importance of acknowledging each other's strengths and contributions. Social Awareness: Game 10: Perspective Puzzles Print or draw pictures of various situations and scenarios. Have students work in pairs to discuss and understand the emotions and perspectives of the people in the pictures. This game sharpens social awareness by encouraging students to consider different viewpoints and practice empathy. I've created a set of cards for this game here. Game 11: Community Connections Scavenger Hunt Create a list of community-related items or tasks that students can complete outside of the classroom, fostering a sense of connection to the broader community. This activity enhances social awareness by encouraging students to explore and appreciate the world beyond their immediate surroundings. Responsible Decision-Making: Game 12: Decision Dilemmas Present students with real-life scenarios that require responsible decision-making. Engage them in thoughtful discussions about the potential outcomes of each choice. This game equips students with the skills to analyze situations, consider consequences, and make informed decisions—a crucial aspect of responsible decision-making. Need some scenario cards to share with students? Grab them here. Game 13: Consequence Connect Four Create a Connect Four game board with spaces featuring different consequences of actions. As students play, discuss the potential outcomes associated with each move. This visually engaging activity reinforces the concept that every decision has consequences and helps students develop a sense of responsibility. Game 14: Decision Making Prompts Get students thinking about how they might respond to situations with targeted writing prompts. Share prompts that challenges students to make a decision. Then, give them opportunity to write how they might respond. Let students share their responses with peers or small groups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- And there you have it, a bunch of games designed to infuse your classroom with social-emotional learning! These activities are not just about learning; they're about creating an environment where students flourish emotionally, socially, and academically. So, why wait? Dive into the world of SEL games and watch your students grow into self-aware, emotionally intelligent, and socially adept individuals. Your classroom is about to become the epicenter of SEL success—game on! Wishing you lots of fun in your classroom, Mary Beth P.S. Find 15 MORE social-emotional learning activities HERE.

Flag Bingo is a printable educational game that challenges children to learn and identify the flags of the world. Featuring the flags of 120 countries and with two ways to play, Flag Bingo is a fun

Inside: Find free downloads, a detailed gameplay tutorial, and differentiation strategies for playing Taco Tuesday with your middle and high school Spanish classes.

Great ideas for free preschool games! Perfect inside or outside, during circle time, at home, or to develop gross motor and critical listening skills.

Learn sorting and classification with this free Animal Environment Sorting Game. Match up the 30 different animals to the 6 different habits.

Outdoor activities for kids and families - games and ideas to learn and have fun with maps and wayfinding: compass play, geocaching, and more!

Get your kindergarten students up and moving with this list of fun no contact circle games. They are perfect for brain breaks!

I thought it was time to share some alphabet activities for preschoolers. Alphabet activities and How Wee Learn definitely seem to go hand in hand! I have shared with you oodles of letter activities before AND a (rather lengthy) post about why I don't actually suggest teaching letters in ABC order. But I have not

Here are 7 Bible Verse Memory Games that are fun, creative, and unique! Plus these Memory verse activiteis work with any Bible verse.

Need to help your students get more hands on practice for their vocabulary words? I've got 5 fun vocabulary games you can use right away!

One of the great (and probably easiest) ways to gamify your teaching is through the use of game generators. These are tools that enable you to easily create various educational games without the need for any coding knowledge. And if you are wondering which tools to use, I have recommendations for you!

Your kids or students will love coloring and cutting out our free Squishmallow scissor skills activity pages. Kids will have fun learning, great for homeschooling, teachers, road trips, and more!

Four card games to play with your toddler. Using a deck of cards, toddlers can sort, match, and learn more about playing cards.

Download this Premium Vector about Cutting practice for kids. Funny haircut activity, Scissor skills. Fine motor skills. Preschool game, and discover more than 15 Million Professional Graphic Resources on Freepik

Games are a tried and true way to engage students. Whether teaching in-person or remotely via a live session like Zoom or Google Meets, teachers know that games, brain breaks, and icebreakers are an awesome way to get students actively involved in learning. With the ever-changing landscape of education, I thought it might be nice to compile some versatile activities that challenge students in really fun ways. Best part? These activities are very low prep and work in a variety of settings. These activities encourage students to listen, solve problems, be creative, and practice critical skills. They're designed to be easy to do with little to no prep. You can easily add one of these games to any lesson as a warm-up, closure, community building activity, or lesson extender. GAMES & ACTIVITIES ⭐How Many? Give students a category and then challenge students to see how many different things they can fit within that classification. At first students will respond with obvious ideas. However, as they brainstorm, their ideas will stretch and their creativity will grow. Students can jot their ideas down on scrap paper and earn points for each unique response when they share out. Here are some categories to get started: occupations, things that are slimy, things that roll, animal noises, articles of clothing ⭐Listen Carefully: Read a short passage out loud to students. Then, have them answer questions based on what they can remember. Make it especially fun by awarding points for every answer that students get right. You can change up this activity by reading two versions of the same story. Mix up some of the details in the second version for students to listen for. Give this activity a try with the passages in this set of FREE Brain Bursts. Add your information below and then check your inbox! ⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟ ⭐Silly Silent Spelling: Practice spelling words in a super silly way. Explain to students that you are going to be giving them a practice spelling test (definitely NOT the real thing). Just like a typical practice test, they'll listen for the word and write it down. However, here's the catch: you're only going to silently mouth the words. Students will need to read your lips to figure out what word they will need to write down. Of course, figuring out a word from a silent cue is not easy. That's what makes this fun. Students will write down some wild guesses as they spell their way through this game. ⭐One Word: Pose a fun question to the class and have them all think of a one-word answer. Then, give every student a chance to share their responses as you call on each of them. Here are some questions to get started: --- If you were a type of dessert, what would you be? --- Where do you feel happiest? --- How would a soccer ball describe its day? --- Where is somewhere that you would like to visit? --- What would be the perfect gift for you? ⭐Mystery Item: This activity is quick and easy to play. To prepare, write 5 or 6 clues about an object. Make the clues gradually increase in their specificity. Then, read the clues to students as they jot down their guesses for the mystery item until you reveal the answer. ⭐Punchline: Start telling a joke to students, and then have them guess the punchline. Find a ton of jokes for kids here. ⭐Strike a Pose: Explain to students that they are going to pretend that they are in a photograph. They will need to imagine that the photo was taken at the height of the event. All they have to do is strike a pose after you give them a situation. For instance, you might say, "haunted house," and then students would freeze in a pose that shows them frightened or terrified. Here are a few situations to try: Dentist Office, Roller Coaster, Last Day of School, Scary Movie, Food Fight, Race ⭐Timed Writing Activities: Engage students with a creative writing prompt. Then, "amp up" the fun factor by adding a timed element. Challenge students to race the clock as they write as much as they can in a fixed time period. Find my favorite prompts here. ⭐And Then...: This is a listening game for the entire class. Students will need to listen to and add to a growing story. You'll start the story with an opener like, "At the zoo, I decided to open the lion's cage, and then..." Next, you'll call on a student to explain what happened next. That student will add one line and the phrase "and then" before selecting another student to add to the story. ⭐Listen and Draw: Students love this activity! To prepare, create a simple illustration filled with shapes and designs. Then, write out the directions for students. Have students complete the activity on a piece of paper. Read each direction to students and challenge them to replicate the illustration you instructed them to draw. (These are included in the exclusive freebie below.) ⭐Class Pet: Pretend that you have a new class pet. Explain to students that they will need to guess the type of animal. Students will need to ask questions and write their guesses on a piece of paper when they think they have figured out the new class pet. ⭐Add the Ending: Engage students as they practice writing and storytelling skills with this activity. First, students will listen to the beginning of a story that you read to them. Then, they'll take over the writing and complete the story. The story starters are a fun way to motivate students to write. ⭐Alien, Tiger, and Cat: Here's an improvisational theatre game that works in the classroom. Explain to students that they can be one of three things: an alien, a cat, or a tiger. If they choose to be an alien, they need to hold their pointer fingers next to their head (like antennae) and say "bleeb, bleeb." To be a cat, they need to rub their wrist along their face (like a cat cleaning itself) and say "meow." Finally, to be a tiger they need to push their hand forward with a claw stance and roar. On your cue, every student will choose and act like an animal. The goal is to get everyone to choose the same animal (which is nearly impossible, but fun to try). ⭐Rapid Recall: Create a list of random words. Then, read the list of words to students. As you read the words, you might have students put their hands on their heads so that you know for sure that they aren't taking notes. Once you've read the words to students once or twice, wait about a minute before letting students write down every word that they remember. (Find ready-made lists in this complete resource.) ⭐Finish the Fact: Share the beginning of a fact with students. Then, challenge them to complete the fact. Have them share their guesses before revealing the complete fact. Find a collection of random facts here. Want a free set of virtual classroom activities designed to be NO PREP and NO COPIES? Just add your name and email below. ⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟ BONUS: Here's one more idea: ⭐Paper Airplanes: Help students practice following directions by challenging them to fold a paper airplane by following your directions. To get started, choose a paper airplane design to have students fold. Then, have students take out a piece of paper. They'll need to listen carefully to each of your directions to make their paper airplane. Wishing you tons of fun in your (virtual) classroom, Mary Beth P.S. Find a TON of ready-made activities HERE.

Stringing Letters learning game! Make string letters & turn them into a fun game that teaches alphabet order and even simple spelling! #100LearningGames

Rhyming Fun for everyone! Help early readers learn to rhyme with these Free Printable Rhyming Puzzles. 30 Pairs of rhyming words included.

I love incorporating games into math as much as possible. Who doesn't love playing games, right?! But the problem with games is that they often require quite a bit of prep work for us teachers. I've been trying to come up with some that require little to no preparation to use. I'm so excited to

The Unfair Game is a totally unfair twist on Jeopardy that your students will LOVE to hate! Learn how to play and find sample game boards in this post.

If you're looking for fun and easy getting to know you activities for the first day of school, these ice breaker games for kids will inspire you!

Get free printables for kids in preschool and kindergarten! Find hundreds of free printable activities for literacy, math, science and more!

Vocabulary instruction is so critical in today’s classroom! A vast vocabulary will help students to become better readers and writers. Vocabulary is also essential to their performance on standardized tests. Helping kids to develop their vocabulary is time that is well spent in a busy classroom. I have developed a routine to teach new vocabulary

These are the 11 best easy card games that are actually super fun to play! These are perfect for kids and adults, so the whole family with enjoy them.

Help kids practice math with fun and simple games (many use only playing cards or dice). They will have so much fun, they won't know they are learning!

Learn how to play this fun place value game and download your free Place Value Yahtzee score sheets.

Name games are a great way for you and your students to remember everyone in class. They also build community, vocabulary and connection!

Take a visual approach to math and patterns and use counting bears worksheets to teach numbers, colors, patterns, and more.

These engaging indoor and outdoor games for toddlers are sure to keep them out of trouble with plenty of hands-on learning to boot.

Crossing the midline activities for kids. What on earth are those? Sometimes in the educational world we start speaking a slightly different language than 'normal' people. Not that teachers aren't normal ... though ... you do need to be a little insane to work with small children all day long, don't you? Anyways. I had

For our learners who need to work on foundational learning skills, such as simple matching, I have always love creating hands on task boxes put-in tasks and color sorting tasks. My classroom closet always looked like it could be featured on an episode of hoarders. I kept every shoe box, coffee container, baby jar, and

FUN, reusable way for preschoolers to practice counting, numbers, colors, and alphabet letters? Check out these preschool file folder games.

Free set of printables to go along with Magnetic Tiles. Includes two levels of difficulty. Builds problem solving skills.

Looking for the best preschool activities?! This list is full of hands-on preschool STEM, art, and literacy activities with no worksheets.

I love finding common items around the house and making games with them. I recently came across a tin of dominoes and put those babies to work! My students LOVE the idea of playing with dominoes even if they are sharpening their math skills while doing so! These games can be played alone or with partners. Partners tend to make them even more fun! Ordering Products Students choose five dominoes, turn them over, and multiply each side together. Order the products from least to greatest or greatest to least. Want to make it a game? Partners order their dominos then find the difference between their greatest number and least number. The partner with the greatest (or least) difference wins. Multiplication War Students begin with dominoes face down. Each student chooses a domino. On the count of three, students turn over their domino and multiply the dots on one side by the dots on the other side. The student with the highest product wins the dominoes. Even/Odd Sort Add, subtract, or multiply the dots on the dominoes then sort the answer by odd or even numbers. Want to make it a game? Before the game begins state a rule. The partner with the most even numbers or odd numbers wins the set. Prime/Composite Sort Add, subtract, or multiply the dots on the dominoes then sort the answer by prime or composite. Want to make it a game? Before the game begins state a rule. The partner with the most prime numbers or the most composite numbers wins. Coordinate pairs Provide students with a coordinate grid. Students plot points using the dots on the dominoes. One side is the x-coordinate; the other side is the y-coordinate. Ordering Decimals Students choose five dominoes and turn them over. One side is the whole number; the other side is the decimal. Order the decimals from least to greatest or greatest to least. Want to make it a game? Partners order their dominos then find the difference between their greatest decimal and least decimal. The partner with the greatest (or least) difference wins. Compare Decimals Students choose two dominoes and turn them over. One side is the whole number; the other side is the decimal. Compare both dominoes. Want to make it a game? Each partner chooses one domino. Then, they compare their decimal. The partner with the greatest (or least) decimal wins. Add or Subtract Decimals Students choose two dominoes and turn them over. One side is the whole number; the other side is the decimal. Add or subtract the decimals. Want to make it a game? Partners compare their sum or difference. The partner with the greatest (or least) sum or difference wins. Compare Fractions Students choose two dominoes and turn them over. One side is the numerator; the other side is the denominator Compare both fractions. Want to make it a game? Each partner chooses one domino. Then, they compare their fraction. The partner with the greatest (or least) fraction wins. Ordering Fractions Students choose five dominoes and turn them over. One side is the numerator; the other side is the denominator Order the fractions from least to greatest or greatest to least. Want to make it a game? Partners order their dominos then find the difference between their greatest fraction and least fraction. The partner with the greatest (or least) difference wins. For a printable version of these games, you can download it HERE. This printable is perfect to laminate and attach to a loose leaf ring for easy access. Teaching With Simplicity Pinterest Facebook Instagram Teachers Pay Teachers

Need some guidance for teaching preschool Spanish? You’re in the right place! Young children are the perfect age to soak up a new language. I'm currently raising my own three kids bilingually, and have taught classes to this age group as well. It's never too late to start, and 3-5 year olds are really fun to teach! In this post I've compiled my favorited strategies for you. To get started in learning Spanish together, you Can Do three things: 1. Outline some beginning topics. You can create your own list, with common preschool topics (think numbers, colors, greetings, etc.)Take a

33 Evidence-based (and FUN!) SOCIAL SKILLS ACTIVITIES for KIDS + 🎁 FREE PRINTABLE activity. Explore: starting conversations, respecting personal space, expressing emotions

Reading about the explorers to America and doing hands-on activities helps us too explore. This time, we're exploring the explorers!

Circle Time Games for Preschool kids unlock amazing learning opportunities! I've taught thousands of preschool teachers these games!