Teaching Social Skills To Kids
Reading, writing, and arithmetic- that’s all you have to teach, right? Once you’ve wiped the tears from your face from laughing so hard, take a moment to think about the non-academic skills that you teach in your classroom. Students learn study skills, organization, public speaking, and many other important tasks. These skills are necessary and worth our time as teachers. Perhaps most importantly, students learn in our classrooms how to engage in appropriate social interactions.
Social skills help students succeed in the classroom, but also impact their success as adults entering the “real world”. Appropriate social behaviors help your classroom run smoothly and help students learn how to interact positively with their communities. Although you teach lots of social skills implicitly while running a classroom, students often need explicit instruction in managing their emotions and behaviors.
Why teach social skills?
- It helps students manage their emotions
- You can give your students support on how to handle certain emotions
- It teaches self-regulation
- Improves behavior
- It creates better problem solvers
- Can easily be incorporated into your lessons
Not to worry- I have developed some tools that will make social skills instruction painless!
First, the Daily Behavior Chart Resource is perfect for addressing specific ways students can control their behaviors throughout the day.
Teachers can target the behaviors that students need to develop social skills successfully. It includes editable charts to track students’ behaviors, which are great for parent feedback and data collection. There are several styles of charts to help you best meet your students’ needs.
Students will also love the included contracts for earning rewards. By recording and looking back on their choices, students will learn that they can control how their day develops.
Next, the Calm Down Corner Printables are perfect for helping students learn to control their emotions and reactions.
Learning about feelings and how to express them is key to developing strong social skills. The printables in this set will help you create a calm classroom space while assisting students in working through their feelings.
This resource includes visual cue cards, charts to track students behaviors, printables to help students identify triggers, and even posters for your Calm Down Corner.
Grab these resources today and watch your students develop amazing social skills!
If you are needing some tips for teaching while social distancing, check out my post here!
