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Social and emotional learning nurtures self-awareness: the ability to identify our own feelings, values, strengths, and limitations, as well as how our feelings and thoughts influence what we do. Below you'll find resources to help promote self-awareness with youth in each of the following areas:

Identifying and building on strengths

Exploring identities

Exploring personality and learning styles

Building on emotional intelligence

Understanding stress and stressors

You may also want to visit the related SEL Toolkit pages Self-Management and Social Awareness for related resources.
Identify and Build on Strengths

Often young people do not know their strengths, or they are not yet able to articulate their interests and skills. Helping youth identify and use their strengths is critical: It's a way to motivate them to develop the skills they need to succeed.

Peter Benson: Sparks: How Youth Thrive

This inspirational TED Talk features Peter Benson, former president of Minneapolis-based Search Institute, describing the power of sparks and the need for sparks champions.

TED Talk (22 minutes)

Step It Up 2 Thrive: Sparks

The Thrive Foundation for Youth offers resources based on Peter Benson's work, including background material, activities, lesson plans, and tips on how to help young people identify and build on their sparks.

Website

What is Your Best Possible Self?

This Psychology Today article describes a positive psychology exercise that is supported by research.

Activity

Explore Identities

Personal Identity Wheel, Social Identity Wheel, Spectrum Activity

These activities were developed for use on college campuses but may be appropriate for some groups of adolescents. They are available on the Inclusive Teaching website of the University of Michigan.

Activities

Identity Charts

This activity from Facing History and Ourselves uses a graphic tool to help young people consider the many factors that shape who we are.

Activity

This activity from Facing History and Ourselves helps students clarify important elements of their identities by writing a poem about themselves. Bio-poems help students get beyond the aspects of identity that are often more obvious and familiar (such as ethnicity, gender, and age) by asking them to focus on factors that shape identity, such as experiences, relationships, hopes, and interests.

Activity

Explore Personality and Learning Styles

Youth work professionals can help young people understand themselves better by providing feedback on how they appear to learn best, or by inviting youth to assess their own learning styles and personality types. By understanding learning styles, professionals can tailor teaching strategies to accommodate differences in these styles.

Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

This handout briefly outlines the characteristics of different learning styles.

Handout

Literacyworks: Multiple Intelligences

This website contains resources, practice strategies, and an online assessment for adults that is also appropriate for adolescents.

Assessment Tool and Resources

Interaction Talks: Personality Test for Teenagers

Interaction Talks is an online community resource site for teens, parents, caregivers, and teachers for all things related to teen health and well-being. It contains an online personality test for youth based on the Myers-Briggs test.

Assessment Tool

The VIA Institute on Character provides a character strength assessments for youth and adults. Registration is required.

Assessment Tool

Thinking Styles and Pitfalls

This handout summarizes pessimistic and optimistic thinking styles, as well as common thinking pitfalls.

Handout

Wellcast's Automatic Thoughts

This narrated animation demonstrates common automatic, negative thoughts and thinking traps. Wellcast also offers a worksheet to help youth deal with automatic thoughts.

Video (5 minutes)

Worksheet

Thinking Traps

This resource from the Anxiety Disorder Association of British Columbia helps youth understand different types of thinking traps.

Web Page

Usable Knowledge: The Biology of Positive Habits

This article and brief video from the Harvard Graduate School of Education discuss how the human brain is wired to focus on the negative -- and how we can "reprogram" it.

Web Page

Build on Emotional Intelligence

Character Lab Playbook: Emotional Intelligence

Character Lab playbooks offer research-based tips, guidance, and activities for helping children develop specific character strengths.

Emotional Intelligence Playbook

Positive Emotions: A Worksheet

Completing this TeensHealth worksheet will encourage adolescents to consider how they can have "daily helpings of positive emotions."

Worksheet

Understand Stress and Stressors

Invite self-reflection on stress and behavior. When youth feel stressed, you may have an opportunity to ask:

How does your body feel when you're stressed? Are your muscles or stomach tight or sore? Are your hands clenched? How is your breathing?

What are you feeling? Angry or sad?

What are you thinking of?

When you feel like this, what can you do to calm yourself down?

ACT Youth Network: Got Stress?

This section of ACT for Youth's website for young people helps youth explore the purpose of stress, stress signals, coping strategies, and ways to reduce stress.

Youth Web Pages

KidsHealth: The Story on Stress (Kids' Pages)

Written for elementary school age youth, these interactive web pages provide information and guidance on how to identify stressors and cope with them. The website is supported by the Nemours Foundation.

Children's Web Pages

KidsHealth: Stress and Coping Center (Teen Pages)

Written for adolescents, these interactive web pages provide information and guidance on how to identify stressors and cope with them.

Youth Web Pages

AnxietyBC Youth

The Anxiety Disorder Association of British Columbia maintains this interactive website with dedicated pages for youth. Using multimedia and different engagement strategies, these web pages include resources on fears, stressors, coping skills, and personal stories.

Youth Website

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Social and emotional learning nurtures self-awareness: the ability to identify our own feelings, values, strengths, and limitations, as well as how our feelings and thoughts influence what we do.

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) enhances our ability to manage our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors in a variety of contexts. In this part of the SEL Toolkit, we link to resources that help youth work professionals:

Promote a growth mindset

Promote perseverance

Nurture motivation to learn

Facilitate goal setting

Facilitate emotion regulation

Integrate mindfulness practices

Following these topics you will find resources designed especially for young people.
Promote a Growth Mindset

Carol Dweck and other researchers have observed that rewarding effort, grit, and perseverance helps children and adolescents develop a growth mindset -- the belief that you can learn and achieve by making persistent efforts. By contrast, those who have a "fixed" mindset believe that innate ability, rather than effort, determines success. A growth mindset increases learning and exploration as well as the ability to handle frustration and failure, while a fixed mindset can lead to a sense of inadequacy as well as failure to keep trying if success isn't achieved right away.

Strategies to promote a growth mindset include:

Educate youth about growth and fixed mindsets

Discourage labels -- such as "smart" or "dumb" -- that convey fixed ability

Praise effort, strategies, and progress, not intelligence or abilities

Provide challenging activities with the understanding that challenges are fun and mistakes help people learn and improve

Carol Dweck's website describes her research and findings. It also provides an online self-assessment and strategies to develop a growth mindset.

Website

Carol Dweck - A Study on Praise and Mindsets

This video describes Carol Dweck's research on the effects of praise on students. The study involved over 400 fifth-graders from all over the United States.

Video (5 minutes)

Mindset and Motivation in Adolescence

"Growth" and "fixed" mindsets have an impact on our levels of achievement and how we feel about failure and learning. In this article, Kristen Elmore introduces the research on mindsets.

Article

Encouraging Growth Mindsets

Growth mindsets support learning, while fixed mindsets can make us reluctant to challenge ourselves. How can people who work with adolescents encourage them to adopt growth mindsets?

Article

Mindset Kit

The Mindset Kit is a free set of online lessons and practices designed to help you teach and foster adaptive beliefs about learning. Resources for mentors, educators, and parents are included. Created by the Project for Education Research that Scales (PERTS).

Web Pages

Growth Mindset for 9th Graders

On this site, PERTS provides an evidence-based program designed to increase students' engagement, motivation, and success by laying the foundation for a growth mindset. Free to high schools.

Curriculum

Mindset Works

These web pages contain videos about Carol Dweck's work and research, as well as interviews with teachers and students.

Web Pages

Step it Up 2 Thrive: Growth Mindset

These web pages from the Thrive Foundation for Youth include reading material, youth activities, lesson plans, and tips on how to develop growth mindsets.

Web Pages

Promote Perseverance and Resilience

Angela Lee Duckworth: The Key to Success? Grit

This TED Talk by psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth highlights her research on grit and perseverance as key factors for success.

TED Talk (6 minutes)

Character Lab Playbook: Grit

Character Lab playbooks offer research-based tips, guidance, and activities for helping children develop specific character strengths.

Grit/Perseverance Playbook

Activities Guide: Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills

This guide describes a variety of activities and games that represent age-appropriate ways for adults to support and strengthen various components of executive function and self-regulation in children and adolescents.

Activities Guide

SenseAbility

SenseAbility is a strengths-based resilience program designed for educators working with youth aged 12-18 years. It consists of a suite of modules developed to enhance and maintain emotional and psychological resilience. Created for classroom delivery in Australian schools, the modules can easily be adapted to benefit young people in other structured environments.

Curriculum

inspirED: Self-Management

Designed by teens, educators, and SEL experts, inspirED activities empower students to work together to create more positive school climates and foster greater well-being in their schools and communities. Many of the activities can also be adapted for use outside of schools.

Activities

Insight Center: Perseverance

This site offers examples of programs that intentionally cultivate perseverance, as well as program strategies and relevant research. Resources are compiled by Boston After School & Beyond and their partners.

Strategies

Edutopia: Teaching Grit Cultivates Resilience and Perseverance

In rural New Hampshire, fifth-grade teacher Amy Lyon has created a curriculum based on researcher Angela Lee Duckworth's ideas about grit. Students set and work toward their own long-term goals, learning valuable lessons about dealing with frustration and distractions along the way.

Video (6 minutes)

Nurture Motivation to Learn

How Youth Learn: a Portfolio to Inform and Inspire Educators, Students, Parents & More

Part of the WKCD "How Youth Learn" Portfolio, The Motivation Equation is a free e-manual on inspiring young people to learn. The portfolio includes additional resources such as research highlights and student voices, as well as multimedia education tools such as the video Ned's Gr8 8: An Insider's Guide to the Teenage Brain.

E-manual

Character Lab Playbook: Curiosity

Character Lab playbooks offer research-based tips, guidance, and activities for helping children develop specific character strengths.

Curiosity Playbook

Facilitate Goal Setting

To facilitate goal setting, invite reflection about life purpose and the future. Ask questions like:

What are your hopes and dreams?

Which one is most important to you just now?

What can you do now to bring that dream a little closer?

What do you love doing most?

What do you do that makes you feel really good about yourself?

Who do you really admire and why?

Edutopia: Setting S.M.A.R.T Goals

This page provides a video and lesson plan to help young people set goals using the SMART framework.

Web Page

Character Lab Playbook: Purpose

Character Lab playbooks offer research-based tips, guidance, and activities for helping children develop specific character strengths.

Purpose Playbook

Facilitate Emotion Regulation

General strategies for helping youth learn to manage their emotions include:

Encourage youth to name and express their emotions

Acknowledge their emotions (empathic listening)

Model emotion self-regulation and positive self-talk:

I am not going to let it get to me

I can handle this

I can calm down

I have other friends who like me

With more practice, I'll get it

Everyone makes mistakes. I'll do better next time

Role play situations using a problem-solving approach:

Define: What is the problem and how am I feeling about it?

Brainstorm: What can I do about it?

Evaluate possible solutions: What would happen if I did this?

Implement: Am I doing what I decided to do?

Evaluate: How did it turn out?

Strengthening Self-Regulation

In this webinar, Jutta Dotterweich discusses the importance of self-regulation and provides practical resources.

Webinar Recording (57 minutes)

Insight Center: Self-Regulation

This site offers examples of programs that intentionally cultivate self-regulation, as well as program strategies and relevant research. Resources are compiled by Boston After School & Beyond and their partners.

Strategies

Executive Function and Self-Regulation

The Center on the Developing Child provides this useful collection of brief articles and videos explaining executive function and describing how to build executive function skills in children and adolescents. Harvard University.

Guide

Character Lab Playbook: Self-Control

Character Lab playbooks offer research-based tips, guidance, and activities for helping children develop specific character strengths.

Self-Control Playbook

PBIS World: Teach Coping Skills

This web page offers general strategies and tips on how to teach coping skills. In addition, it addresses specific stressors, linking to techniques and resources.

Web Page

Emotional Intelligence Curriculum

University of Illinois Extension provides activities to develop emotional intelligence for three different age groups.

Ages 8-10

Ages 11-12

Ages 13-18

Assessing Stress in Children and Youth: A Guide for Out-of-School Time Program Practitioners

This Child Trends research brief is designed to help out-of-school program practitioners recognize and reduce the consequences of stress.

Research Brief

Integrate Mindfulness Practices

Helpguide's Benefits of Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of purposely focusing your attention on the present moment -- and accepting it without judgment. This web page provides guidance and simple mindfulness practices, with links to resources.

Web Page

Mindfulness Activities for Children and Teens

This Positive Psychology Program article includes activities as well as tips for teaching mindfulness to children and teenagers.

Article

Greater Good: Mindfulness

Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, University of California, provides mindfulness guidance and resources, including a series of videos.

Web Page

Edutopia: How to Start a Meditation Program in Your School

This page provides guidance and successful strategies on establishing meditation practices in classroom settings.

Web Page

Edutopia: Quiet Time Primer

This brief primer gives concrete instruction and process descriptions on how to set up meditation and quiet practices with youth.

Handout

Mindfulness Exercises

These activities from the National Youth Council of Ireland are designed to give children time to slow down, pay attention to what is around them, and focus on the present.

Activities

Resources for Young People

ACT Youth Network: Lead the Way!

This section of ACT for Youth's website for young people helps youth identify their leadership style and set goals.

Youth Web Pages

ACT Youth Network: Got Stress?

This section of ACT for Youth's website for young people helps youth explore the purpose of stress, stress signals, coping strategies, and ways to reduce stress.

Youth Web Pages

TeensHealth: Stress and Coping Center

This youth site from Nemours Foundation includes articles on stress, mental health conditions, and getting and giving help.

Youth Web Pages

Center for Young Women's Health: Emotional Health

Developed by Boston Children's Hospital, this Center offers young women many resources on emotional health, stress management, and coping.

Youth Web Pages

Young Men's Health: Emotional Health

Boston Children's Hospital offers young men resources for dealing with stress, depression, and anger, as well as friendships, among other topics.

Youth Web Pages

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) enhances our ability to manage our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors in a variety of contexts. In this part of the SEL Toolkit, we link to resources that help youth work professionals: Promote a growth mindset Promote perseverance Nurture motivation to learn Facilitate goal setting Facilitate emotion regulation Integrate mindfulness practices Following these topics you will find resources designed especially for young people.

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) nurtures social awareness, the ability to understand and empathize with others' points of view. This part of the SEL Toolkit contains strategies and resources for increasing young people's social awareness.

Teaching Empathy

Active Listening and Open-Ended Questions

One way youth work professionals can teach empathy is by modelling active, empathic listening skills.

Handout: Active Listening

Handout: Open-Ended Questions

Teaching Tolerance: Developing Empathy

By explicitly teaching students to be more conscious of other people's feelings, we can create a more accepting and respectful school or community setting. Activities and lesson plans are available for elementary, middle, and high school ages.

Lesson Plans

Lesson Planet: Empathy Resources

A range of teacher-reviewed classroom resources are linked on this web page, including worksheets, activities, and handouts for various ages. Many are transferable to, or can be adapted for, settings outside the classroom.

Lessons, Tools

Greater Good Science Center: Empathy

This website features research reports, interviews, self-assessment, and other resources on empathy.

Web Pages

Reclaiming Digital Futures: Linking Social and Emotional Learning to Digital Learning

What does digital learning have to do with social and emotional learning? This resource highlights ways that digital learning programs can support youth outcomes around collaboration and empathy.

Article and Guiding Questions

Edutopia: Five Minute Film Festival

This series of short videos focuses on kindness, empathy, and connection.

Videos

Brené Brown on Empathy

In this video short, Dr. Brené Brown reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to get in touch with our own fragilities.

Video (3 minutes)

Creating Inclusive and Safe Environments

inspirED: Social Awareness

Designed by teens, educators, and SEL experts, inspirED activities empower students to work together to create more positive school climates and foster greater well-being in their schools and communities. Many of the activities can also be adapted for use outside of schools.

Activities

Usable Knowledge: Accentuate the Positive

This brief article and one-minute video from the Harvard Graduate School of Education discuss the transformative power of "microaffirmations."

Article and Video

Identity Safe Classrooms: Resources

In the book Identity Safe Classrooms, authors Steele and Cohn-Vargas promote efforts to ensure that students' social identities are an asset rather than a barrier to success in the classroom. The publisher made the resources and worksheets available as free downloads.

Worksheets

Diversity Activities for Youth and Adults

Cooperative Extension of the State University of Pennsylvania has compiled diversity activities in two free PDFs.

Activities

More Activities

SALTO-YOUTH: Intercultural Communication Resource Pack

SALTO-YOUTH is a European network of eight resource centers advocating for advanced learning and professional training within the youth work field. This manual focuses on intercultural communication skills.

Training Manual

SALTO-YOUTH: Peer Education Approach in Cultural Diversity

This training manual focuses on peer education in cultural diversity projects.

Training Manual

Enhancing Cultural Competence in OST Programs

This Child Trends research brief discusses the elements of cultural competence and its significance for out-of-school time programs. In addition, it provides suggestions to practitioners for developing cultural competence and incorporating activities into their programs in order to benefit youth from a wide range of backgrounds.

Research Brief

Illuminating Differently Abled Awareness

Developed by Cornell University researchers, this curriculum sparks conversations about disability and inclusion among students with their peers, teachers, and parents. Its target age group is middle school. All curriculum materials are available online.

Curriculum

Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN): Educator Resources

GLSEN provides many resources on respect and inclusion, including lesson plans on how to create an inclusive and safe environment.

Web Pages

Nurturing Civic Engagement

Learning to Give: Youth Activities

Learning to Give provides meaningful, fun, and ready-to-use materials that will engage youth in giving to benefit the common good.

Web Pages

National Youth Leadership Council

This website serves as a clearinghouse for national service-learning efforts and materials.

Website

Exploring Community Resources

MAPPED: A Youth Community Mapping Toolkit

The MAPPED Toolkit, written specifically for the city of Vancouver, is a resource for adults hoping to engage youth in community planning.

Publication

Photovoice Manual and Resource Kit

Produced by the Hamilton Community Foundation, this manual provides practical guidelines for those wishing to start a new Photovoice program.

Manual

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) nurtures social awareness, the ability to understand and empathize with others' points of view. This part of the SEL Toolkit contains strategies and resources for increasing young people's social awareness. Active Listening and Open-Ended Questions One way youth work professionals can teach empathy is by modelling active, empathic listening skills.

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) enhances the ability to communicate and connect with a range of people in healthy ways. In this section of the SEL Toolkit, we link to strategies and resources that will help youth work professionals teach relationship skills.

For curricula, additional activities, and resources for youth, visit Helping Youth Build Relationship Skills. For resources focusing on intimate partner violence prevention, visit Teen Dating Violence.

Model and Promote Positive Communication Skills

Active Listening and Feedback

These handouts are designed to help youth work professionals model and explain positive communication skills.

Active Listening

Positive and Constructive Feedback

The U.S. Department of State "Diplomacy in Action" site includes a helpful page describing the positive use of "I" messages.

Web Page

Teaching Resources for Youth Educators - A Source Book

Created by Wisconsin 4-H Youth Development, this collection of teaching materials includes activities, games, exercises, handouts, and worksheets that deal with interpersonal communication skills, relationships, conflict resolution, and public speaking.

Manual

Youth Engaged in Leadership and Learning

This manual from the John W. Gardner Center includes many exercises aimed at building communication and social skills.

Manual

Teach Social Skills and Relationship Education

Random Acts of Kindness: 6th-8th Grade Curriculum

This social emotional learning curriculum is designed to help schools create a culture of kindness. Each unit teaches core kindness concepts: respect, caring, inclusiveness, integrity, responsibility, and courage. Registration required.

Lesson Plans

Healthy Relationships Resource Kit

From Western Health in Newfoundland, this kit provides a wealth of activities to promote healthy relationships of all kinds among children and teens. Section 2 offers activities for grades 4 through 12.

Activities

Amaze: Healthy Relationships

Amaze offers animated videos covering a full range of sexual health topics, including healthy relationships. Videos are designed for young adolescents. Information and resources for educators are also provided.

Videos

4 Social/Emotional Skills You Can Easily Practice with Teens

Here, Nobel Coaching offers activities that help young people build listening and nonverbal communication skills.

Activities

Character Lab Playbooks

Playbooks from Character Lab offer brief, research-based tips and guidance on helping children develop specific character strengths.

Kindness Playbook

Social Intelligence Playbook

Use Group Learning Strategies

Collaborative Learning

This handout includes collaborative learning activities and tips.

Activities and Tips

Jim Cain's Raccoon Circles

This collection of team-building activities is for both small and large groups. Many of the activities are intended to be done outdoors.

Activities

Group-Games.com

This is a database of free group games, icebreakers, and team-building activities.

Activities

Youth Adult Partnership Manual

This Innovation Center manual offers activities for youth and adults, both separately and jointly, in preparation for working together.

Manual

Teach Conflict Resolution Skills

Problem-Solving with Teenagers: Steps and Tips

The Raising Children Network describes six steps for working with a young person in order to reach a solution together.

Web Page

Consensus - Action Planning

This handout describes an inclusive process for group planning.

Planning Process

KidsHealth in the Classroom: Conflict Resolution

These activities are linked to TeensHealth.org articles for teens on feelings, mental health, and relationships.

Teacher's Guide, Activities

Research

Assessing Peer Conflict and Aggressive Behavior

This Child Trends brief discusses peer conflict and aggressive behaviors, ways to reduce these behaviors, and assessment.

Research Brief

What Works for Promoting and Enhancing Positive Social Skills

This Child Trends literature review of 38 programs identifies practices that work, or do not work, to promote positive social skills.

Research Brief

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) enhances the ability to communicate and connect with a range of people in healthy ways. In this section of the SEL Toolkit, we link to strategies and resources that will help youth work professionals teach relationship skills. For curricula, additional activities, and resources for youth, visit Helping Youth Build Relationship Skills.

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) fosters the ability to make positive choices about how we behave.

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15 Activities for Teaching CASEL Core Competencies

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15 Activities for Teaching CASEL Core Competencies

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Social-emotional learning (SEL) is one of the most promising frontiers in educational research. Because intellectual and social-emotional development are linked, teaching both is the best way to promote lifelong success. But many schools don't know how to ensure that their social emotional learning activities are focusing on the right skills.

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a leading expert in integrating SEL into school curriculum, has compiled a list of core competencies for students to learn. These five key skills are:

Self-awareness: the ability to identify and assess your thoughts, feelings, and values, as well as how they intersect with your behaviors

Self-management: the ability to not only identify but regulate emotions, thoughts, and actions

Responsible decision-making: the ability to make positive, constructive choices about your behavior

Social awareness: the ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others, as well as learning social and ethical behavior

Relationship skills: the ability to get along and make meaningful connections with people in their life

Helping your students learn the CASEL competencies can be as easy as reading books about diversity or holding a class service project. Try these fifteen fun class activities to help your students develop strong SEL skills at school.

Self-Awareness

1. Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness, the ability to focus on the present and accept one's circumstances, is a self-awareness skill that can significantly reduce stress and anxiety.[1] To teach mindfulness in class, put on a guided meditation recording or read one aloud to your students. Encourage them to put their thoughts and feelings aside and focus on the meditation as much as they can.

For younger students, try simpler breathing exercises to help students develop mindfulness without overextending their attention span.

2. Reflective Writing

Reflective writing not only helps students develop self-awareness but empathy and compassion, too.[2] Start each day by giving students five to ten minutes to write about a prompt that encourages self-reflection. By practicing reflective writing every day, this can help students learn to consider their thoughts and feelings in a self-aware way.

Not sure what questions you should give your students? Here are a few prompts that encourage self-analysis:

3. Emotional Vocabulary Lists

Self-awareness activities are a great way to help students understand emotional cues. Include several words that describe emotions to your class vocabulary lists, like "joyful" or "scared." Whenever you introduce a new emotional vocabulary word, take time to discuss what it means and how students can recognize this feeling in themselves and others.

For older grades, try complex emotional vocabulary words like "jubilant" or "apprehensive" to broaden their emotional understanding.

Self-Management

4. Grounding Techniques

Grounding techniques are a stress management exercise used to orient someone in the present when they're emotionally overwhelmed. By focusing on their senses instead of their thoughts or feelings, grounding techniques can teach students how to calm down and manage their emotions when they are upset. Teach grounding techniques as a class and help students practice them when they feel stressed.

Here are a few grounding techniques for you to try out with your students:

5. Self-Management Party Games

Plenty of popular children's games can teach children how to regulate their behaviors. Turn on some music, sort children into groups, and play any of these well-known games that model self-management:

After playing these games, bring your students back together for a class discussion on what they learned about listening and being respectful to others.

6. SMART Goal Challenge

Self-motivation is an essential component to social-emotional learning. If you're not sure how to self-motivate your students, try challenging them to reach their potential by setting SMART goals as a class.

At the beginning of the month or quarter, work with each student to set a SMART goal for themselves. SMART goals must be Specific, Measurable, Agreed-Upon, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Check in with your students several times throughout the month to measure their progress and support them if any challenges arise.

If your students meet their goal by the agreed-upon end date, give them a piece of candy or other reward. If they don't, offer encouragement and work with them to accomplish their goal.

Responsible Decision-Making

7. Class Contract

One way to encourage responsible decision making is by collaborating with your students to create a classroom contract. An effective classroom contract should contain two things: your expectations as a teacher and your students' own hopes and needs for the school year.

Putting a contract together with your students can help them feel like their voices are heard and that you're willing to listen. To make this activity interesting for your students, you can even include "exciting" information like class parties or rewards for meeting academic goals. It's fun and, more importantly, establishes your classroom environment as one where everyone's choices matter.

8. Student Council

Depending on your needs, you could involve your entire class in student council or have them elect representatives. By bringing your students in to discuss classroom needs and upcoming events, student councils can involve your class in the school community while teaching them responsibility.

If you've never held a council before, hold a discussion with your class to decide which student council ideas would work best.

9. "What Would You Do?" Activity

Practicing how to make tough decisions can help your students learn how their actions affect others. Give your students a list of situations in which they would have to make an important choice. Have them write down an answer to each situation by themselves, then discuss their answers as a class.

Here are a few problem-solving scenarios to get your students started:

While playing with your little brother, he accidentally breaks your favorite toy. What do you do next?

You see a new girl playing by herself at recess. What do you say to her?

You're eating a sugar cookie and your friend asks if he can have a bite. How do you respond?

Social Awareness

10. Classroom Service Projects

Service activities are a fun and meaningful way to connect your students to the word around them. By helping others, a class service project can also help students develop empathy. Here are a few service project ideas you can do as your class to make your community a better place:

11. Listening Circles

To begin this activity that teaches active listening, separate your class into groups of four or five students. Have students take turns answering a get-to-know you question. If any student interrupts the person talking, remind them that everyone gets to a turn sharing their answer.

Here are a few question ideas:

At the end of the activity, come together for a class discussion about what they learned in their groups. To make sure every student feels included, try pairing students up and having them share one thing about their partner after the activity.

12. Diversity Story Time

Teaching diversity in the classroom is an essential component of social awareness. During read-aloud story times, try to pick books about people of different cultures, race/ethnicities, religions, and other backgrounds. After reading one of these books to your students, discuss how differences make the world a better place and ask what they learned from the story.

Here are a few popular children's books about diversity to get you started:

It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler & David Lee Csicsko

Families, Families, Families! by Suzanne Lang

Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match by Monica Brown

Relationship Skills

13. "Make New Friends" Bingo

"Make New Friends" Bingo is a fun and interactive game for developing social skills, particularly verbal and nonverbal communication.[3] You can play it at the beginning of the school year or anytime you want to have a get-to-know-you activity in class.

To play, make a bingo card with generic traits in each box, like "I have a pet" or "I was born in the summertime." Have your students try to find a different person for each square until they get five in a row. Then, ask each student to share something interesting about themselves that correlates to a box with the class.

14. Team Puzzle Game

Put students into teams of three to five and give each one a jigsaw puzzle to put together. Instruct them that to complete the puzzle, they need to work together as a group. For an added challenge that encourages teamwork, try giving your students a time limit for completing the puzzle.

When students work together, even younger grades can put together complex puzzles. Your students will be amazed by how much they can get done with a little collaboration!

15. Conflict Resolution Read-Along

Helping children resolve conflicts teaches them skills that will benefit them for the rest of their lives. And, thanks to the timeless lessons they teach, fairy tale read-alongs can help your class get a discussion on conflict resolution skills going.[4]

Choose a beloved fairy tale to read as a class, like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As you read the story to your students, ask them the following questions:

What is this story's main conflict?

What do the main characters want to happen?

How can the characters work together to make everyone happy?

Then, turn the discussion to recent conflicts students have had in their life. Have your children share about times when, like the fairy tale characters, they felt conflict with another person. Ask them how they worked with that person to make the situation better, as well as any advice they have to share with the class.

Why Teach Social Emotional Activities?

Research suggests that the cognitive processes that control social-emotional and intellectual development are interconnected. This means that providing both SEL and academic lessons in class is the best way to help students succeed. Students who attend SEL programs at school are more likely to:

With the five CASEL competencies as a guide, educators can make sure that they're providing effective and well-rounded SEL programs in their classrooms. Use these social and emotional skills activities to give your students the tools they need to thrive in school and everywhere else, too.
Sources:
Grossman, P., Niemann, L., Schmidt, S., & Walach, H. (2004, July). Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 57(1), pp. 35-43.[1]

DasGupta, S., & Charon, R. (2004, April). Personal Illness Narratives: Using Reflective Writing to Teach Empathy. Academic Medicine, 79(4), pp. 351-56.[2]

Mascott, A. (2015, August 17). Meet New Friends Bingo Game. Retrieved from scholastic.com: https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/meet-new-friends-bingo-game.html.[3]

The Nemours Foundation. (2016). Personal Health Series: Conflict Resolution. Retrieved from kidshealth.org: https://classroom.kidshealth.org/3to5/personal/growing/conflict_resolution.pdf/.[4]

Hong, S. (2011, March). The Impact of Enhancing Students' Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions. Child Development, 82 (1), pp. 405-32.[5]

Zins, J. (2016). Social and Emotional Learning. Retrieved from healthyselfesteem.org: http://healthyselfesteem.org/about-self-esteem/social-and-emotional-learning/.[6]

Coholic, D.H. (2011, January 07). Exploring the Feasibility and Benefits of Arts-Based Mindfulness-Based Practices with Young People in Need: Aiming to Improve Aspects of Self-Awareness and Resilience. Child & Youth Care Forum, 40(4), pp. 303-17.[7]

Aber, J. L., Jones, S. M. Brown, J. L. Chaudry, N. & Samples, F. (1998). Resolving Conflict Creatively: Evaluating the Developmental Effects of a School-Based Violence Prevention Program in the Neighborhood and Classroom Context. Development and Psychopathology, 10, pp. 187-213.[8]

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15 Activities for Teaching CASEL Core Competencies

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With these strategies for CASEL competencies as a guide, you can make sure that you're providing effective SEL programs in your school.

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Grappling with the barriers to interpersonal connection inherent in remote learning has made us think even more carefully about how we craft lessons for students. Whether online or in person, lessons should promote deeper learning and, ultimately, greater student engagement and learning retention. That's why it is of paramount importance to apply a social-emotional learning (SEL) lens to all lessons, no matter the subject. This means actively fostering belonging in a safe and welcoming classroom community, engaging students in learning that is relevant to their lives, and helping them grow skills that will enable them to pursue their personal goals.

Even as schools transition back to in-person learning, virtual and blended learning are likely to remain a reality. Because of this, we must continue to improve virtual practices and consider how they can be used to support in-person learning for the good of students' academic success and mental health.

Wayfinder, an SEL curriculum for middle and high school students, was born out of Stanford's d.school to address a rise in student mental health crises. We partner with educators to design learning experiences that foster belonging in the classroom and guide students to navigate life with purpose.

Let's look at several touchpoints for lesson planning that support students' emotional and psychological well-being in addition to their academics.

The pandemic has created social isolation, but it is possible to make remote learning collaborative in ways that mirror in-person classes and build intentional connection and community.

One way teachers can accomplish this is to co-create their classroom environment by inviting students to give their input on classroom media, expectations, and routines.

A Class Playlist: Teachers and students can collaborate on music playlists for entering or leaving the classroom, during games and activities, or as part of communal lesson introductions/conclusions. We also invite students to lead opening and closing activities, such as personal check-in/check-out questions, brief meditations, or quick body movement exercises. To avoid the need for prior preparation, suggested activities should include some previously practiced by the class and new ones with short, simple directions. Collaborative tools such as Google Jamboard and Google Slides can be especially helpful for preparing these kinds of activities.

A Community Agreement: Set agreements as a class. If classroom norms already exist from in-person lessons, they can be adjusted for virtual lessons, and vice-versa. A good rule of thumb is to limit norms to about four so that each one is practical, observable, and easy to remember. Classes should discuss expectations for (online/in-person) behavior and why it's important to adhere to them. You can have students write down ideas individually, pair-share the norms they created, then close out with a whole-class conversation about which ones to agree upon. At least once a year, the class should check back in on their community agreements to see if they are still relevant or if they need to be adjusted. For further student involvement, teachers can invite students to lead this process.

A Meaningful Ritual: Classes can create an opening and closing ritual as a group, such as a game, a class cheer, or a check-in/check-out procedure. We have had small classes co-write poems to recite, one line per student, at the end of each class. Larger classes have used call-and-response check-ins and check-outs, cheers of encouragement, and short, student-choreographed to open and close lessons with energy and positivity.

Making lessons that feel significant is always important, but for student engagement in times of transition, it carries extra weight. For students to achieve deeper learning, they must be able to connect lessons to their own experiences, current interests, and future pursuits.

Explain the Why: Without an in-person school community, or with limited access to one, going to class can feel meaningless. One antidote to low motivation is explaining the why of lessons. Research shows that students need a personal connection to information to encode it to memory (Brown et al., 2014). Teachers can briefly share what is important to them about teaching their subject. This kind of modeling prompts students to reflect on the lesson's relevance to their lives too. Some of our lessons end with an intentional "Wrap Up" process that connects the learning back to real life, such as encouraging students a linear model of success and see their lives instead as a fluid, constantly changing journey.

Engage the Senses, Make it Experiential: Experiential lessons that include games, roleplays, puzzles, and group challenges encourage embodied knowledge. How can the senses or the whole body engage? How can music fit in? How might students change their physical environments to better connect with the lesson? Incorporate sensory experiences, such as going outside to interact with nature, moving between activities at table stations, doing jumping jacks, or drumming.

Culturally relevant lessons take special care to meet students where they are by weaving their personal interests, experiences, and identities into learning. Making education culturally relevant is crucial for student engagement and achievement, particularly for marginalized students whose identities are often not acknowledged or represented in classroom content (Ladson-Billings, 1992).

Share a Story: Our brains love stories. Evidence shows that when we resonate with a story, we release the neurochemical oxytocin, which increases empathy and connection (Zak, 2015). For any given lesson, teachers can think of a relevant story to share to make learning personal. For example, in Wayfinder's lesson on generating ideas for purposeful projects, we invite educators to share a personal and meaningful project outside of their work. In the lesson about joy, we ask teachers to share something their students might not know about that brings them joy. They can also share a story about something that's happening in the world, like an upcoming holiday or current event.

Connect Content to Real-World Contexts: Connections are easier to make in some classes than in others. When teaching content that is more theoretical or abstract, consider examples to demonstrate ideas. If you know of a specific interest many of your students share or a topic that is locally relevant (e.g., an upcoming community event or celebration), find stories or ideas that can be weaved in as examples that demonstrate how concepts play out in your students' actual lives.

Invite Student Voices and Feedback: Ask students to share relevant knowledge and stories, using media, apps, and creative platforms like TikTok and Instagram to supplement or present their in-class learning. Empower students to provide input on how they think classes could be more meaningful and engaging. Over the years, students we've worked with have requested more time for personal interaction with classmates in less structured ways and to discuss and get help with their problems. Requests like these have enabled us to improve our lesson plans.

The crises of the past year call for special attention to context. The pandemic has been disruptive to life in innumerable ways, and we would do a disservice to our students to ignore the gravity of the moment. Lesson plans that explicitly name and factor in the current context and regular check-ins will help ensure students have a touchpoint on their well-being.

Simplify Lessons: With school's structural changes, it may be overwhelming for students to focus on learning. Teachers may need to build in more time than usual for students to process information, articulate their thoughts and request clarification. Also, the online classroom can feel one-directional and anonymous, and students might think it doesn't matter if they're present or responsive. The simple act of acknowledging students by name can change that.

Plan for Flexibility: With so much talk about lost learning and growing achievement gaps, teachers may be eager to approach their planning with a quick return to academics in a business-as-usual manner. However, as some aspects of school life regain a sense of normalcy, others will remain in flux. As a school, it may be helpful to hold staff meetings to verbalize concerns and revise expectations together. As always, hold up the reminder that students who are well supported by strong communities will be better able to engage in their academic work.

Encourage Student Choice: Offer options for how students can participate, moving beyond speaking up in class to writing on a (virtual) board, submitting work for gallery walks of written content, or responding to thought-provoking questions through direct messages or a group chat. Participatory options remind students that all forms of contribution are equally valid. For virtual lessons in particular, digital tools with poll functionalities like Poll Everywhere enable students to give their input about preferred daily energizers, games, and parts of lessons they need more help on.

Use Check-In Tools: Playful prompts can establish time for students to connect with one another about something unrelated to the day's lesson. Moments like these conjure the social interaction that exists during passing periods or in advisory. Students might authentically share how they're doing using a tool like the Mood Meter by Yale's Center for Emotional Intelligence. We also like to use what we call a "weather report," which encourages students to share how they're feeling as though delivering a broadcasted weather report, or we'll have students draw images and shapes that represent their current state.

By applying an SEL lens to curriculum planning and classroom practices, schools will be better positioned to support students' well-being and academic achievement. Preparing to do this in both the virtual and in-person classroom can offer students meaningful learning experiences even in times of great transition.

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Engaging Students in Personally Meaningful SEL - ASCD

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Grappling with the barriers to interpersonal connection inherent in remote learning has made us think even more carefully about how we craft lessons for students. Whether online or in person, lessons should promote deeper learning and, ultimately, greater student engagement and learning retention. T

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3 Middle School SEL Practices You can Use Every Day

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3 Middle School SEL Practices You can Use Every Day

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3 SEL Practices Teachers Can Use Every Day

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These social and emotional learning strategies won’t take a lot of time, but they can have a big impact on middle and high school students.

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25 Fun and Easy SEL Activities To Boost Social Skills

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25 Fun and Easy SEL Activities To Boost Social Skills

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When students have strong social skills, like managing their emotions and showing empathy toward classmates, it takes learning to a new level. The more emotionally intelligent we are, the stronger we are as learners. Social emotional learning is a win-win that can be both fun and easy to integrate into the school day. If you're looking for new ways to help your students boost their social skills, check out these 25 SEL activities from Share My Lesson, a site created by the American Federation of Teachers that has more than 420,000 free classroom resources.

1. Draw With Squiggles

The imagination and personality of every student are what create a unique and vibrant classroom community. Start with art in your SEL activities! Give each student a squiggle on the page and ask them to create something from this squiggle. Line the finished pieces up and notice how each began with the same squiggle and became something uniquely their own. (Grades 2-6)
GET DRAW WITH SQUIGGLES ACTIVITY
2. Build a Classroom Web

How do communities support each other? How do people support each other? Students will explore these topics by answering questions and passing around a ball of twine or string. Through this activity they'll be creating a classroom web to understand interdependence and express emotion. (Grades K-2)
GET WEB BUILDING ACTIVITY
3. Face the Music

As many agree, music is the language of the soul. Challenge students to find songs that inspire positive coping skills, gratitude, accountability, conflict resolution, relationship building, self-efficacy, resiliency, and self-motivation to boost these essential skills through SEL activities. (Grades 6-12)
GET FACE THE MUSIC ACTIVITY
4. Create a Peace Place

Self-calming strategies are the meat and potatoes of emotional intelligence. Explore these peace-inducing moves and create a place for students to go to when emotions become just too much to manage. (Grades K-12)
GET PEACE PLACE ACTIVITY
5. Perfect Picture Books

Maria Walther, author of The Read Aloud Handbook, said, "What did we do when we all had to isolate ourselves at the onset of the pandemic? We read aloud books to one another." And she was right! Authors, teachers, celebrities, and more recorded themselves reading picture books. Why? Because picture books help us deal with hard things. They also help us grow socially and emotionally. (Grades K-12)
GET PICTURE BOOKS ACTIVITY
6. It's Morphin' Time!

Looking for a way to combine ELA, SEL, and physical education? Look no further! Power Rangers have got you covered. This unique combination helps students identify their individual strengths while also learning teamwork. (Grades 1-3)
GET MORPHIN' TIME ACTIVITY
7. Diversity is Cool in Our Community

Todd Parr's amazing book "It's Okay to Feel Different" is the foundation for this SEL experience. Not only does this book teach us how diversity enriches our lives, it also teaches us that what we bring to the table that may be "different" is just what the community needs. (Grades Pre-K-5)
GET DIVERSITY ACTIVITY
8. These Shoes Were Made for Walkin'

Empathy is a muscle that needs tending in order for it to aid in social and emotional growth. One way to build empathy is to metaphorically stand in the shoes of others and imagine what they must be thinking and feeling. This experience brings together a little bit of theater and a whole lot of perspective building. (Grades Pre-K-12)
GET WALKIN' SHOES ACTIVITY
9. Soar With Wings

If you are looking for a collection of carefully curated cohesive lessons, this resource is for you. The folks at Soar with Wings have put together the tools that students need, and teachers can practically use, to support SEL across time. These SEL activities are fun and filled with learning. (Grades K-5)
GET SOAR WITH WINGS ACTIVITY
10. SEL Superpowers

Let the DC Comics superheroes teach students the value of teamwork, friendship, and self-esteem and how to build those superpowers in everyday life. These materials are available in both English and Spanish and promote goal setting, diversity, and collaboration. Leave it to Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Supergirl to teach us such important life skills. (Grades 1-3)
GET SUPERPOWERS ACTIVITY
11. Empathy Learning Journeys

Created by Better World Ed, this resource seamlessly integrates SEL and global competence into academic learning. Through a trio of wordless videos, written story, and an accompanying lesson plan, Better World Ed has created a positively binge-worthy set of resources. (Grades 3-12)
GET EMPATHY ACTIVITY
12. You Know What They Say About Assumptions...

They can get us into a HOT MESS! Begin with an indigenous tale from the White Mountain Apache and learn about self management and unpacking the challenges of judging others without all of the facts in hand. Remember the Four Awesome Questions? Use them once again with this experience. (Grades Pre-K-6)
GET ASSUMPTIONS ACTIVITY
13. Confusion Solutions

Some of the most challenging moments for managing emotions in the classroom is when confusion sets in. Teach students how to work through confusion and advocate for themselves with this activity that will benefit ALL subject areas. (Grades 6-12)
GET CONFUSION SOLUTIONS ACTIVITY
14. Just Breathe

A free, always available, ever-reliable resource to every human is their breath. Knowing ways to harness the breath is extremely helpful for self-management and building resilience. It may sound simple, and it is, but it is one of the most powerful tools we can teach students how to use. (Grades 6-12)
GET JUST BREATHE ACTIVITY
15. Cruella the Teacher?

Now we all seem to know a little something about Cruella Deville, specifically her unkind ways with Dalmatian puppies. But Cruella as a teacher of SEL? Yep! This mini-unit builds knowledge of the CASEL competencies of self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship skills. (Grades 8-12)
GET CRUELLA ACTIVITY
16. Inspiring Art and Music

This activity brings SEL down to a fine art. Senna and Summa use both poetry and music to comfort and grow. They teach us all how to use art in times of hardship, manifesting something beautiful. (Grades 6-12)
GET ARTWORK ACTIVITY
17. Share Your Sparkle

Perhaps when you think of sparkle, hope, inclusion, and kindness, My Little Pony comes to mind? Well, if not for us grown-ups, it sure does for our littlest learners. Thanks to the generosity of eOne and Hasbro, we can use these new ponies to teach little ones how to celebrate each other's uniqueness. (Pre-K-Kindergarten)
GET SPARKLE ACTIVITY
18. Books of Great Character

Reading develops social emotional skills, and vice versa, especially when diverse and layered characters are involved. Such characters can be found in the books Brave Like Me and Too Many Bubbles by Christine Peck and Mags Deroma. These books, and others in their collection, teach mindfulness, bravery, creativity, and empathy. (Grades Pre-K-3)
GET CHARACTER BOOKS ACTIVITY
19. Dreaming Tree

Is your curriculum so scripted there is little to no time for SEL? Fear not! This micro lesson using the Four Awesome Questions help you take the tiniest amount of time and address SEL in mighty ways. (Grades 2-6)
GET DREAMING TREE ACTIVITY
20. You Are Enough

When reading these words, don't you feel a sense of relief? I know I sure do. But sometimes, even students need a reminder that who they are is and will always be enough. Enjoy the book I am Enough by Grace Byers and identify personal strengths through similes. (Grades 2-5)
GET YOU ARE ENOUGH ACTIVITY
21. Potato Perspectives

Surprisingly, potatoes can teach us a whole lot about the language we use with social emotional learning. Especially when Potato has a difficult time with Eggplant in this sweet and important story. This resource is especially helpful for multilingual learners. (Grades 1-3)
GET POTATO PERSPECTIVES ACTIVITY
22. Curiosity as a Quest

Yes, we want curiosity to get the better of us, for sure. When we are sparked by curiosity about the world around us, we delve deeply into understanding the world around us. In this activity, explore cultural, social, and environmental issues through the lens of curious questions. (Grades 3-5)
GET CURIOSITY QUEST ACTIVITY
23. Balancing Moral Ferocity with Self-Awareness

Oh, yes, this is a mouthful. And it also addresses SEL head on in ways that will change the landscape of our communities. Explore ways to galvanize compassionate action in troubled times with incredibly moving and fulfilling work. (Grades 9-12)
GET BALANCING ACTIVITY
24. Glass Half Full

Sometimes it just takes a shift of perspective, and also some ideas from kids, to help us see the positive and build gratitude. Inspired by Glass Half Full News, an online series written from the perspective of kids, this collection of activities blends SEL and ELA so beautifully. (Grades K-5)
GET GLASS HALF FULL ACTIVITY
25. The Greatest Gift is Ourselves

Folktales, including this one from Japan, continually remind us that each of us brings the greatest gifts to the world-ourselves. This timeless, ageless activity reminds us that through empathy and goodwill, we can all make the world a better place. (Grades K-12)
GET GREATEST GIFT ACTIVITY
Looking for more SEL activities?

Whether you need more SEL activities or you want lessons and activities on other topics, Share My Lesson can help with more than 420,000 free classroom resources for pre-K through higher education. Plus, explore collections of SEL resources for elementary students or middle and high schoolers.
EXPLORE SHARE MY LESSON

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25 Fun and Easy SEL Activities to Boost Social Skills

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Social skills are an integral part of successful academic learning. Try these SEL activities to help students boost theirs in the classroom.

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Give Freebies & Facts Friendzy Freebies Friendzy Facts Say Hello Login

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SEL RESOURCES - Welcoming/Inclusion Activities

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10 TIPS: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUTH

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10 TIPS: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUTH

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Building positive relationships with youth is an essential task and a foundational component of good instructional practice.

Youth grow and thrive in the context of close and dependable relationships that provide love and nurturance, security, and responsive interactions.

A positive adult-youth relationship built on trust, understanding, and caring will foster children's cooperation and motivation and increase their positive outcomes at school (Webster-Stratton, 1999). These 10 tips will help out-of-school time professionals build positive relationships with youth:

1. Meet and greet youth daily by name, at the door, to make a personal connection. "Hi Amani, good to see you today. How did your math test go?" "Jordan, hello. I saw you playing outside earlier. It looked like you were having fun!"

2. Talk with youth at their level, both physically and developmentally, to convey respect and establish a level playing field. For younger youth this may mean kneeling near them; for older youth, sitting next to them. A 7-year-old has much different developmental needs than a 12-year-old, and language and approach should be tailored accordingly.

3. Ask open-ended questions and listen to learn more about where youth are coming from, and their backgrounds, interests, and feelings. "How did that make you feel?" "What was that like?"

by asking questions and providing specific comments to convey interest in what the youth is saying. "What happened next?" "How did you come up with your idea?"

5. Reflect or paraphrase during conversations with youth to show that you are listening and that you understand. "So, you feel that ..."

6. Watch for communication roadblocks such as lecturing, judging, and preaching, to ensure that you are keeping doors open for dialogue.

7. Remember context and details from past conversations and experiences with students, to show that you are paying attention and interested in their lives. "How did the baseball game go last weekend?" "I know that you had a test today. How do you think it went?" "We're having string cheese with our snack today. I remember a couple of weeks ago you told me it was your favorite."

8. Participate alongside youth to show that you're interested, and to model risk-taking, planning, and reflecting. "How do you think we should prepare?" "How would you like to start?" "What did you think of that activity?" "What should we do differently next time?"

9. Support opportunities for youth input, shared responsibility, and leadership to help youth develop a positive self-efficacy and important life skills. "Your ideas on how we should approach this are important. What do you think we should do?" "How would you feel about leading the group meeting tomorrow?" "What do you think you could do to help?" "What do you think we could do to make it better?"

10. Smile, have fun, and show youth that you enjoy what you do!
Written by Heidi Ham, Vice President of Programs and Strategy, National AfterSchool Association. Webster-Stratton, C. (1999). How to promote children's social and emotional competence. London: Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd. Photo courtesy of Friendship Tours World Travel.

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10 Tips: Building Relationships with Youth

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Building positive relationships with youth is an essential task and a foundational component of good instructional practice. Youth grow and thrive in the context of close and dependable relationships that provide love and nurturance, security, and responsive interactions.

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38 Simple Ways To Integrate Social-Emotional Learning Throughout the Day

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38 Simple Ways To Integrate Social-Emotional Learning Throughout the Day

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50+ Simple Social-Emotional Learning Activities for All Ages

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Teach self-control, emotional awareness, and more by incorporating these easy social-emotional learning activities into your daily routine.

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Schools are becoming increasingly diverse, with more students integrating from various backgrounds each year.

Educators must provide students with the structure and support they need to succeed academically and in life. A strong SEL foundation offers precisely that.

Social-emotional development activities offer a safe and supportive environment for students to learn prosocial behavior. The games encourage healthy relationships that reinforce empathy, sharing, and compassion. Even incorporating one social-emotional activity into a lesson plan can make a meaningful difference in a child's life.

Preschool Activities (for ages 4-5)

1. Start with a Check-in

Begin the day with a friendly connection. Check in on each child with a simple greeting and ask how the student feels that day.

2. Finish with a Check-out

The same positive mentality applies at the end of school. Have students reflect on their day, discuss what went well, and set goals for tomorrow.

3. Reward Kids for Kindness

Take a page from Have You Filled a Bucket Today? The book encourages people to be kind to others. Write down messages of appreciation and compassion, put them in a bucket, and read them at the end of the week.

4. Encourage Show and Tell

Seeing is believing. Show and tell gives young students a way to learn about different cultures and backgrounds while realizing what they have in common.

5. Teach Appreciation

The Journal of Happiness found gratitude improves happiness in children before age five. Teaching kids to say thank you and rewarding hard work can boost their gratitude levels.

6. Teach Apologies

Apologies are essential at every age. Demonstrating how to give one ensures children have the tools to mend and repair relationships.

Kindergarten Activities (for ages 5-6)

7. Make Story Time a Teachable Moment

Reading aloud allows you to explore social and emotional moments with your class. Get started with a series of picture books for your social-emotional library.

8. Develop a Buddy System

A buddy system makes a school feel more inclusive. Pairing students for social-emotional learning activities for elementary events gives kids someone to call a friend and a sense of belonging.

9. Let Students Talk

Give children a chance to talk in structured social-emotional learning activities and unstructured environments. There are many ways to promote dialogue and boost their understanding and self-confidence.

10. Play Games

Playing promotes creativity as children improve their sense of imagination and physical skills. Social-emotional learning games maintain this healthy development.

11. Sing the Feelings Song

Help children connect their feelings with an emotion. A song about feelings lets them recognize sadness when they see tears and happiness when they notice smiles.

12. Promote Active Listening

Social-emotional activities require listening and cooperation. Use the SLANT strategy, where students sit up straight, listen, ask and answer questions, nod their heads, and track the speaker.

Elementary School Activities (for ages 5-10)

13. Work in Groups

Working in groups happens at all stages of life. Group activities develop students' leadership skills and help them uncover their strengths so that they can contribute to the teamwork.

14. Teach New Words

Learning new words provides a foundation for comprehension. Giving your class a word of the day allows them to express their ideas more eloquently.

15. Create a Peace Place

Everyone needs time to decompress. Create a dedicated Peace Place where students can go if they feel upset or someone hurts their feelings.

16. Build an Anchor Chart

Anchor charts capture the most important parts of a lesson. The visual aid reinforces central teaching points and creates a culture of literacy.

17. Role-Play

Role-playing lets children understand what it means to stand in someone else's shoes. The beneficial exercise also spurs their imagination and creativity.

18. Assign Responsibilities

According to researchers at Michigan State, giving kids age-appropriate responsibilities requires communication, role modeling, and choice offering, all three of which supplement social-emotional learning activities.

19. Have Daily Affirmations

Too often, we let negative thoughts undercut our mindset. Daily affirmations encourage mindfulness and validation of our values and self-worth.

20. Join Big Brothers Big Sisters

Social-emotional learning games do not start and end with the school day. Kids from disadvantaged backgrounds can join Big Brothers Big Sisters and have a year-round mentor.

Middle School Activities (for ages 11-13)

21. Turn Conflict into Resolution

Every conflict presents a learning opportunity. Once students recognize the need to mediate, they can work through these six distinct stages to establish an agreement.

22. Monitor Student Progress

Keep tabs on your class as each student progresses through the academic year. Reward the top achievers as they surpass their learning goals and milestones.

23. Hold Class Meetings

Regularly organizing class meetings lets students share their ideas and concerns. It also develops leadership and public speaking skills.

24. Write a Journal Entry

A journal entry creates a safe space for students to jot down thoughts and feelings. Spark kids' imaginations with different challenges, like writing lists or creative prompts.

25. Manage Stress

The American Institute of Stress reports that 77% of people experience stress that diminishes their physical well-being. Help people de-stress with a wheel of coping strategies.

26. Create a Vision Board

Impart purpose with this visual tool. Creating a vision board helps adolescents take accountability for their actions as they strive to achieve their daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals.

27. Read a Book

Transport your students into a different world through the power of reading. Some literary recommendations include In Sight of Stars by Gae Polisner and Louisiana's Way Home by Kate DiCamillo.

28. Celebrate Diversity

Our multicultural society has made celebrating diversity more important than ever. Have students share family stories or recipes that introduce others to unique lifestyles and heritages.

High School Activities (for ages 14-18)

29. Meditate

Meditation forces people to slow down and turn their attention inward. While it strays from traditional social-emotional learning activities, mediation allows students to acknowledge their community and self simultaneously.

30. Be a Mentor to Younger Kids

Teach students to think about others by becoming a mentor. High school students can partner with grade-schoolers who need a helping hand in academia and life.

31. Talk with Strangers

Talking with strangers opens us up to different ideas, perspectives, and backgrounds. Challenge your students to speak with one new person per day. They'll quickly see we're not so different from one another.

32. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness includes internal and external awareness. Practicing it comes with a long list of benefits, like lower blood pressure, less chronic pain, and stress relief.

33. Share a Quote of the Day

Give students something to think about with a quote of the day. You can open up the classroom to discuss and have students share their thoughts on the quote's meaning and significance.

34. Have a Yay of the Day

The headwind/tailwind asymmetry supposes that people disproportionately focus on the negatives in life, instead of the positives. Turn that theory on its head by having kids write a "yay" moment they had every day.

35. Assign Interview Projects

Interview-based projects teach communication skills while fostering the exploration of different cultures. Bonus points if students interview people who do not share the same background.

36. Write a Poem from Another Person's Perspective

Let your class choose someone they don't know and write a poem from their perspective. The exercise provides a hands-on way to empathize with other people's experiences.

37. Encourage Artistic Expression

All social-emotional learning games do not require speaking or writing. Some students may benefit from expressing themselves through painting, sketching, or sculpting.

How to Use SEL Activities in Schools

Positive Actions provides teachers with the resources and tools they need to integrate social-emotional learning into the classroom. Our curriculum comes with actionable steps to promote prosocial skills and relationships. Best of all, it fits in any learning environment and only takes minutes to implement.

Positive Action has everything you need to get started. The comprehensive system makes it easier than ever to teach social-emotional learning games. Take the next steps by checking out different social-emotional learning curriculums and start seeing a positive impact on your students.

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37 Social-Emotional Learning Activities and Games for Teachers and Students

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Schools are becoming increasingly diverse, with more students integrating from various backgrounds each year.

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Sample Teaching Activities to Support Core Competencies

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Sample Teaching Activities to Support Core Competencies