Social and Emotional Learning Activities
Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children understand and manage emotion, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. We have put together some of our favorite activities for children that support the development of social and emotional awareness. These activities can be used in the classroom or at home.
Self Awareness
FEELINGS WHEELS
The feelings wheel is an opportunity for children to recognize and acknowledge the emotions they might experience. Encourage your student to draw pictures and use colors that symbolize their emotions. This activity allows a child to better understand the feelings that come up on a day to day basis.
Print out or make a copy of the feelings wheel provided so your student can practice naming and drawing out their emotions.
COPING SKILLS CHECKLIST
Coping skills help children and adults face their fears, calm themselves down and cheer themselves up. Click here to print out the list of coping skills. Encourage students to check off all coping skills that they feel comfortable trying or that they feel would help them. Students can also make a list or draw additional coping skills that are not on this list! During difficult times, encourage students to try out some coping skills that they identified from this list.
Class Dojo
GROWTH MINDSET
Having a growth mindset means that you believe that your abilities can improve over time. This can have real benefits when you face challenges or obstacles. Click here to learn more about the power of having a growth mindset and how you can learn this skill!
Self Management
Vision-Board-younger-worksheet-interactive2 (1).pdfVISION BOARD
A vision board is a fun way to create a visual of your future dreams and goals. Use this activity to cut out or draw images that reflect your goals, aspirations and dreams. Your completed vision board will be a positive daily reminder of what is possible for you to achieve.
IN OR OUT OF MY CONTROL
Often times children feel overwhelmed and anxious due to situations in their lives that are out of their control. By drawing their own hand, student's can visualize what they actually do have control over and how to respond to situations that are not in their control.
Positive-Self-Talk.pdfPOSITIVE SELF TALK
Practicing positive self-talk can lead to a higher sense of self efficacy, which in turn can help children become more motivated to approach challenging tasks and assignments. Positive self-talk also can lead to an increase in self-esteem. Use this worksheet to teach children about positive and negative self-talk. Guide them in creating positive self-talk statements that can challenge negative statements.
Social Awareness
Helping-Others-Activity-To-the-Rescue.pdfEMPATHY
Having empathy means that you understand how someone else is feeling. It is the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes and understand the way a situation might make them feel. Take a look at this activity to practice empathy by thinking about how the people in each of the pictures might feel and deciding what you would do to help them.
KINDNESS
An act of kindness can go a long way. They are easy to do and almost always make people smile! For ideas and examples of random acts of kindness, click here.
Relationship Skills
CONVERSATION STARTERS
It can be hard to start a conversation or make friends with those we do not yet know. Visit this activity for some ideas of conversation starters you can use to get to know your classmates. You can even use these ideas to create your own conversation starters!
4002-Tango-Bingo.pdfResponsible Decision Making
Think-Ahead-Positive-and-Negative-Consequences.pdfCONSEQUENCES
The choices that you make all have consequences. Consequences can be positive or negative. Practice responsible decision making by exploring the consequences of your actions and decide if it is a good choice or if you can make a better choice. Visit the activity to think ahead to the positive and negative consequences of your choices.