Social and emotional skills are fundamental to school, career, and life success. Children are not born knowing how to navigate social situations appropriately, control their emotions, or make friends. So, they must constantly grow and develop these skills through lived experiences and learned lessons.
The activities in this article will help you implement practical classroom lessons that nurture healthy behaviors in preschool-aged children. As children actively participate, they will learn how to regulate their emotions, develop empathy, feel confident, and build positive relationships with others.
How does Kaplan ensure these activities are age-appropriate and support the educational needs of children ages 3 to 4 years old?
As a leader in early childhood education for more than 50 years, we understand the importance of classroom activities that are founded on research and support educational best practices.
All of the activities in this article are inspired by the best-selling Gryphon House book Socially Strong, Emotionally Secure: 50 Activities to Promote Resilience in Young Children and the exclusive Kaplan pre-K curriculum, Connect4Learning®. We also include discussion topics and a materials list to make your job of lesson planning quick and easy!
What's Your Super Power?
You will create a classroom book highlighting every child's unique abilities for this activity. To begin, read the book Can I Play Too? by Mo Willems or any book that models inclusive collaborative play experiences for children. Discuss the moral of the story with children, which is that our differences make us unique and should not stop children from being friends or playing with others. If you do not have this book on hand, you can still have a discussion with children about innate strengths, differences, and building friendships.
Some questions you can ask the children during this discussion include:
- How might you feel seeing someone else doing something you have not learned yet?
- How might you invite a friend to play with you if you realize they cannot do some of the things you can do (such as run, jump, draw, or throw a ball)?
- How might you invite someone to play if you notice someone standing alone and acting nervous?
- How might you feel if you were not invited to play because you could not do something everyone else was doing?
These questions encourage children to consider how their actions might affect others and work to enhance the development of empathy, positive peer bonds, and emotional competence. After the discussion, place the book in your classroom art or literacy center. During small group time, ask the children to draw a picture of themselves and what they consider their best superpower. Use the following prompt to help children uncover their superpower:
*Child’s Name* is really good at _______________!
If the children struggle to determine their strengths and superpowers, you can mention what you observe them doing well while at school. Some examples include jumping high, helping friends clean up, knowing every letter in the alphabet, taking care of a class pet, and so on.
Once the child completes their drawing, have them write a sentence to describe the picture using the prompt above. Feel free to assist children with this step if they are new to writing and letter recognition. Bind the pages together and read the book aloud so that every child can share their superpower.
Materials:
- Cardstock paper or plain printer paper
- Drawing implements such as pencils, crayons, markers, or paint
- String, staples, or another material to bind the books
How does this activity support social and emotional development?
Children constantly try to understand their place in the world and how they fit in amongst peers. This activity is a great way to encourage children to focus on their strengths and positive attributes and to notice those same strengths and attributes in others. The more children participate in activities similar to this one, the greater their confidence, self-esteem, and empathy will be.
What inspired this activity?
This activity was inspired by the book Socially Strong, Emotionally Secure: 50 Activities to Promote Resilience in Young Children. The book also includes activities that promote home-school partnerships, caring practices, and child resilience.
Mirroring Emotions
To begin this activity, read a book on various emotions, such as The Way I Feel by Janan Cain. Discuss with children where our emotions come from, what they might feel like, and how to control big emotions that might negatively impact oneself or others.
This activity will occur during center time rotations and requires a designated space in your classroom to serve as a reflection station. This area should include enough space for the children to draw and should incorporate mirrors. If you do not have mirrors attached to the walls of your classroom in this area, give the children small handheld mirrors instead. Always ensure the mirrors are child-safe and shatterproof before the children interact with them.
Before the children enter the reflection station, create a stack of images or words depicting various emotions. You can draw these images and phrases on a sentence strip, a blank sheet of paper, a cutout from a magazine, or anything you have on hand. Provide children with a mirror, then pull an emotion image or word from the stack and ask them to mimic that emotion as they look in the mirror.
To encourage open-ended communication and recognition of emotions during this activity, ask the children these questions:
- What do you notice your lips doing when you show you are happy?
- What might someone's face look like when they are angry?
- How do you feel when you see someone's sad face?
- If your friend makes a face that looks like this, how might they feel?
- What is something you might do that would make you feel bored?
- If you were angry about a block tower falling over, what might you do to feel happy instead?
Materials:
- Mirrors
- Drawn or printed images depicting different emotions
How does this activity support social and emotional development?
For young children, mirrors create opportunities to explore body movements, establish early language skills, and begin to recognize and identify different emotions. This activity helps children recognize the physical features of their emotions and how they are presented to the world. Activities like this enhance a child's empathy, self-regulation, and self-awareness skills.
What inspired this activity?
This activity was inspired by the book Socially Strong, Emotionally Secure: 50 Activities to Promote Resilience in Young Children. The book also includes activities that promote home-school partnerships, caring practices, and child resilience.
Special Delivery
This activity will encourage children to create compliment cards for each other. Start by having a large group discussion about compliments, what they are, and why they matter. Share examples of compliments so children can fully comprehend the term and action.
Write down every child's name on a scrap sheet of paper and place the folded paper pieces in a cup or hat. Ask each child to draw one name. This will be the person for whom they are creating a compliment card. Next, give each child a blank postcard and ask them to identify what they like or find interesting about the person for whom they are writing a compliment.
You can help the children brainstorm ideas by providing prompts such as:
- I like it when _______ does __________
- I feel happy when _______ does __________
- I think _______ is really good at __________
- I think ________ has nice ___________
- When ___________ does ___________, I feel excited
When creating their compliment cards, encourage the children to:
- Write an appropriate greeting on the back that says "To: and someone's name."
- Write a sentence or draw a picture of the compliment they wish to give
Once a child completes their compliment card, they can deliver their special message to the intended recipient. Have the children verbally tell that person what they like about them as they hand over the compliment card. After the compliment cards go out to all recipients, ask the children how they feel about receiving their card.
Materials:
- Postcards
- Various art materials, such as pencils, crayons, and markers
How does this activity support social and emotional development?
The feedback children receive from others plays a key role in shaping their self-esteem and confidence. This activity teaches children about the implications of their words and why it is important to say kind things about others instead of something negative or hurtful. As children share compliments with each other, they will establish a classroom community that encourages positive behaviors, peer bonding, and collaboration.
What inspired this activity?
This activity was inspired by the book Socially Strong, Emotionally Secure: 50 Activities to Promote Resilience in Young Children and the Connect4Learning Pre-K Curriculum. The book, Socially Strong, Emotionally Secure also includes activities that promote home-school partnerships, caring practices, and child resilience.
Monster Friends
Begin this activity by reading the book Friends by Mies van Hout. If you do not have this book, read another story that focuses on friendships or discuss with children the potential scenarios they may encounter as they play and interact with others. These scenarios could include laughing, teasing, arguing, playing, hugging, or ignoring.
After your discussion, invite the children to create monster puppets using any materials you have on hand. The children will host a puppet show with their creations, so choose materials that can withstand constant handling and bouncing around. Once all the puppets are complete and ready for the show, divide the children into pairs.
Each pair of children will stand in front of the room. Ask the children watching to name different scenarios and behaviors that the monsters might encounter while they are at school. Some examples include:
- The two monsters are building a castle with blocks, and one monster knocks the blocks over
- The two monsters are painting in the art center, and one monster gives a compliment
- The two monsters are running away from a loud friend on the playground
- The two monsters are playing catch with a rubber ball, and one monster is struggling to make good catches
Ask the children performing in the puppet show to use their puppets to act out their given scenario. While acting, ask questions that make the children think about how the monsters might be feeling and how to help them work through any differences and frustrations. Once one pair of children finishes their puppet show, have another pair take their place. Repeat this until all children have a chance to perform.
Materials:
- Wooden craft sticks
- Construction paper
- Crayons or markers
- Child-safe scissors
- Glue sticks
- Any other crafting materials you have on hand to make puppets
How does this activity support social and emotional development?
As children interact with their peers and develop close friendships, they must learn how to navigate social situations appropriately, both negative and positive. This activity and the use of puppets allow children to learn about and express their emotions without hurting someone else. As children use the puppets to work through different scenarios, they'll better understand the impact their words and actions have on others. This activity is a great way to help children develop empathy, sympathy, and compassion.
What inspired this activity?
This activity was inspired by the book Socially Strong, Emotionally Secure: 50 Activities to Promote Resilience in Young Children and the Connect4Learning Pre-K Curriculum. The book, Socially Strong, Emotionally Secure also includes activities that promote home-school partnerships, caring practices, and child resilience.
Improve social and emotional health through play!
Children are not born knowing how to successfully and appropriately navigate social situations. This is a skill they must constantly work on and develop as they grow. However, incorporating activities like those above can give children some support and guidance as they learn about empathy, collaboration, self-control, and resilience.
Want to add these activities to your weekly lesson plans? Download a PDF version of this article to quickly and easily refer to the materials, activity details, and enrichment opportunities.
