Students in each and every classroom need a lot of social emotional learning activities to help them along in learning all things about self regulation skills, coping strategies, character education and more. These sel activities are perfect for elementary students. The more we inspire children with appropriate behaviors and actions in the classroom, the more they are likely to success as developing children and adults.
Help students with social awareness skills during morning meetings with SEL activities.
Create a safe space and a great way to promote growth mindset with these printable activities, games and crafts.
SEL learning activities
SEL skills are a great way to build relationship skills. I love having small groups with specific lesson plans to target social skills.
Even high school students benefit from building positive relationships with SEL skills.
Whichever SEL curriculum you use, it’s essential to create positive goals and social emotional learning activities for elementary students.
They need to understand the skills and to create a great classroom community, you will need to make it very simple for them to understand.
There are quite a few studies on what proper SEL skills help children in particular and these include.
What is social-emotional learning?
Social emotional learning is the method by which young children acquire the skills and knowledge as well as the attitudes to develop;
Healthy identities,
Manage and regulate their own emotions
Achieve personal and collective goals
Feel and show empathy for others
Establish relationships with their peers and adults.
Make responsible and caring decisions to support others
Make fair decisions if they need to or sought out to.
SEL Core Competencies
What are the five key areas to teach social emotional learning?
The five components which are key skill areas to develop good mental health practices. These apply to a child centered SEL program.
Self awareness
Identifying emotions
Self perceptions
Understanding strengths
Self confidence
Self efficacy
These areas are key because they each lead into the development of appropriate skills for each sector.
These help children understand themselves ojba deeper level and therefore understand the steps to take if they are of the coarse.
Why is SEL important?
Beyond what is required in teaching the curriculum like math, literacy phonics and numeracy.
SEL actually helps kids develop appropriate skills to tackle the many issues and emotions that life may bring up whether that is when they are young or as adults.
These skills in turn helps kids identify their feelings and hence deal the emotions at hand and self regulate.
This also helps kids understand and communicate with others.
They can therefore build strong relationships with their peers and carers.
Kids can also therefore learn to make good empathetic decisions in all areas in their life.
SEL activities for elementary students
Elementary students will benefit from these printable SEL crafts, activities and more. Add these to your SEL curriculum in an effective way on a regular basis and you will see great achievements in SEL.
Throughout the school year, I often find myself trying to find the best ways to target social emotional skills while still developing academic skills.
Social emotional learning activities elementary
These free social emotional resource ideas below are an excellent way to begin incorporating some emotional awareness and social studies within your daily lesson plans and curriculum.
Need a fun way and grade level appropriate tasks, I’ve included them below and even preschoolers can join in these games and activities to help build their social emotional skills from the get go.
Activities for social emotional learning
Develop students’ emotional intelligence with super fun goal setting worksheets below.
These printables target social situations, communication skills and more. Kids will benefit from these printables at different times of the year and for different situations.
Printable Tone of Voice SEL Skills
I like to use them at the beginning of the year. In the past several years, kids have lived through uncertain times which has led to less SEL skills since they have been learning from home and missing a lot of school work.
There’s never been a better time to target emotional well-being than now.
Classroom teachers have the advantage of building a great sense of community by targeting emotional competencies and SEL practices right at elementary school where it’s needed.
Separation Anxiety Social Skills Story
The key is to challenge students with some fun lesson ideas just enough to peak their interest and not overwhelm them.
For these worksheets below, I don’t use them the entire day, I might use one sheet and then instigate a discussion around it, then we move onto the next task of the day.
Student engagement is essential.
Something Special About Me Printable
Teaching social skills with this super cute all about me printable is a great way to target open-ended questions and all the right things at the beginning of the year.
Get this free worksheet right at the post.
I also love using these social skills posters which I get the students to decorate and color before we hang them.
Social Skills Character Posters
They make a great addition to a vision board for the classroom, even middle school students enjoy them.
Tattling VS Telling Activities Bundle
If you’re looking for more ways to tackle challenging situations and classroom management, these tattling printable worksheets which include a reading component are perfect for preschool and kindergarten kids.
SEL Affirmation Bulletin Board
Target important social-emotional learning skills with these super fun craft printable ideas which target many skills like friendship, character skills and more.
First of, I love bulletin boards and if you do too, I have been using and creating some targeted SEL themes.
Like this affirmation board. This one is perfect for SEL skills, building confidence and more.
Remote Social Skills Activities
As a teacher, I know that remote learning can be challenging for students when it comes to their social and emotional well-being.
That’s why I make an effort to incorporate activities and strategies that promote connection and well-being.
Here are a few things that I do to provide social and emotional support for my students:
I schedule regular virtual class meetings where my students can interact with each other and with me. This helps to create a sense of community and connection for students who may be feeling isolated.
I incorporate social and emotional learning (SEL) activities into my curriculum. These activities help students to develop important skills such as empathy, self-regulation, and self-awareness.
I check in with my students regularly to see how they are doing mentally and emotionally. This provides an opportunity for students to express their concerns and receive support from me.
I make time available for virtual and fun games for online learning. This allows students to receive individualized support and attention.
I offer group counseling sessions for students who may need additional support. This provides a space for students to talk about their feelings and concerns with peers and receive support from a trained professional.
I believe that it’s important to remember that remote learning can be challenging for students socially and emotionally, so as a teacher, I make an effort to create opportunities for connection, support, and well-being.
Grinch Social Skills Craft
If you love the Grinch movie, the kids really do, have them make this personalised Grinch craft on naming things to make themselves smile instead of ‘cringe’. My students loved this one and we try to make it every year.
Snowman Kindness Craft
Another one I love using during the winter time and to improve emotional check-in, is this winter themed snowman kindness craft.
Add this to your bulletin board to remind the kids about kindness any time of the year.
Social Skills Feelings Chart
These fun activity ideas below will promote students emotional development by identifying their feelings and appropriately targeting skills to help them manage these feelings.
Bonus points for developing active listening skills too.
Start by introducing a simple feelings chart for kids, I use this one with toddlers and preschoolers since it is super simple.
More recently, I shared this super cute Minion feelings craft printable.
Minion Feelings Paper Plate Craft
Add this to your calm-down corner, it’s an easy way to process emotions and problem-solving skills.
You can even add discussion questions to this craft and have the kids identify the reasons why they might feel a certain way.
Feelings Printable Workbook
I also shared a feelings printable workbook which helps kids with identifying the most common feelings and how they make them feel. You can get it free from the blog post.
Feelings Flashcards with Real Images
Looking for simple feelings flashcards? These real life flashcards are perfect for special needs kids and during a life skills lesson.
Anger Management Activities for Kids
Character development beings with responsible decision-making, and these anger management printables and activities do just that. Add them to binders and you’re set!
Feelings Play Dough Mats Free
Promote social interactions with these printable feelings crafts with play dough.
The kids will love making the faces using dough, you could even get them making a face each day for how they feel. SEL doesn’t have to be hard work.
Rudolph Social Skills Craft
This Rudolph craft is perfect for kids when you’re trying to teach them ways to appreciate the special qualities they have.
Turkey Sharing Social Skills Craft
Another super fun craft is this turkey sharing craft. Perfect for the period between September and December, but it can be used any time of year really!
Turkey Gratitude Writing Craft
This turkey writing gratitude craft is also perfect for when you want to help kids identify the good news in their life rather than the bad.
Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie Craft
Love the Old Lady series? This super fun Old Lady Swallowed a Pie printable craft activities.
Lastly, if you’re looking for some social emotional learning remote learning options for SEL. these ideas and activities might give you a great start!
Empathy Boots Craft for Kids
Kids will love this super fun empathy boot craft bulletin board. The best part about it is that students will get to work on building the letters in their name along with identifying ways in which they can show empathy.
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