33 Evidence-based (and FUN!) SOCIAL SKILLS ACTIVITIES for KIDS + 🎁 FREE PRINTABLE activity. Explore: starting conversations, respecting personal space, expressing emotions
33 Evidence-based (and FUN!) SOCIAL SKILLS ACTIVITIES for KIDS + 🎁 FREE PRINTABLE activity. Explore: starting conversations, respecting personal space, expressing emotions
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.
Friendship-building activities help children in K-3 develop strong social skills. When relationships are an important factor in education, kids succeed in school and life.
Honesty & Integrity - Social Skills SEL Lesson Unlock a world of character development for your elementary students with this fun & engaging resource focused on honesty and integrity! Instilling these values early in life is crucial, and this lesson makes it easy for young minds to understand the importance of honesty and integrity in building trust and forming lasting relationships. Elementary students are at a critical stage of moral development. By explicitly teaching social skills, we empower them to become responsible and trustworthy individuals. This SEL unit has it all! This means minimal prep for the teacher! It includes a detailed lesson plan, colorful PowerPoint slides that match the lesson perfectly, an independent activity, and a class game that adds an element of fun while reinforcing the concepts of honesty and integrity. Equip your students with the tools they need to navigate the complexities of life with honestly, integrity and trustworthiness! Includes: ☑️ detailed lesson plans ☑️ colorful & engaging lesson slides ☑️ 1 individual activity ☑️ 1 whole class game Get Unlimited Access to the entire store HERE! Related Resources: Identifying Emotions & Feelings SEL Morning Meetings – Mindset Quotes and Social Stories ✉ Let's Connect! ✉ Blog Instagram Pinterest
The terms social skills and pragmatics are often used interchangeably, but pragmatics are actually just one component of social skills.
Social emotional learning (SEL) videos and channels on YouTube can be a great way to target emotional and social skills for students!
Teaching children how to play nicely with others is a common social skill that needs to be frequently addressed. As educators we will say things like, “be kind” or “treat others the way you want to be treated”, however we need to explicitly teach these skills. We cannot expect for children to know these social ... Read More about Social Story: Playing Nicely
Are you a School Counselor, Psychologist, or Speech Pathologist who has a “LUNCH BUNCH” or...
Teach kids empathy and compassion through mindful, fun lessons, discussions, and activities that build social awareness and community.
If you're looking for supplemental activities for your Integrity Character Education lessons look at all this resource has to offer!
Social skills for students with Autism is hard to teach, but a must have! Here are 4 strategies to teach vocational social skills...| NoodleNook
Teach kids empathy and compassion through mindful, fun lessons, discussions, and activities that build social awareness and community.
Teaching self control to kids can often times become a tricky topic. When a child hears, “Use self control”, do they even know what that means? So often we expect kids to know exactly what we mean or how to behave, but we fall short in our teaching and explanation. We cannot expect a child ... Read More about Self Control: What it Really Means to Kids
Looking for fun and engaging kindergarten social studies resources? Check out the interactive notebook that your students will love!
Looking for an introductory First Grade Self Control Activity? Your students will love this fun story and craft for practice!
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links for your convenience. Recently I brought you my review of You Are A Social Detective: Explaining Social ThinkingⓇ to Kids by Michelle Garcia Winner and Pamela Crooke… and now I am FINALLY getting around to sharing all of the cool activities we did to go with that book! Woot! If […]
Kids and young adults need to be able to problem-solve on their own. Every day, kids are faced with a huge number of social situations and challenges. Whether they are just having a conversation with a peer, working with a group on a project, or dealing with an ethical dilemma, kids must use their s
Do you need a hands-on, sensory lesson to teach about kind words? You will love this! Perfect for preschool, kindergarten, and even older kids! Also part of the Virtual Book Club for Kids!
25 Turn-Taking Activities & Games for Kids + How to Teach Kids to Take Turns ( with these 5 Turn-Taking Strategies)
In many ways, strong executive functioning skills are the foundation for success. These are the mental processes that help learners plan through assignments, organize materials, initiate a task, manage time well, stay focused, try new strategies when stuck, and persevere until the completion of a go
Learn about the my favorite social skills curricula to help you or your students or clients develop essential life skills.
Plan and deliver meaningful Social-Emotional Learning lessons for kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students with this guide. Tailored for teachers juggling time constraints and looking for effective classroom management techniques. Learn how to intentionally plan your SEL lessons, and create the ideal schedule and lesson. Find a weekly schedule example and free templates for planning, observations and assessments, and lesson ideas to enrich morning meetings and SEL curriculum!
Students don't always know when they're doing something that makes conflict worse. Teaching them about the conflict escalator (with role plays!) helps them identify their own roles in this
The term "choices and consequences" sounds harsh, doesn't it? It's missing that warm social-emotional feel other topics like empathy and calming strategies have. You know that helping students learn to reflect on the decisions they make and the results are some of the most essential SEL work you can do. So let's dive into five
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has been found to promote academic success and increase students' commitment to school. Generally, there are five key components that make up social emotional learning. These competencies include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision making. Today, I'd like to focus on ways to help students develop self-awareness. Self-awareness includes one's ability to recognize emotions, have an accurate self-perception, identify strengths, develop confidence, and show self-efficacy. Researchers have found that a student's ability to control his or her feelings, thoughts, and behaviors can be linked to academic success. So, let's take a look at some easy ways to help students develop an awareness of their individual characteristics and personal emotions. All About Me - A - Z This activity helps students to define and identify a variety of aspects about themselves. They'll create a list about themselves with a characteristic, quality, or emotion for each letter of the alphabet. Materials: Piece of paper, pen or pencil Directions: - On a piece of paper, have students create two columns. (Or grab a ready-made poster here.) - Have them write all the letters of the alphabet in each column. - Then, challenge them to write something about themselves for each letter. For instance, they might write "gregarious" for G or "curious" for C. Ideas: - Share your own A to Z list with students first. - Create a class list of emotions and descriptive words to get students started. - Assemble students' finished lists in a class book. Moment of Mindfulness Mindfulness is a great way to build self-awareness. Since mindfulness is all about paying attention to the present moment, it's a great way for students to pause and reflect on how they are feeling, what they are thinking, and what they need in the present. It's simple to do too! Ways to take a moment of mindfulness: - At the beginning of class, have students close their eyes and take several deep breaths. Ask students to pay attention to their breathing. - Share a mindfulness quote with students to help focus students' thoughts during a moment of mindfulness. - Pause during instruction and have students do a self-awareness check. Encourage them to be mindful of their thoughts and feelings. Reflective Journaling Reflective journaling is a powerful way to help students become self-aware. With targeted writing prompts, students can develop insight into their feelings, make sense of their experiences, and build clarity on their thoughts. When students write about their own experiences and feelings, they become more self-aware. Materials: - A notebook and/or computer, pen or pencil, writing prompts - A list of writing prompts that spark self-reflection, these might include: --- Write about a time when you were proud of yourself. --- List ten things that make you feel excited. --- Reflect on how you have changed this year. --- What is something that you find challenging? (Check out a set of 10 engaging prompts here.) Ideas: - Have students respond to their prompts as if they are writing a letter to themselves..."Dear me..." - Read students' responses and respond to their writing in the margins. Add questions and positive notes at the end of their writing to build connections and spark further reflections. - Schedule a time each day or week for journaling to make it an intentional part of your classroom community. Growth Mindset There are many ways to help students develop a growth mindset. When students develop an understanding that all forms of intelligence are malleable, they are inspired to work toward success. That's why it is so powerful to infuse lessons about growth mindset into instruction. Giving students a moment to reflect on their own mindsets builds self-awareness. Materials: - Short lessons or articles about Growth Mindset to help students understand the differences between a fixed and growth mindset. - Series of questions about students' own mindsets. Directions: - After teaching students about Growth Mindset, have students respond to questions about their own mindsets. - Give students a chance to share their responses with a partner, small group, or the entire class. Ideas: - Share and display inspirational quotes about growth mindset. (I particularly love paper desk tents. They are an easy way to display quotes right on students' desks.) - Highlight important people who demonstrate a growth mindset. Emotions Skits Researchers have noted that there are at least six universal emotions. These include happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust. Help students investigate and demonstrate these universal emotions by challenging them to write a short play or skit that involves a character or many characters experiencing one of the universal emotions. Materials: - List of the universal emotions, paper, pen - Skit planning pages (optional) Ideas: - Review the six universal emotions with students. As a class have students brainstorm what each emotion looks like (how people look when they are experiencing that emotion) and sounds like (what people might say when experiencing that emotion). - Brainstorm situations where people might feel each emotion. Encourage students to share personal situations when they felt a certain way. - Divide students into small groups. Secretly assign each group an emotion. - Challenge students to write a script that their small group could act out for the class that demonstrates that emotion. - Have small groups perform for the class. Have the audience identify the emotion prevalent in the skit. Self Check-In Daily feelings check-ins are a great way to build self-awareness. When students are given the opportunity to assess how they are feeling and share their emotions with others, they begin to know themselves more fully. Self check-ins also help normalize feelings. Materials: - Paper with an open grid shape - List of feelings Directions: - Pass out the gridded paper to students. - Have them fill the grid with different emotions. - Then, have students display the grid on their desks. - Have them place a token or shape on the emotion that shows how they are feeling at a particular moment. Ideas: - Once students can recognize their feelings, help them to develop strategies for regulating their emotions. - Encourage students to track their feelings over an entire school day. Then, discuss how feelings change in different situations. -------------------------------------------------- I hope you've found a few ways to help students develop self-awareness. Incorporating lessons that target social emotional learning is essential in today's classrooms. If you're looking for ready-made resources, check out this set of 10 SEL reading passages and this set of 6 Self-Awareness Activities. Thanks for stopping by! Mary Beth
Load up your Character Education Perseverance month with this bundle of activities, lessons, bulletins, charts and more!
Set a friendly tone in your classroom with these 30 "Get to Know You" games perfect for back to school or when welcoming a new student.
A collection of location and mapping worksheets. These resources support the teaching of cardinal and ordinal directions, grid referencing, prepositional words, reading legends and more.
ALL ABOUT FRIENDSHIP Friendship and conflict solving skills are so important to teach our kiddos. Our job is to teach them important social skills. They need these tools to ensure successful relationships with their peers and adults. It is tricky, but it can be done! I am sharing some
Add these respect books and videos to your classroom collection. These are great to teach your students essential character education skills.
Teaching Honesty in the Classroom; character education; classroom community; honesty for kids
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my full disclosure policy. Prior to working in the public-school setting, I worked at a non-public school for kids with autism. The students I wor…
As the school year kicks off, September presents a perfect opportunity to engage students in STEM activities that are not only educational but also fun and inspiring. This month, we'll be diving into engineering principles, fostering a growth mindset, and celebrating creativity with International
Assertiveness for Kids: 10 Tips to Teach Assertive Communication to Kids and help improve social interactions and self-esteem
