Our Seven Continents & Oceans Worksheets are a passport to fun and learning for your student's growing minds, helping them learn the seven continents & 5 oceans that make up this beautiful planet.
Cognitive defusion is a key concept in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). It involves creating distance from our thoughts, allowing us to observe and relate to them in a more objective and flexible way.
Fun and simple mIndfulness activities for kids: Learning How to Regulate Emotions, Calm Down and Improve Focus.
Help your students become better spellers with the spelling hack that every teacher should know! It is mind-blowing how effective as well as how simple it is and easy for students to use!
Five lamination hacks for teachers that will blow your mind and save you time. Read to learn more or watch the video! Only at Mrs. D's Corner.
This activity pairs perfectly with the book "Stand in My Shoes: Kids Learning About Empathy" by Bob Sornson. There is a video of the book being read aloud on YouTube. Kids identify what gives them certain emotions and learn that they can know how others feel by thinking "how would I feel if it were me?"
30 social-emotional learning strategies for middle school kids to boost confidence and strengthen SEL skills students need for success.
10 significant reasons to read aloud to students on a
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.
Idioms are great for understanding the culture behind a language while picking up some new words as well. Here are some funny German idioms you should know!
Create these fun Inside Out activities to help boost emotional wellbeing within your classroom or livin room!
Learn more about and download our Anger Management Skills Worksheet.
Check out Little Black Kat Creative's Branding, illustration and surface design portfolio. Showcasing innovative designs and illustrations.
Not familiar with the Somatic Therapy yet? Somatic healing is amazing tool for releasing those pent-up emotions that are stored in your body
One powerful tool that can help you achieve your savings goals and secure a financially stable future is a budget planner. By implementing the right budgeting strategies, you can take control of your…
Unleash the potential of creative minds with our Imagination and Creativity Worksheets. Designed to nurture artistic talents and inspire imaginative thinking, these worksheets are perfect for artists of all ages. This super fun pack of 10 Imagination Workout worksheets is designed to help students unleash their inner imagination and creativity. Each sheet includes 6 blocks filled with some sort of line or shape and simply asks students to finish the drawing themselves. Discover the joy of self-expression as you dive into the vibrant world of art. Create stunning masterpieces, experiment with new techniques, and let your imagination run wild. With our Imagination and Creativity Worksheets, you'll experience the thrill of bringing your unique ideas to life. Explore, create, and unlock the endless possibilities that lie within your imagination. It's time to let your creativity soar!
Process art vs. product art in early childhood education: Discover the role of each approach and explore photo examples.
If I told you that you could manifest ANYTHING in 3 days, what would you say? Would you get excited, suspicious, or even scared?! The idea of manifesting something in three days has resurfaced from
Pediatric Yoga: Benefits for the Mind Body, and Soul. Includes FREE printable Pediatric Yoga Pose and Instructions!
Feeling inspired? This writing prompts you can find the joy of write, every page has a sentence and you can start writing. Happy writing 90 Writing Prompts
History is my passion; I love history! And yet, I really don't like textbooks. Here are 30+ ways to teach history without a textbook, from books to cooking, and more!
It is the first week of kindergarten! What do I teach? I get this question all the time! I am so excited to put together this page together for you. I’m sharing our favorite first week of kindergarten read aloud stories and the free coordinating printables I made to go with them. Plus I will s
This printable math worksheet is a super fun way to practice addition and money skills. It also makes a great follow up for a restaurant math center activity. Your students can pretend that they have their own little place that serves junk food for lunch (because it's no fun to serve broccoli and kale at a fake resta
Teach kids empathy and compassion through mindful, fun lessons, discussions, and activities that build social awareness and community.
Although "practice makes perfect," it doesn't have to be boring. Find 6 ways to make lessons more engaging with movement in the classroom.
Yoga Bingo for kids. Make learning fun and different whilst at home. Roll the dice and see what pose you will try. Tree, cow, cat or star??
Free printable Spanish worksheets for students learning Spanish as a second language. Our worksheets are designed with the beginner in mind, so you can even use our PDF Spanish printables with your preschool and kindergarten students. You'll find beautiful full-color Spanish charts, worksheets, games, activity pages for learning the basics below. Simple categories are includes like Spanish Colors, Days of the Week in Spanish, and Spanish Months of the Year.
These are the Portuguese phrases you aren't taught at home. The interjections, exclamations and adjectives Brazilians throw around everyday.
Learn about countries for kids with Around the WOrld Country Coloring Pages! These coloring sheets are easy way to explore 19 countries!
Learn how to make these pretty paper pumpkins for your fall decor. This paper craft includes a full tutorial with free SVG cut files.
Looking to create a calm-down space for your kids? Learn the must-have calming corner items that will help keep them regulated and content.
How to make a mindfulness glitter calm down jar for kids! Step-by-step directions for making a calming glitter jar, with a printable recipe.
Learn what shadow work is and why it's so crucial. You'll also find 7 powerful shadow work exercises with journal prompts included.
Teaching your preschoolers about music is easy and fun! If you’re not sure where to begin, be sure to check out this free preschool music lesson here! The free preschool music learning pack below will help your preschooler learn more about notes and counting. They’ll also be working on their handwriting skills too! To receive this …
I spend a lot of time watching and listening to the kids, trying to figure out what interests them. I love to teach the standards by using the kids interests. When I do this, they use the academics they need while they investigate things that they are interested in. It makes them excited to learn and they automatically use reading, writing and math skills with out any push from me when these skills are needed during the investigation. Sometimes, the interests are small groups, but sometimes, an interest is widespread and covers most of the kids in the class. This year this widespread interest was superheroes. This major interest in superheroes was obvious ever since the beginning of the year! I knew that I was going to have to figure out a way to do a superhero inquiry, but what could I cover in our curriculum with superheroes? There was nothing about superheroes in our science or social studies standards. Once I started brainstorming and putting my ideas down on a web map, I was amazed at how much curriculum I could cover! Reading, writing, math, social studies social skills, and LOTS of science! For reading, I found easy readers about superheroes and they read them over and over and over! They never tire of these books and were used as inspiration in their writing also! For Art, I set up the art area with lots of superhero colors. They were very inspired! The kids loved going to the easel and painting their favorites! For Art and Fine Motor work, I set up an area where my sculptors could create superheroes using their passion and skill. This was a very popular area. The sculptures they made amazed me! For Writing, I set up an area where they could create comics about their favorite superheroes. They LOVED to write about superheroes. Not only comics, but stories and and books! I never had to beg them to focus on their writing during this inquiry! They wrote with excitement and were so proud of their stories. They loved rereading their stories to friends. It was a great opportunity to focus on what they need to do to make their writing easy for them to reread such as adding spaces, sight words being spelled correctly, writing down every sound they hear in unfamiliar words, writing neatly and drawing a picture with details that helps you remember what you wrote. Superheroes were a big help for working on social skills. We talked about the qualities of superheroes and how we should all strive to have these same qualities and behaviors! Of course with a focus on superheroes, there was a lot of superhero play. As they played, the play would get too rough, or the villains would say something mean. I see these situations as opportunities for them to grow in the areas of: 1) Getting along with others. 2) Learning what to do when someone makes us angry. 3) Problem solving 4) Learning from our mistakes. 5) Working together as a team. If children are not playing and put in these situations, how will they learn these skills? These problems have to happen so that they can see a need to find a solution and be able to work together. We sat down as a group, and the kids came up with these rules for super villains. For reading comprehension, we read about a superhero and created a tree map to organize what we learned about them from the book. They loved to compare and contrast them. Most had secret identities, were kind and good, helpful, team players, strong, etc. They noticed some differences. Some needed gadgets, some had super powers, some could fly, others could not, etc. For Science, I set out opportunities for them to explore different super powers. Here, Aqua Man inspired us to explore the properties of water. There was a lot of exploration in volume as they filled containers (math), and the concept of sink and float. They tried to figure out why some things sank and others didn't. They also tried to sink things that would float and tried to make the things that sank, float! Magneto inspired us to explore the power of magnetism. They tried to figure out which things stuck to the magnets and why. They were also interested in how sometimes the magnets would repel each other. Superman and Supergirl inspired us to explore the power of flight. A lot of creative and critical thinking skills were used here! Our engineers created all kinds of objects such as planes and kites and tried to see how far they could glide on the air. They measured using the tiles on the floor how far they could go. Some friends made designs that spun while they glided! Spiderman inspired us to explore spider powers! A group here is very interested in spiders so I will let them explore further! We strengthened fine motor skills by creating webs and books about spiders were provided for them to learn more. Here they studied the pictures of webs and used white crayons, glue and glitter to show what they noticed about spider webs. These turned out beautiful! I wish I thought to take a picture of one! Ironman inspired us to explore the power of propulsion. They had to use the materials to make the superheroes shoot up in the air without throwing anything or touching the superhero. After some experimenting, most came up with a catapult design which is a simple machine (lever). I decided to set up another similar propulsion challenge with only clothespins and craft sticks. How can you get the superhero to fly the absolute highest it can? I want them to think about the importance of where to place the fulcrum of this simple lever machine in order to gain the most height! Where the fulcrum is placed makes a big difference! They are really into these lever designs! Now that we have explored and investigated superheroes, we are now working on our project, along with exploring a couple more super powers! We will also integrate social studies as we talk about real heroes in our world in the form of community helpers. They are also interested in animal super powers. I will blog about that next time! Meanwhile, here are some other things that have gone on in our room! Valentine's Day: We have some very creative families that created Valentine's Boxes. The kids loved every single one of them! We lined them up and the kids put their valentines in each one. We made Friendship Fruit Salad to celebrate our friendship on Valentine's Day also. The kids each brought something to add to the salad and also helped mix it up. It was a big hit! They thought it was the best salad they had ever had! We also celebrated our 100th day of school! Some of the kids and I dressed up like we were 100 years old. I think I scared my husband and a few friends when I posted the picture of just me on social media! We counted out 100 Fruit Loops by putting them in groups of 10 and then strung them to make a necklace! This was hard work for those finger muscles! Here are a few of the math games that we are playing. Here they pick a number from the basket, find it on the chart, identify it and cover it with a button. This helps with number i.d. to 100. Though they are only required to i.d. numbers to 20, many are ready to take it further. Here they use the materials to create a math game and show the class how to play the game and what math skills we are using. Here they are learning that teen numbers are a long group of ten and some short ones. Here they are picking to hands and adding the fingers together. Here they are making sight words on the pipe cleaners, taking a picture of the words and putting them on the promethium board to see if their friends can read them. I have encouraged them to find the hardest ones!
