Table of Contents
- Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Activities for Preschool & Kindergarten Students
- Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Activities for Elementary School Students
- Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Activities for Middle School Students
- Tips for Implementing Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Activities
- Make Social Emotional Learning (SEL) - Part of Every School Day
Emotional quotient, commonly referred to as EQ, is a measurement used to gauge someone’s ability to understand their emotions, regulate their emotions, and read the emotions of others. EQ is something that is strengthened throughout a child’s development and their strength in this area helps share who they will be in adulthood.
One way to effectively help strengthen a child’s EQ is by incorporating social emotional learning (SEL) activities into the classroom. As educators, we spend over thirty hours per week with students, making us a monumental part of their life. By providing them consistent opportunities to strengthen their social emotional skills, we are setting them up for success in their personal and professional lives.
In this article, we will explore easy to implement SEL activities for preschool through middle school students.
In preschool and kindergarten, students are learning to manage their emotions and communicate their feelings with those around them. This time is key to learning core SEL skills that will allow them to continue to progress emotionally as they enter more complex social situations.
Here are some activities and activations to incorporate SEL learning into the classroom with preschool and kindergarten students:
- Feelings Identification: Create emotion cards and let students match a photo of an emotion with the word. This activity helps them to start to identify the body language of those around them.
- Sharing Circle Time: At the end of each day, allow students time to share how they are feeling with the group. This allows them to practice articulating their thoughts and emotions and listening to others.
- Role-Playing Games: Students can act out common scenarios they may encounter in their lives as preschoolers and kindergarteners, such as having to share toys. This activity of practicing their response helps them to enter into these situations prepared to exercise their social emotional skills.
- Calm Down Jar: Getting overwhelmed is inevitable! Create a water and glitter water bottle for students to use, called the calm down jar. When they are feeling overwhelmed or nervous, they can use the sensory water bottle to refocus and regulate their emotions.
- Mirror Game: Pair children up and have them copy each other’s facial expressions, allowing them to practice identifying the emotions of others.
Elementary school is a pivotal time for students in strengthening their SEL skills. During this time, their social emotional progression should be focused on teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and friendships, which allows them to effectively communicate and interact with teachers, parents, and classmates.
Below are classroom SEL activities for elementary students:
- Kindness Chain: Allow students to write down kind words about themselves or their classmates and add it to the kindness chain, which can be displayed in the classroom. This simple in-classroom activation helps students communicate their feelings and identify positives in those around them.
- Emotional Charades: Help students better identify emotions through emotional charades! Each student will pull an emotion card they will have to act out – excited, sad, mad, nervous, etc. – while their classmates guess what emotion they are trying to convey.
- Class Agreements: Elementary school is a key time in students understanding the importance of rules and respect. Have students write down classroom rules they all pledge to respect and follow. This can be anything from being back from recess on time to being kind to everyone in the classroom.
- Gratitude Journals: Each day devote 20-30 minutes to students writing down what they are thankful for that day. This exercise helps students identify the positives in everyday life and gives them practice digesting and explaining how and why they feel a certain way.
- Team Challenges: Teamwork is a critical part of a student’s future success in the workforce. By finding ways to make classroom activities interactive and group based, students will learn how to work with others to create a successful final product.
By middle school, students should already have a strong SEL foundation. During these pivotal years, students have to continue to strengthen their social emotional skills in preparation for high school, higher education, and their future careers. This includes conflict resolution skills, leadership, empathy, and emotion regulation.
Here are easy to implement strategies to bring social emotional learning into your middle school classroom:
- Debate Club/Group Discussions: Provide students prompts and a perspective they are going to be arguing. Then, allow them to debate each other, trying to get the other to see their point of view. This activity helps students learn how to express their opinions while listening and respecting those around them.
- Peer Mentioning Programs: Pair younger and older students together, giving the younger student someone to learn from and use as a sounding board for complex scenarios that come up in their day-to-day life.
- Leadership Projects: Allow the classroom to plan and execute a community service project or activity within the school. This will allow students to exercise their leadership and collaboration skills, starting from an idea and following through to the end.
- Mindfulness Breaks: Mindfulness and intention matter! Teach students to pause and focus their efforts and attention to what they are doing. Learning to decompress and focus on the present moment is a key skill to the classroom and the workforce, allowing for a deeper understanding of what is happening. For example, the STEM Sports® curricula highlights the importance of Mindfulness Matters in the preface of each curriculum, helping students set an intention for their STEM learning experience.
If implementing SEL activities into the classroom is new, it can be intimidating! However, once it becomes a normal, consistent part of the class’ daily routine, it will be something students look forward to and educators know is helping prepare students for their future.
Here are tips for successfully implementing SEL activities with students:
- Keep SEL activities age appropriate. By aligning the activities with the current EQ skillset of students, we set them up for success.
- Model strong SEL skills in your daily activities. Students are constantly watching educators, school administrators, and parents, mimicking the actions they see – so, set an example for them!
- Make SEL lessons fun and engaging. Teach them that strengthening their social emotional skills can be exciting.
- Mix it up! By switching up SEL lessons every so often, it is easier to keep students engaged and active in their learning.
Social emotional learning is an essential part of preparing students for their future, personally and professionally. By adding SEL activities into the classroom, educators can ensure students are strengthening their EQ starting as early as preschool with opportunities to exercise these skills.
