Social-emotional learning, or SEL, is finally getting the recognition it deserves. With all the emphasis now on trauma-informed practices, restorative practices, and student wellness, teachers are getting the “permission” to focus on an area they have always known was important. There are lots of resources for social-emotional learning activities out there, but I’ve made a list of some of my favorites here. Check back (or subscribe to the blog) because I will update this post as I find and use new activities!
First of all, why teach SEL? According to this article from Edutopia, social-emotional learning improves academic achievement (by an average of 11 percentile points), but it also leads to positive social behaviors with peers and adults, improves attitudes toward school, reduces behavior issues, leads to improved test scores and grades, and it reduces stress and depression among students. With all of those benefits, we can’t afford to not teach SEL!
One of my favorite quotes is from Dr. James Comer:
“No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship.”
Social-emotional learning activities are one of the very best ways to build those all-important relationships with students and make our own teaching lives more rewarding and more productive. (SEL is good for teachers too!)
General Tips
Here are 12 general tips for getting started.
1 – build and maintain connections with every student. You can do this by building classroom community from the very beginning of the year, but it’s never too late to start or improve your community. Here are some posts with tips for building community:
~How to Build Classroom Community – 12 Easy Tips
~Using Class Meetings & Restorative Practices to Build Classroom Community
~Remote Learning – Building Classroom Community & Positive Relationships
2 – greet every student as they enter your classroom (even virtually) every day. This sounds simple, but in the course of a busy day, it’s easy to overlook something like this and get to the end of the day realizing you didn’t even connect with some students at all. The goal is to help every one of your students to feel “seen” by you each day.
3 – try to have one-on-one conferences with students as often as possible, even for only one or two minutes. A quick check-in to just ask how they’re doing, asking if they’re okay, asking if there is something you can help with goes a long way for showing students that you care about them. I try to have a quick check-in with every student once a week or once every two weeks. (When we’re learning in person, this is much easier to do.)
4 – establish daily routines/rituals for your class. Doing this at the beginning and the end of the day (or of each class) is especially important. The routine itself doesn’t matter. Just establish a positive and friendly tone at the beginning and a hopeful tone of looking forward to the next session together.
5 – take daily “temperature checks”. This can occur during those one-on-one conferences mentioned above or as you greet students when they enter your classroom. You can even do that as part of a class circle question (more about that in the next section).
6 – take weekly or bi-weekly “temperature checks.” Here is a link to a sample google form weekly temperature check. Make a copy and modify with your own questions!
7 – continue (or start) morning meetings or circles. Here is a link to my post about how to get that ritual started.
8 – use tools like email or google chat to check in with students and just ask if they’re doing okay. I did this even when I was teaching face-to-face. It allows students a more private way to answer your question and you can always follow up later with a face-to-face chat if needed. Never underestimate the power of that simple question: are you okay?
9 – one tip that I tried this year with success was to assign a greeting buddy to each student. When students logged into Google Meet, their buddy would greet them. If they were already in the Meet when their buddy joined, their buddy would still greet them in some way. They could do this verbally or in the chat. It helped to make us all feel a bit more connected.
10 – use breakout rooms and let students work together in smaller groups as much as possible. You can do this for social times as well as academic times.
11 – teach students about self-care. Some of the activities on this site will help you discuss self-care with your students.
12 – and finally – don’t forget about your own self-care. Teaching in any kind of setting is emotionally and physically draining. Adding other stressors (oh, like, say a global pandemic) makes it even more difficult. Give yourself time and space to take care of your own needs.
Circle Questions
Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite circle questions. Pick and choose what works best for you and your class!
*on Mondays, share brags & drags from the weekend (brags = good things and drags = things that were not so great)
*share one word to describe something specific – one word to describe your morning, one word about something you’ve learned in the past week, one word about how you’re feeling about something that happened in the news
*share an emoji to represent how you’re feeling right now
*at the end of the day, share roses & thorns about the day (rose = good thing and thorn = not so good thing)
*another end of the day ritual we enjoy: share one of the 3 A’s – an appreciation (for something that happened today or for someone in the class), an apology (without going into detail about it), an a-ha moment (something that finally clicked for you today or that you discovered or learned)
*one fun way to use the chat feature in Zoom or Google Meet: ask a question and allow everyone to type their response in the chat, then to respond to two people’s answers (also in the chat). We call this “waterfall” because that’s how it looks when all the responses come in at once!
*”tell me something good” – tell about one good thing that has happened today
*share one thing you are looking forward to (today, this week, this month, this year)
*cheers! – raise hands or thumbs up if any of the following are true: you spent time outside yesterday or today, you have eaten at least one fruit or vegetable today, you drank water yesterday or today, you read a book for fun, you played a game with someone, you did something nice for your parents or a sibling, etc. The idea is to choose questions about activities that are under the child’s control and are things that would actually make them feel better when they do them.
*have a scavenger hunt – choose one (or a few) items for students to go find and show on screen. This could be items like: something you love, a favorite book, a favorite object, something that reminds you of something good, etc.
*”if” questions — if you were an animal, what animal would you be? If you were a color. . . If you were a machine . . . If you were a kitchen tool . . . If you were a school supply . . . If you had any superpower, what would it be?Students also need to tell why they chose their particular item, which is always insightful!
*share something you love right now (something you love to do, love to read, love to eat, a person, etc.)
*share something you are missing right now
*share something you are looking forward to doing again
*an alternative could be to ask students to draw a quick sketch of one of the questions above and to share that with the group
*allow students to change their background on Zoom or Google Meet and tell why they chose that background
*share gratitude – something or someone they are grateful for
*name something you don’t need, but that you’re really happy to have
*name something that made you smile today
*ask questions from one of the following books:
~101 Fun Questions to Ask Your Kids
~The Kids’ Book of Questions
~Would You Rather Questions for Kids & Their Adults
*speaking of “would you rather” questions, Rachel of Minds in Bloom has a great archive of questions (many with seasonal topics) HERE
*share a new hobby you’ve tried or something new you’ve been doing
*name something that made you smile today
*share a place in nature that you are grateful for
*who is an adult that you’re grateful for?
*share a favorite stuffed animal & tell why it’s special
*share a compliment or a shout-out for a classmate
*think of one thing you like about our class community and one thing you would change
*what is one skill or talent you wish you had?
*what is a sound/smell/taste/sight/touch that makes you happy and why?
*what’s your “weather” like today? (sunny, partly cloudy, mostly cloudy, stormy, etc.)
Self-care Tips
*Teach and practice mindful breathing. A helpful strategy is to think of deep breathing as 4-count process. Breathe in for four counts, hold your breath for four counts, breathe out for four counts, then hold your breath for four counts. Practice this as often as needed, but trying to intentionally practice this once a day is a good idea.
*Teach and practice various yoga poses as movement breaks.
*Encourage students to drink water throughout the day.
*Encourage students to create a screensaver of a landscape that makes them feel calm or to keep a picture of a calming landscape near their work area. Another option would be to keep a photo of their family or a pet nearby. Looking at something that makes you happy just makes you feel better!
*Keep an eye out for feel-good videos to share with your students. These might be stories about things that people are doing to help other people, fun stories about animals — whatever inspires you or makes you laugh will probably do the same for your students.
*Reading is one of my very favorite self-care tools, both for myself and to use as a teacher. When in doubt, take a few minutes for some read aloud. This can be an ongoing novel, a picture book, a short article, whatever fits your style and works for you. While there are many good resources online, this site created by Rachel Lemansky, an elementary library coordinator is my new favorite go-to site. Check it out HERE!
Hopefully, understanding the importance of social-emotional learning is here to stay. I hope you found some ideas that will work for you and your class!