28 Social Emotional Learning Activities for K-12

By the Transforming Education editorial team. Reviewed for accuracy against the sources listed below.

The 28 social emotional learning activities below are short, repeatable and explicit about the skill being practiced. They are organized by grade band and tagged with the CASEL competency each one builds, and every activity lists its time, materials, steps and a debrief question, because the debrief is where the learning gets named.

CASEL's framework describes effective classroom SEL as sequenced, active, focused and explicit: pick a competency, run a brief activity, name the skill, and come back to it. A meta-analysis of 213 school-based SEL programs involving 270,034 students found this kind of instruction improved skills, behavior and academic performance, with an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement.

How to use these activities

• Focus on one competency for two or three weeks, then rotate.
• Run activities at a predictable time: the first five minutes, after lunch, or as a closing routine.
• Always allow a pass. CASEL's 3 Signature Practices playbook recommends a shared agreement that it is always okay to say "pass."
• End with the debrief question, even if you only take two answers.

SEL activities for elementary students (K-5)

1. Feelings Weather Report

Competency: Self-awareness. Time: 5 minutes. Materials: none, or a weather chart.

1. Ask students to describe how they feel right now as weather: sunny, cloudy, stormy, foggy, windy.
2. Go around the circle or have students hold up a drawn weather card.
3. Model your own report first, including a less-than-sunny one.

Debrief: "Can weather change during the day? Can feelings?"

2. Belly Breathing Buddies

Competency: Self-management. Time: 5 minutes. Materials: a small stuffed toy or beanbag per student (K-2), or just hands.

1. Students lie down or sit back and place the toy (or a hand) on their belly.
2. Breathe in slowly through the nose so the toy rises, out through the mouth so it falls. Count four in, four out.
3. Repeat five times.

Debrief: "When during the day could you use belly breathing without anyone noticing?"

3. Build the Calm-Down Corner

Competency: Self-management. Time: 20 minutes. Materials: chart paper, markers, a few calming objects.

1. Explain that the class will design a corner anyone can use when feelings get too big.
2. In small groups, students list three things that help them calm down and draw one.
3. Vote on the five items to include and agree on two rules for using the corner (for example, one person at a time, five-minute timer).

Debrief: "Why does it help to decide how to calm down before you need to?"

4. Compliment Circle

Competency: Relationship skills. Time: 10 minutes. Materials: none.

1. Sit in a circle. Teach the sentence frame: "Something I appreciate about you is ___ because ___."
2. Each student compliments the person to their right about something they did, not how they look.
3. The receiver says "thank you" and nothing else.

Debrief: "What was harder, giving the compliment or receiving it?"

5. Emotion Charades

Competency: Social awareness. Time: 15 minutes. Materials: cards with emotion words.

1. A student draws a card and acts out the emotion with face and body only, no words.
2. Classmates guess, then name one clue that helped them.
3. Add a second round where the actor shows the emotion at low, medium and high intensity.

Debrief: "How can you tell when a friend is upset even if they do not say so?"

6. Kindness Detectives

Competency: Social awareness. Time: 10 minutes to launch, then one week. Materials: a kindness log on the wall.

1. This week, students watch for acts of kindness by classmates.
2. When they spot one, they write it on the log (who, what) without being asked to.
3. Read the log aloud at the end of the week.

Debrief: "Did looking for kindness change how you acted?"

7. Stop, Think, Choose

Competency: Responsible decision-making. Time: 20 minutes. Materials: three scenario cards (for example, someone cuts in line; a friend wants to copy your work; you find a lost item).

1. Teach the three steps: Stop (pause and breathe), Think (what are two choices and what happens after each?), Choose (pick the one that is safe and fair).
2. Read a scenario. In pairs, students walk through the three steps aloud.
3. Pairs share their chosen option and one consequence they considered.

Debrief: "What makes stopping the hardest step?"

8. Partner Listening Swap

Competency: Relationship skills. Time: 10 minutes. Materials: a timer.

1. Pair students. Partner A talks for one minute about a given prompt (best part of the weekend, a favorite place). Partner B only listens, no questions or comments.
2. Partner B repeats back two things they heard. Swap roles.
3. Repeat with a slightly deeper prompt (something that was hard this week).

Debrief: "How did it feel to be listened to without interruption?"

9. Goal Ladder

Competency: Self-management. Time: 15 minutes. Materials: a ladder template with four rungs.

1. Students write one small goal for the week at the top rung (read 10 minutes a night, raise my hand twice a day).
2. They fill the lower rungs with the steps that get them there, smallest step at the bottom.
3. Post the ladders. Check progress on Friday with a sticker or checkmark per rung.

Debrief: "Which rung is the one you are most likely to skip, and what will you do about it?"

10. Strengths Spotlight

Competency: Self-awareness. Time: 15 minutes. Materials: a list of 20 strength words at the students' reading level.

1. Students circle three strengths they believe they have and underline one they want to grow.
2. Each writes or draws a moment when they used one of their strengths.
3. Volunteers share. The teacher adds one strength they have noticed in each sharer.

Debrief: "How could you use one of your strengths to help a classmate this week?"

SEL activities for middle school (6-8)

11. Energy and Mood Grid

Competency: Self-awareness. Time: 5 minutes. Materials: a two-axis grid (low to high energy, unpleasant to pleasant) on the board.

1. Students place a sticky note or dot where they are right now, no names required.
2. Ask the class what they notice about the pattern.
3. Suggest one strategy for each quadrant (high energy and unpleasant: slow breathing; low energy and unpleasant: movement).

Debrief: "Where do you do your best learning on this grid, and how do you get there?"

12. Stress Signals Map

Competency: Self-awareness. Time: 15 minutes. Materials: a body outline handout.

1. Students mark where they feel stress in their body (tight shoulders, stomach, jaw, racing thoughts).
2. Next to each mark, they write what usually triggers it.
3. Pairs compare maps and notice differences.

Debrief: "Which signal shows up first? That is your early warning."

13. Reframe Relay

Competency: Self-management. Time: 15 minutes. Materials: a list of unhelpful thoughts ("I always fail tests," "Nobody wants me in their group").

1. Teams of four receive one unhelpful thought.
2. Each teammate adds one line that makes the thought more accurate and useful, passing the paper along ("I failed one test. I have passed others. I can ask what I missed.").
3. Teams read their final reframe aloud.

Debrief: "What is the difference between a positive thought and an accurate one?"

14. Perspective Swap

Competency: Social awareness. Time: 20 minutes. Materials: a short conflict scenario written from one side.

1. Read the scenario. Students write how the narrator feels and what they want.
2. Reveal the other person's version. Students write that person's feelings and wants.
3. Discuss what each person did not know about the other.

Debrief: "What question could either person have asked to avoid the conflict?"

15. Identity Map

Competency: Self-awareness and social awareness. Time: 20 minutes. Materials: blank paper.

1. Students write their name in the center and branch out the groups, roles and interests that make up who they are (sibling, gamer, goalie, bilingual).
2. They star the parts that feel most important and circle the parts others do not usually see.
3. Share only what each student chooses to share.

Debrief: "What do you wish people at school understood about you?"

16. I-Statement Rehearsal

Competency: Relationship skills. Time: 20 minutes. Materials: sentence frame on the board: "I feel ___ when ___ because ___. I need ___."

1. Model one I-statement about a low-stakes classroom issue.
2. Students write one for a real or realistic situation.
3. Pairs rehearse delivering it calmly, then swap and practice responding without defending.

Debrief: "What changed when the sentence started with 'I' instead of 'you'?"

17. Group Norms Contract

Competency: Relationship skills. Time: 20 minutes. Materials: chart paper.

1. Before a group project, teams list what a good group member does and does not do.
2. They agree on four norms and one plan for what happens when a norm is broken.
3. All members sign; revisit at the midpoint.

Debrief: "Which norm will be hardest for this group to keep, and why?"

18. Decision Matrix

Competency: Responsible decision-making. Time: 20 minutes. Materials: a grid with options down the side and "best case, worst case, who else is affected" across the top.

1. Present a realistic dilemma (a friend is being left out of a group chat; you saw someone cheat).
2. Students fill the matrix for at least two options.
3. They pick one and write a one-sentence justification.

Debrief: "Which column changed your mind?"

19. Gratitude Chain

Competency: Social awareness. Time: 10 minutes. Materials: paper strips, tape.

1. Each student writes one specific thing a person at school did for them this week.
2. Strips are linked into a paper chain and hung in the room.
3. Add to the chain weekly.

Debrief: "Did anyone write about something the other person probably did not notice they did?"

SEL activities for high school (9-12)

20. Values Sort

Competency: Self-awareness. Time: 15 minutes. Materials: a list of 20 values (honesty, independence, loyalty, achievement, creativity).

1. Students pick their top five, then narrow to three.
2. For each of the three, they write one recent decision that reflected it and one that did not.
3. Pairs share one, or pass.

Debrief: "When your actions and values disagree, which one usually wins?"

21. Stress Audit and Plan

Competency: Self-management. Time: 20 minutes. Materials: a two-column handout (in my control, not in my control).

1. Students list everything stressing them this month, then sort each item into a column.
2. For "in my control" items, they write one concrete next step with a day attached.
3. For "not in my control" items, they write one coping strategy.

Debrief: "Which list was longer, and what does that tell you?"

22. Socratic Seminar on a Dilemma

Competency: Responsible decision-making. Time: 25 minutes. Materials: a one-page ethical dilemma, discussion norms.

1. Students read and annotate the dilemma.
2. Inner circle discusses with an open question ("What does the person owe each party?") while the outer circle tracks evidence and listening behaviors.
3. Swap circles halfway.

Debrief: "Did anyone change their position? What moved you?"

23. Empathy Interview

Competency: Social awareness. Time: 25 minutes in class, plus one interview outside class. Materials: an interview guide with five open questions.

1. Students interview someone whose school or life experience differs from theirs (a different grade, role, or background) using the guide.
2. In class, they write a one-paragraph summary from the interviewee's point of view.
3. Small groups share one thing that surprised them.

Debrief: "What assumption did you bring that turned out to be wrong?"

24. Specific, Kind, Useful Feedback

Competency: Relationship skills. Time: 20 minutes. Materials: a draft of student work, a feedback form with three boxes: specific, kind, useful.

1. Model feedback that fails each test, then feedback that passes all three.
2. Pairs exchange drafts and write feedback in the three boxes.
3. Receivers restate the feedback in their own words before responding.

Debrief: "Which of the three was hardest to write, and which was hardest to hear?"

25. Letter to Your Future Self

Competency: Self-management. Time: 20 minutes. Materials: paper, envelopes.

1. Students write to themselves at the end of the semester: what they hope will be true, what they will have done, what they want to remember about now.
2. Seal and date the envelopes. The teacher stores them.
3. Return them on the date.

Debrief: "What is one thing you can do this week so the letter comes true?"

26. Assumptions Audit

Competency: Social awareness. Time: 20 minutes. Materials: three brief, neutral descriptions of fictional people.

1. Students write their first impression of each person and what they think the person is good at.
2. Reveal added details that complicate each impression.
3. Discuss where the first impressions came from.

Debrief: "What is one assumption you could check instead of act on this week?"

27. Help-Seeking Map

Competency: Relationship skills. Time: 15 minutes. Materials: a handout with concentric circles.

1. In the inner circle, students write the people they would go to with a small problem; in the next, a serious problem; in the outer, where they would send a friend in crisis.
2. Make sure every map includes at least one adult at school and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which can be reached 24 hours a day by call, text or chat.
3. Students keep the map.

Debrief: "What stops people your age from using their inner circle?"

28. Weekly Reflection Loop

Competency: Self-management. Time: 5 minutes every Friday. Materials: an index card or digital form.

1. Students answer three prompts: What worked this week? What got in the way? What is one change for next week?
2. Collect the cards. Read them before Monday.
3. On Monday, name one pattern you noticed, without identifying anyone.

Debrief: "What did you write last week that you actually did?"

Quick reference: activities by competency

Tips for running SEL activities well

• Go first. Students share at the depth you model.
• Protect the pass. A pass that gets questioned is not a pass.
• Name the skill. End with one sentence: "That was practice in taking someone else's perspective."

Try this: Pair this list with a daily opener from our SEL check-in questions, use the SEL lessons for fuller 15- to 25-minute sequences, and go deeper with the social awareness toolkit and self-management toolkit.