Elementary-age students are eager to learn appropriate social skills, but they often need guidance. Learning how to build relationships between students and ensure they are getting along with one another is time-consuming and takes persistence. That is why we have created a list of twenty-four ways for your school students to learn about caring, sharing, kindness, and empathy. Read on for cooperative activity ideas that will foster positive relationships in your classroom.
1. Play a Game
Learn about getting along with others through this game board. Students will flip over the white cards to see a scenario. They can then move according to their responses. See who can come up with the nicest ideas before getting to the finish line.
Learn More: Socially Skilled Kids
2. Reduce Supplies
Are you making a craft that requires a black sharpie? If so, have only three available at your table group of four. Healthy relationships will be formed when students learn how to cooperate together and share the marker. Be sure to let them figure it out themselves.
Learn More: Socially Skilled Kids
3. Read "Enemy Pie"
This is a great book for students. After reading it as a whole class, make a circle on a piece of paper and divide it into a friendship pie. Each slice of pie will state how to be someone's friend. Hang up the student's work at the end!
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4. Empathy vs. Sympathy
Empathy means we share the same feelings, whereas sympathy means you know how a person could be feeling. After watching the video, follow up with questions about feelings associated with bad actions, and ask how students could help one another in those situations.
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5. Read "Giraffes Can't Dance"
Gerald, a giraffe who desperately wants to dance, is not able to. After a friend tells him he can do it, Gerald realizes he can dance. Elementary students will laugh at this silly book as they learn how a little encouragement can go a long way.
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6. Create a Calendar
Encourage students to complete a fun activity with a friend or family member every day of the week. They can engage in some of the activities listed here, or come up with their own. At the end of the week, have them return their calendars to see who has the most stickers!
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7. The Courage Zone Activity
In this fifteen-minute activity, first, you will read a short story about the courage of your 4th or 5th-grade students. Then open up a discussion to see how being courageous means something different for everyone. Students will analyze situations that would allow them to enter their "courage zone."
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8. Listen to a Podcast
Everything is better when it's completed as a group, so why not listen to a podcast together? This website has many podcasts to choose from in their "building community" library. I would recommend having three or four podcasts available for students to choose from in groups.
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9. Create Caring Hands
Elementary students will love tracing their hands. Once their hand is cut out, have students write down how they show others that they care. Then place the hands on a board to create the shape of the first letter in the teacher's name.
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10. Commit to Being Kind
It is one thing to say you plan to be kind, but it is another to take a pledge to be kind. After having a lesson on kindness, have students visit this website to take the kindness pledge. Make it a class activity by taking the pledge all together at once!
Learn More: The Be Kind People Project
11. Be Able to Laugh at Yourself
After teaching students the importance of humility and being able to laugh at their mistakes, have students participate in some role-playing activities. Humor goes a long way when working with others and practicing this will help them later in life.
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12. Save the Canister
After making a 5 x 5-foot square, place a canister in the very center. Students will be given a string, rubber bands, and straws, and are told they need to get the canister out of the square without going inside it. This is such a fun class game!
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13. Teach Tattling vs. Telling
Social skills are still being developed whilst leveling up through elementary grades. Sometimes it is appropriate to tell the teacher what is going on, and other times it may just be an obnoxious tattle. Teach students the difference early in the year.
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14. Learn the Four Part Apology
It's time for children to learn how to apologize for their mistakes. But saying "sorry" is so much more than just that single word. Having kids explain exactly what they are sorry for will help them connect the wronged action to the apology.
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15. Pass on the Positivity
This is one of those deeply meaningful activities that keeps giving and giving each time someone looks at the poster. Whenever a classmate needs their day to brighten, gently guide them over to the positivity poster for a pick-me-up.
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16. Make a Spider Web
Here is a great team-building activity that will help students work together and get along. Pass the ball of yarn to a friend by walking it over to them without stepping on the web. As more people receive the ball, the web gets crazier!
Learn More: Flights of Whimsy
17. Play With Bubbles
The woman in this video uses bubbles as her prop, but anything can be used to help students share. The rules are simple. Wait for your turn and say, "Please, may I have the bubbles" after the other student has blown three bubbles. Once you get them, say, "Thank you".
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18. Play "Emotional Roller Coaster"
Two or more players will be taken through examples of situations that lead to heightened emotions in this game. It teaches coping strategies for calming down using breathing exercises. The game takes a deep dive into determining what is making you angry, and the appropriate way to express yourself.
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19. Complete the Sentence
Here is a great partner game that can be played with as many as four players. Kids from five to twelve years old will enjoy finishing these sentences as their brains work to figure out the best response for a given situation.
Learn More: Amazon
20. Ask for Permission to Share
There are so many types of relationships among children. The best ones can be found between kiddos who know how to share. Teach children that whenever they want a turn, they should ask permission.
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21. Play a Video
Start the conversation by having students watch this video on how they can be good friends. This goes through ten ways to be a good friend, some of which include doing things together, showing you care, being silly, and remembering you're awesome.
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22. Do a Word Search
Here's a straightforward activity that requires no prep! Upper elementary students will enjoy finding words about friendship and getting along in this simple word search. Have them work in pairs for added practice with working as a team.
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23. Make Friendship Flowers
Here is a super cute school activity. Assign each student another student to write about. Each petal contains a unique statement, word, or adjective stating something nice or positive about the student whose name is depicted in the flower's center.
Learn More: Very Special Tales
24. Make a Slideshow
Do you have pictures of your classroom of students? If so, make a slideshow! If it's the beginning of the year and you do not have many photos, email parents requesting photos of their children being nice to one another.
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