School is not just a place where kids expand their academic knowledge; it’s also a place where they learn how to handle their emotions and develop their social skills. Social and emotional learning (SEL) activities help our kids to develop the vital skills of self-awareness, self-management, collaborative working, fostering relationships, and responsible decision-making. If you’re looking for ways to incorporate SEL in your classroom, check out our 60 simple and fun activities for kids of any age!
1. Sticky Note Check-In
Get your students thinking about their well-being by using sticky notes to respond to a starter or exit question like “What are you struggling with today?” or “Is there anything you need help with?” You can use the class time to check in with those students and talk through their feelings.
Learn More: Eastern Washington University
2. Collaborative Stories
Get your learners working together by writing a story together! With snowball writing, your kiddos take turns adding new sentences to a group story, working with what other members have written to keep the story going.
Learn More: Presto Plans
3. Reflective Writing
Reflective writing allows your kiddies to practice reflecting on their progress and performance to improve. Set aside some time each week for them to complete a piece of reflective writing. Give them a different prompt each time and encourage them to dig deep!
Learn More: Learning To Give
4. Mindfulness Brain Breaks
Stop the lesson for five minutes to give your students a ‘brain break’ from learning! You can teach them breathing exercises or do a guided visualization to help them soothe their anxieties and refocus on the topic being taught. Remind them they can do this anytime they feel anxious or overwhelmed.
Learn More: Calm Classroom
5. Pleasant Events Calendar
Teaching self-care can start at any age and this activity does just that! Have your kiddos plan ‘pleasant’ events they can do for themselves to take the focus off whatever might be causing them stress and anxiety. They’ll love the excuse to carve out some “me” time in their day!
Learn More: Greater Good In Education
6. Calm Down Corner
Create a space in the classroom that your little ones can take themselves to if they get overwhelmed or worked up. This isn’t a ‘time out’ space or for discipline; it’s a space for learners to distract themselves or reduce overstimulation so that they can rejoin the class when they’re calm.
Learn More: Action For Healthy Kids
7. Zones of Regulation
Use the Zones of Regulation to help your younger students identify their emotions. They can then use the colors and zones throughout the year to quickly express their feelings during entrance and exit tickets or other SEL activities. They’ll love having this simple tool to use when they just can’t quite find the words.
Learn More: Little Hucks Learners
8. Famous Success Stories
Get your class to recognize SEL skills in the people they admire! Have your students research the life story of a successful famous person, paying attention to what skills they had to learn (i.e. resilience, determination) to succeed. They can then decide how to employ those same skills in their lives.
Learn More: Learn From Blogs
9. Soothing Exercises
Yoga and other soothing exercises can be a really helpful tool for you to give those students bursting with energy or anxiety an outlet without being disruptive. You can lead your kiddies yourself or find a kids’ yoga series on YouTube, like Cosmic Kids Yoga, which uses fun stories to guide students through yoga poses.
Learn More: Miniland
10. Quote of the Day
What better way to start the lesson than with a motivational quote of the day? Let your kiddos identify the social or emotional skills the quote is trying to build and challenge them to explain how it’s doing so. They’ll then discuss where it fits in with their own lives and how they can build on those skills.
Learn More: Roots Of Action
11. Art to the Rescue
Give your students the chance to explore some SEL with art! Whether it’s related to the lesson objectives or just as a ‘brain break’, encourage them to have fun with this reflective piece of art. Have them come up with a list of words to describe themselves, then have them add them to a blank canvas. All that’s left is to add a splash of color!
Learn More: YouTube
12. Stress Balls
Using an object to physically relieve pent-up emotions can really help your kiddos regulate their negative emotions more effectively. Stress balls are perfect for this, and you can even make a whole lesson out of letting your learners create their own!
Learn More: Eastern Washington University
13. Class Pet
Having a class pet will surely go down well with your kids! Choose a pet that is relatively low maintenance (i.e. gerbil, hamster, guinea pig) and let your students take turns throughout the week feeding and caring for the pet. Having this responsibility is a fantastic way to teach your students empathy, independence, and compassion.
Learn More: Pets In The Classroom
14. Class Responsibilities
Assigning class responsibilities to your learners teaches them self-management, self-regulation, and how to care for their environment. Start by writing out a list of tasks that your kids could complete each day and then assign them a different task each day or week. Why not create a ‘Classroom Jobs’ display for your bulletin board to keep track of who’s doing which job?
Learn More: Inclusive Teach
15. Positive Self-Talk
We know that some of our kids have a tendency to be too hard on themselves. This activity teaches them to pay attention to what they accomplish each day more than what they did wrong. At the end of each day, have your kiddos write one positive thing they did that day, no matter how simple it is.
Learn More: Morning Side Center
16. Balloon Breaths
This activity always ends with lots of giggling but is great for teaching calming breathing techniques to your younger students. To start, have your pupils stand or sit with their backs straight then get them to take a huge breath in, expanding their bellies like a balloon. They’ll then exhale slowly, making a raspberry-type sound like air leaving a balloon.
Learn More: Calm Ahoy Kids
17. Team Building Games
Playing games as a team is the perfect way to build collaboration skills without making it too obvious. You can choose from various fun activities like Two Truths and a Lie, the name song, or a simple ‘build a house of cards’ task. Not only will your kids be having fun, but they’ll also be learning a bunch of SEL skills like listening to others and waiting their turn.
Learn More: Playworks
18. Class Compliments
Who doesn’t love a compliment? Get your students to either tape a piece of paper to their back or on their desk. They have them all get up and walk around the class writing positive statements about their classmates on their papers. At the end of the time, let your kiddos return to look at their statements after they’ve written one for everyone else.
Learn More: Cult Of Pedagogy
19. Current Events Discussion
This works best for your teenage students and helps them to look at SEL in a wider setting. Choose a topic to discuss in terms of its social-emotional impact; How have the positive or negative actions impacted what’s happening? What could change to resolve or lessen the negative impact? Encourage them to dig deep and apply some of their learning to the real world!
Learn More: Learning To Give
20. Sensory Bottles
Sensory bottles are the perfect tool to help your kiddos self-regulate. Let them create their own with a plastic bottle, some glitter glue, and some craft materials. Focusing their attention and energy on completely different visual stimuli (like glitter, colored oil, or marbles) takes your students out of the overwhelming situation and allows them to decompress safely.
Learn More: Hi Mama
21. The Power of Music
Music is a great way to get your learners to cope with and regulate big emotions or transitions. Use music in your classroom to help them transition from one task to another, get out excess energy, practice mindfulness, or build resilience through learning to play an instrument. They’ll also be learning to work with others as they each play a part in a piece you’ll play together!
Learn More: Children’s Institute
22. Gratitude Jar
Your kiddos will love this simple and sweet activity. Give them each an empty jar to decorate however they choose. Then at the end of each week, they’ll write down something that they appreciate from that week and place it in the jar. After a while, your kiddos will see a growing visual representation of all they have to be thankful for!
Learn More: Gratefulness Blog
23. Certificate of Recognition
What is better for helping your kids feel amazing than celebrating their success? Get your students to celebrate each other by creating certificates of recognition. Similar to a ‘Secret Santa’ game, assign each student a ‘secret observer’ each week. At the end of the week, they’ll create certificates of recognition for all the positive habits they saw!
Learn More: Vibrant Teaching
24. Show-and-Tell
This activity teaches kiddos of any age how to connect! Whether you’re teaching preschoolers or high schoolers, try to allow a student 5 minutes during the week to share a personal object with the class. Encourage them to bring in something to show off and let them explain its importance.
Learn More: Speak Up Studio
25. Biography Writing
This activity works best in an English class. Split your learners up into pairs and have them interview each other about their lives. Encourage them to pay close attention to the social and emotional skills they learned from different ‘big’ events. Finally, have them write their partners’ biography as a story then read it back to them!
Learn More: Everyday Speech
26. Team-Based Review Game
Getting your students to work together for a common goal teaches them important social and collaborative problem-solving skills. Next time you use a team-based review game, add a feedback sheet to get them to analyze how well they worked together and what they could do better next time.
Learn More: Common Sense Education
27. Bucket Fillers
Show your little ones how being a kind, empathetic, and cooperative person ‘fills their bucket’ each day by creating a bucket filler bulletin board or in-class activity. Discuss with your class what actions or words make them happy and discuss what they could do to fill someone else’s bucket. Whenever they perform those acts or receive them from another student they can show this on the display!
Learn More: S&S Blog
28. Thank You Cards
Another way of getting your students to get comfortable showing appreciation to and for others is by having them write thank you cards to each other. This could be done after any of the other team-based activities on this list or as a weekly separate activity. Why not write some thank you cards for members of school staff like the janitors or cooks?
Learn More: Made In A Pinch
29. Classroom Debate
Classroom debates are a fantastic way to get your students thinking about social and emotional ideas while practicing active listening and respectful discussion skills. Introduce a question for your class to debate and discuss the listening and speaking skills they’ll need to use. After the debate, you can give them feedback on how well they performed during the debate!
Learn More: Kialo Edu Blog
30. Crossing The Line
This activity is super simple and requires no prep! Start by getting all your kids up and have them stand in a line in the center of the room. Next, you’ll read out some statements and your kids can out of the line if it applies to them. Slowly increase how emotional the questions are to reveal to your kiddos how similar their life experiences might be.
Learn More: Recipes For Wellbeing
31. Choice Boards
Middle school students and older might want to express themselves or their gratitude in a more private way rather than in a whole class activity. Choice boards allow them to do just that by giving them the freedom to do that while also teaching them independence and digital skill-building.
Learn More: YouTube
32. Rose, Bud, Thorn
It’s time for some reflection! Each week, get your kids to write down a rose, a bud, and a thorn. A rose is something to celebrate, a bud is something exciting, and a thorn is something they are struggling with. They’ll then ask themselves: how do I turn a thorn into a rose or a bud?
Learn More: Life Design Log
33. Fist to Five
This activity is super versatile and can be used for any age or subject. Post a social or emotional skill on the board and have your kiddos hold up a hand showing how comfortable or confident they feel ranging from a fist (meaning 0 or not at all) to five (meaning completely confident or comfortable) then discuss why.
Learn More: Professional Learning Board
34. Classroom Contracts
Creating a classroom constitution or contract gets your students thinking about the needs of the whole class. First, let your learners decide what they want the classroom to look like, what their behavior should look like, and why. Finally, have them decide what actions everyone should follow to achieve that classroom environment and make it into a contract they can all sign!
Learn More: Teach Starter
35. Tapping
Ever heard of the tapping solution? If you have any students who are particularly anxious or unable to self-regulate, you can teach them how to tap certain points on their body to release that stress. Much like fidget spinners or stress balls, tapping is a physical method of releasing stress by dispelling the tension at each point.
Learn More: Tapping Solution Foundation
36. Partner Mirroring
Challenge your kiddies to tune into one another! This game often gets little ones giggling, but partner mirroring requires them to really pay attention so they can follow their partner’s actions perfectly. The mirroring game teaches them focus and cooperation while also exploring how their bodies move!
Learn More: Sharin’ With Sharron
37. Inflection Awareness
SEL isn’t just about being empathetic; it’s also about recognizing how our nonverbal communication might unintentionally upset or challenge someone. Use activities like changing which word in a sentence is stressed to show how we might seem aggressive or hostile without intending to be.
Learn More: The Responsive Counselor
38. Changing Perspectives
Get your kids to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. This activity gets them thinking about how different people can view the same event differently. Have your kids choose an event or story that you’re studying and challenge them to write about it from another person’s perspective.
Learn More: Twinkl
39. Goal Letter Writing
Get your year or new term off to a great start by getting your kiddies to make a list of personal goals they wish to achieve. Have them choose one or two and write a letter to themselves, stating how they will achieve these goals and how it will feel to do so. Anytime they lose confidence, they can reread the letter and get a little boost!
Learn More: Legacy Project
40. Emotional Charades
Who doesn’t love a game of charades? This is the perfect way to help your little learners recognize different emotions in others. Let them take turns acting out an assigned emotion using actions and facial expressions only, with the other students trying to guess what emotion they are feeling. Things are going to get emotional!
Learn More: Child’s Play In Action
41. Acts of Kindness
Encouraging small acts of kindness is a simple and straightforward SEL activity. As a class or in small groups, let your students brainstorm ways they can perform these acts of kindness throughout the rest of the day or week. How can they be kind to others and encourage kindness in others? Why not do a follow-up activity to let them reflect on the impact of their acts?
Learn More: Greater Good In Education
42. Achievements Collage
It’s important for students of any age to take time to reflect on what they do well. At the end of the semester or year, give them time to make a list of everything they accomplished. Then, have them create a visual collage of those accomplishments through drawings, magazine cutouts, or computer-printed images! What a creative way to celebrate their successes!
Learn More: Unwanted Life Blog
43. “What Would You Do?” Empathy Scenario Cards
Empathy scenario cards are a super way to give your kids the tools to deal with everyday scenarios they might come up against. They should consider what the problems are with the situation, as well as how they would resolve it. You could use this as a journal prompt or an early-finisher activity.
Learn More: Twinkl
44. Morning Meetings
Did you know you can get some SEL into your day even if you only have 15 minutes to spare? These morning meetings cover a whole bunch of different SEL topics, such as ‘Mindfulness Monday’ or ‘Togetherness Tuesday.’. Each day will pose questions or scenarios to the students around these topics and then have them think-pair-share with the class.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
45. SEL Reading
Regardless of their age, we know that students learn really well through literature! Read books with plots focusing on social and emotional well-being with your class then have your kiddos discuss the characters’ actions. They could also read their own SEL-themed books related to and discuss them with the class.
Learn More: Center For Responsive Learning
46. Egg Drop
This task takes the phrase “You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet” seriously! The egg drop challenge will teach your kiddos collaborative problem-solving skills in an exciting STEM-based activity. Encourage them to reflect on their strategy whenever their egg breaks and encourage them to problem-solve how to improve or change their approach.
Learn More: Little Bins For Little Hands
47. Daily Affirmations
A simple way to include SEL in your classroom routine is by guiding students through daily positive affirmations. These quick statements will remind your kids how worthy and welcome they are. Encourage them to remember these statements anytime they feel overwhelmed.
Learn More: Cleveland Metro Schools
48. History of a Name
Our names define us and our history. Have your students research the meaning of their name and discover the history behind it. Take some time to discuss how they feel when someone mispronounces their name or calls them by another name so they can learn not to do the same to others.
Learn More: Read Write Think
49. Watch a Video on Bullying and Friendship
Videos are a great way to have your learners engage with a topic. Unfortunately, bullying is something that happens in most schools at some point, so it’s important to prepare our kids for what to do if they see it happening. Watch a video on this topic occasionally to get them to discuss the message and how they might model good behaviors and challenge bullying.
Learn More: YouTube
50. 30 Days of Service Challenge
Performing volunteer acts has been proven to teach students about empathy and compassion for themselves, others, and their environment. Why not download a 30 Days of Service Challenge and have your class log the ways they complete each challenge? At the end, they reflect on what the month has taught them.
Learn More: Life Made Full
51. Escape The Classroom
Escape rooms are great learning activities that’ll get your little ones to problem-solve collaboratively. You can use them as a review activity, to introduce a new topic, or simply as a bit of fun! You could even design one specifically targeting SEL skills. Whatever the theme, these activities are sure to teach your kiddies important skills like how to work together as a team!
Learn More: Hands On Teaching Ideas
52. Apologies
Another important SEL skill that everyone can benefit from is apologizing. Have your students think of someone in their lives they may have recently hurt or upset, and teach them how to write an apology letter to make it right. They don’t have to send it, just knowing how and when to apologize is the key takeaway of this lesson.
Learn More: Very Special Tales
53. Mentor or Buddy System
To encourage your students to interact with classmates outside of their friendship group, instill a mentor or buddy system! Partner up your kids with another in their class or even kids from a lower grade to ‘help’ whenever needed. Much like having a class pet, being a buddy teaches responsibility, empathy, and compassion – and who knows, maybe they’ll even make a new friend!
Learn More: YouTube
54. Plan a Class Party
A great social learning activity is allowing students to plan a class party. Assign your kids different roles and responsibilities for planning and organizing the party. They’ll need to communicate well and make sure they’ve covered all the bases, then all that’s left is for them to sit back and enjoy!
Learn More: The Creative Educator
55. Talking with Strangers
Understanding that everyone has a life story is a brilliant way to teach empathy. Take your kiddies on a field trip to a retirement home or another school for this unique SEL activity. Let them interview a stranger about their life and discuss how their experiences have affected their worldview today! Can they find any similarities they have with their interviewee?
Learn More: Edutopia
56. Daily Greetings
The easiest way to show students that their well-being matters is to greet them at the door! Start by smiling and saying their name, then the rest is up to you! You could even give them a choice of how you greet them: a high five, a special handshake, a hug, or just a nod. Why not make a poster to hang by your door with their greeting choices?
Learn More: Inner Drive
57. Anticipation Guides
Anticipation guides are a great way for your kids to get some practice at interpreting emotions. This pre-reading task can be used for SEL by focusing the questions on those social and emotional themes present in the text you’re about to study. Before reading Romeo and Juliet, for example, your kids could rate their views on loyalty to friends and family.
Learn More: Reading Rockets
58. Suggestions Box
I’d like to speak to the manager! Show your class members that their opinions are valued by setting up a suggestion or, if you’re brave, a complaint box in the classroom! You can have a lesson on how to constructively complain without being overly negative or hostile. Why not get your pupils involved in making and decorating the box?
Learn More: TBS News
59. SEL Anchor Chart
Anchor charts give your little ones a point of reference when they need to remember information or processes. These tools are great for SEL! Get your kids involved in creating some SEL anchor charts as a lesson so that they can remember everything from how to self-identify and self-regulate when situations become overwhelming, to how to filter their negative thoughts!
Learn More: Pinterest
60. School Garden
Research has shown that just being in nature has benefits for our wellbeing! A school garden is the perfect way to get your kids interacting with nature and it adds elements of social learning, as well! They’ll learn about responsibility through looking after the plants and how to work together to keep the plants healthy and thriving.
Learn More: Kids Gardening
Phonics Activities For Middle School: Challenges, Games, And Worksheets