This month we are giving away five copies of Coloring Book and Reflections for Social Emotional Learning (in English or Spanish) to one lucky reader. Kids can reflect, relax, and focus with 36 mindful coloring activities.
To Enter: Leave a comment below with your best tip for integrating social and emotional learning in the school day.
For additional entries, leave a separate comment below for each of the following tasks you complete:
Each comment counts as a separate entry. Entries must be received by midnight, March 19, 2021.
The winner will be contacted via email on or around March 22, 2021, and will need to respond within three business days to claim his or her prize or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way affiliated with, administered, or endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Winners must be US residents, 18 years of age or older.
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I do Family Childcare and have been doing it for over 40 years. I check in with the parents at drop off and pickup and throughout the day as needed. I check in with each child during drop off and pick up and all during the day. We do preschool everyday and since I have ages from 0-12 all ages help each other.
I just started at a new school and can not find any resources on SEL. My best tip for SEL is to what I learned from my previous school is how to solve a problem when you are angry: “When you are angry stop, breathe, think about a solution, and solve it.”
Hello, I would love to have those for my students
Our school uses Second Step for their SEL. I print out the daily activities for teachers to use each week, such as using the brain builders or reviewing the lesson materials that I present each week.
We implement with Conscious Discipline, they have offered so much more for free during COVID that has been helpful with expectations at school and at home.
I start our day with a welcome sbg with all the kiddos and then we do our silly dance and move
After we go over our day and we partner together in the middle of the day and at the end of the
to reflect on how things are going. I allow the students to get up during a lesson if they need a break we howl like wolves at times and I like to sing and the kids finish the lines for me🤣🤣🤣. I teach Kindergarteners and I try my best during these times to to teach the kids the value of using your words to express how you feel, if you don’t like something tell your friends and teachers to resolve our problems and at the same time letting them know you have a voice, feeling, grateful and forgiving. We try to help our friends not pur them down but raise them when they need our help. I would love to win these books to help my class reach our goals for SEL through out the school year 🤞
As the school counselor, I teach social emotional lessons to all students for 30 minutes each week. Their teachers use the lesson content to continue reinforcing skills and ideas. I design schoolwide events throughout the school year to give opportunities for students to practice SEL skills. Teachers use various methods to incorporate SEL in their lessons and interactions with students.
Oh my goodness!!! I would love to win this for my students! SEL is a huge part of our daily schedule. Just having conversations with my students has been a game changer!
We practice social emotional learning by focusing daily on the power of yet through books, videos, and coloring pages
I agree, the morning greeting is very important as a way to check in and see how each individual is feeling.
We always take at least five to ten minutes a day to allow them to reflect on how they are feeling and what they have learned throughout the day. They have the option of drawing, writing, or coloring to express their feelings.
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We read picture books that deal with SEL and discuss them. We practice deep breathing. Our SEL program has puppets and I use them to teach the lessons.
We spend 5 minutes every morning as a group doing some mindfulness and breathing, to help students build self-awareness and also learning how to manage any stress or anxiety.
I agree remembering to breathe is important, also making the most of teachable moments as they happen. The teachers I see that take the time to go easy on themselves and model when oops moments happen seem quicker to laugh and do little things that help take care of them as they work with the students.
I greet every student and we do a check-in together. We do the same as a close-out for the day. We talk about what’s going on, how they’re feeling, and why so they can process and find solutions to any more problematic feelings.
I start with greeting every student by name at their bus during arrival time while making a positive remark to them. Making each student feel important, safe and part of a family.
I would love to have a copy of the resource. It would be helpful for my work with students
I like to read SEL based picture books, have discussions, and perform a simple act to encourage and benefit from the discussions. Coloring would be an excellent addition to this practice.
As an elementary counselor, everything in the day focuses on weaving in SEL through relationships and rapport that have been established. It’s always so important to aid students in their own self-awareness, validate any feelings, and consider supporting any coping strategies that may be needed to follow.
Frontload SEL at the beginning of the year and refer back throughout the year.
After completing class tasks, I always ask students to reflect on their work. How did they feel about their work? Why did they do their work the way they did? What can they do differently next time? I find that when they get used to this “evaluation”, they try to do a good job right from the get go.
I do multiple things through out the day. I use what ever we are learning as a teachable moments, like stories, lessons or in class situations. I also have classroom peer mediators to help with developing conflict resolution skills. Lastly, we do morning meetings and choose what our focus for the day is. For example, if our class has issues with respect the day before then that is our focus for the next day,
The visuals used to support social emotional focus areas are so helpful when consistent routines are also used like the morning greeting as you mentioned. I like when part of the greeting options is for the students to create one of their own. It is fun to see what they come up with.
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As the school librarian, I try to share books and stories with my students that reflect who they are and how they see themselves. I try to get to know them as individuals and create a space where they feel comfortable and welcome.
I use the books in the library to reinforce the SEL happening in the classroooms.
I infuse social/emotional learning into everything I do. I start with greeting every student by name and making them feel safe and welcome at school. Building rapport is so important to making students feel like they are in a place where they have people they can trust so that they can grow socially, emotionally, and academically.
In our public library setting we set up displays that feature the books to help us promote our SEL programming. It also helps to increase an awareness of the collection which prompts circulation of the items. During this difficult time we are seeing more requests for SEL materials. Thank you for providing the resources especially the bilingual formats!
Have students do a mental health/zones of regualtion check in when they enter the room. If they are not calm and ready to learn (in the green zone), then help them select a strategy to get there.
I work with preschoolers and we use a lot of songs and books around SEL in the classroom. Puppets are also great!
I’m a school counselor and this would be great for my students!
I model coping skills and expression of feelings, using visuals to support young learners develop their SEL communication skills.
Daily Check-in of how am I feeling today through an interactive Google slide that they turn in each day.
For a secon grader the most exciting activity is to share their experiences. As a teacher during this pandemic I give each child an opportunity to speak and share what ever the want yo share. Not only in the mornings but after lunch and before class is dismissed. This gives them a sense of belonging and they are heard! Simple but very effective!
I teach elementary so I like to incorporate pictures books when teaching SEL skills.
Focus on the adults – when adults model SEL skills, the students will follow!
Allowing students an opportunity to share and connect with their own emotions can look different daily. One approach is to have the students share one word that best describes their feelings as we connect in a Morning Opening Circle. Writing each word on the board, or recording it and then reflecting on each words meaning. Also, recognizing that many times students are feeling the same as their fellow classmate — and having conversations about those connections.
I work in a middle school Life Skills classroom. How others feel is something the students do not understand so I am always teaching the students how others feel when something good or bad happens.
I use mindfulness regularly throughout the day and support teachers in integrating sel standards into academic content.
In our class we notice when someone is missing and sing a wish you well song. When they come back we give them a butterfly kiss.
I incorporate Social Emotional learning into the preschool classroom by having the children share how they are feeling and encourage them to share why they are feeling that way.
Exit slips at the end of the day, asking what was the best thing that happened today, what you learned, what you would do differently.
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SEL is taught during Advisory everyday. But also as it comes up with individual student(s).
Always looking for “teachable moments” is my best SEL integration strategy. We talk about it when it comes up!
I integrate social and emotional learning in the school day by reading stories about feelings to my students. I also “give” them the words to say when situations come up during the day with their friends. The children are encouraged to tell their friends how they feel. We also have a welcome song that we sing, during circle time, so that every child feels welcome to be at daycare every day.
I love using the emotions wheel when children enter the classroom as a morning greeting ritual.
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I integrate SEL as it comes up. I intentionally build classroom relationships so that they feel comfortable talking about being gifted and some of the crazy things that come with it. Then we address things that come up as they come up.
I like to name emotions in myself and those I observe in students.
My first grade class has their own name marker that they place on a class mood meter – I encourage them to change it throughout the day, to help them name and identify their emotions, and observe what might be going on around them and the changes that may cause in their own emotional state.
I liked you on pintrest, at my school we do meet and greets and temperature checks at the door to gauge the mood of our students.
We teach our child social emotional and feelings with the Kimochis tool. (Kimochi means feeling in Japanese). It is a social-emotional learning program that teaches children real-life skills, such as how to identify and express their emotions, self-control, problem solving, and communication. We also go through all the feelings in the beginning of our class and ask the children how do they feel today.
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In my 11th grade English class, I use social emotional learning techniques in our good things class openers, which, at times, are a mere mental health check in: “how are you feeling today” with responses ranging from “great” to “I need a private phone call.”
I intentionally bring the parent into this SEL support by asking how they are doing each time I see them. Gratitude goes along way for myself and these parents too and I make a point to thank them for the effort to bring their child to our program
I am looking for new things to do with students! Would love to try this.
I begin the day by asking each kid how they are feeling. Although they may say “fine” in the moment, I ask them to let me know if that changes. I want them to feel free to not only acknowledge their feelings, yet to feel free to share them with me.
I share personal experiences with my Pre-Ks. It lets them know that they are not alone in how they feel or in mistakes they’ve made. It tells them that they can trust me to help them because I’ve been through it. It lets them know that grown-ups have the same kinds of feelings they do, and that being a grown-up doesn’t mean you don’t make mistakes.
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I used Second Step Curriculum to help my children learn about social/emotional skill development. It was so rewarding to watch the strategies work and the children using the skills on their own.
We do journaling on a daily basis.
When one of my preschoolers is struggling with joining other at play, I ask for helpers to help the join in by holding hands and walking him/her over-buddy system.
Problem solving is a skill that should be taught at the Pre-school level. Knowing how to solve your own problem is empowering for children. We teach, model, role play and use visuals. The children are taught one or to strategies to use when a problem arises and once mastered, they are taught another and another, etc. until they have an entire ring of choices when faced with a problem situation.
I encourage the early childhood teachers I coach to recognize emotions throughout the day and give young children the words to go along with them (ex: Your eyes are open wide and your cheek bones are way up… are you feeling surprised?” “Your arms are folded and your body looks stiff – are you getting fustrated? How can I help?”)
I have a deck of feelings cards I use when I go into our 7th grade classroom. I have one student pick a card, and that is the feeling the class reflects on. There is a document I created in their google classroom called “Reflecting on a Feeling.” It is brief and they write what the feeling feels like, a time they felt the feeling, and ways they can cope with or express the feeling. It is a great and fast way to get them in the mode of identifying feelings and writing about their experience with it. This class indicated early in the year they did not really know how to identify feelings, so I created this activity. We do it at the beginning of every class. A couple weeks ago I dove into the lesson, forgetting to do the feeling activity. A student spoke up and said “Hey! Aren’t we going to pick a feeling card?” I was so glad that was something they are looking forward to doing at the start of class. That tells me it has been impactful. I would be happy to receive just one coloring book….spread the love to 4 other people!
I think talking about differences and celebrating them is a great way to integrate social/emotional learning into discussions of diversity. Helping children to know that noticing differences is not only ok but natural opens up the possibility of discussing why treating everyone fairly is important in general and important to healthy social and emotional growth and development.
At the beginning of each class (4 year old kindergarten) one student is a greeter. The greeter shows each student 3 different choices for how he/she wants to be greeted (thumbs up, dancing, or elbow bump). Each child says, “Good morning,” then does the action chosen.
Find some time to share a personal moment with each student so they feel known and seen (I noticed you’re wearing your favorite color today. I thought about you yesterday when the Yankees won.).
SEL can be integrated throughout the school day. Good check in times are at arrival and after lunch. Fun brain break activities can help with getting students to share how they are doing.
I offer all of my schools teachers to come into their classes and lead the SEL lesson. I find that by going into lots of classes I get to model for many teachers as well as connect with more kids. Sometimes I will lead a specific Second Step lesson but most often I lead circles on feelings or identity. When testing time comes around I focus on mindfulness and breathing exercises. I believe it helps change the culture of the whole school.
I encourage staff to use SEL throughout the day. Preschoolers need to be immersed in the social/emotional aspects that they deal with on a daily basis. They need to know it is okay to have all these emotions and they need to know how to deal with them. Staff should be able to model for them the way to handle each emotion. Children learn by doing and they do what they see. I would love these books. Working with Head Start, we are always trying to stay within a budget and for most of us, it is a struggle. So I would absolutely love this set.
Greeting students as they enter school and I have a morning meeting in my office with different classes different days- we do some fun SEL activities and they can come when they want – it is so much fun and starts their day so positive. I actually had a student this morning not get to school in time but walked down to show me her shirt she wore today- Be Kind – because she knew I would like to see it. Made my morning.
I make sure that each student has a classroom job each day. This makes them feel that they are needed and wanted in the classroom.
I use a weather check in with students daily, a chance to tell someone else how their feeling.
Coloring is a great way to introduce SEL, and to take some time to care for self and understand self and others. I think I could benefit from coloring time as much as kids
I would love to try these!
Frequent check-ins on students to gage where they are each day is critical to their individual learning process. These days (remote) learning relies on many resources that can assist professionals with understanding/ identifying/ and acting in the students best interest(s). This coloring book sounds like a great tool to use in these uncertain times (also great for non-verbal students to participate as well)!
Always show you care even on the hardest of days. The children you are working with should always know how caring and supportive you are to them.
Normalize the conversation around emotions by consistently using feelings/emotions words in the classroom, and by modeling open discussions around social and emotional concepts by sharing age and school appropriate personal experiences. Build a social-emotional vocabulary consistently throughout the school year.
Using literature you can integrate both social-emotional learning while hitting ELA standards. Have students do comprehension reflections on books where characters have had a conflict, made a new friend, faced fears. When they are drawing comprehension connections to this story, they will be processing through their own social-emotional situations.
We believe at our school that SEL is something that is woven into the entire day – from recess teachers reteaching second step lessons outside at recess when necessary – to writing/reading about it within the classroom, to feelings check-in’s after each transition and having the tier II supports provided by me for students who need more. This is a life long skill that can’t be taught in just 30 minutes.. That you for providing such great resources
Take mini mental health breaks throughout the day.
A great way to integrate social and emotional learning in the school day, is to read a fun SEL book with the class and have a group discussion about what can be learned from the story. During the morning meeting talk to the class about what emotion or feeling best describes how they feel, and ask them why they chose the feeling they did. Facilitate an SEL discussion during an afternoon meeting, teach kids about kindness, complete a lesson on filling someone’s bucket by giving compliments to others and give students an opportunity to fill each others buckets. Practice giving compliments with students and explain to students how giving compliments can help brighten someone’s day and how it can make them feel better if they are having a bad day.
Relationships! Its so important to build trusting relationships with students so they can share their feelings and emotions and learn to use their coping strategies successfully!
Taking time during the day to have an open conversation whether it be first thing in the morning, end of the day, lunch , snack or recess. Share with students things you like to do, new things you’re learning, struggles recently (within reason and age appropriate) and have them share the same. Making sure to take a few moments for informal conversation with each and every student can be so helpful, especially to prepare for any difficult times that might come about.
Think about those teachable moments (first arrival, story time, transition times, new changes in the room or routine.
Peer group interactions (allow children to manage their conflict, allow time to talk out their feelings, role play)
Build a culture of kindness or a school family feeling a community feeling (allow children to learn about their own strengthen and progress, social-emotional charts, sayings, rules, routines)
provide a safe environment in the classroom where a child can feel comfortable having feelings and expression them (safe place, activities to support emotional release, listening adults and peers)
Greet each student each morning (or class period for those switching classes) with direct eye contact and with stating each student’s name. Names are important and show that we know who they are and that we care.
As a team we have thought carefully about how to integrated mindfulness, socio/emotional learning, wellbeing and the zones of regulation in to the virtual space. (We are still in virtual programming). So intentionally we added the focuses to our daily morning meetings which supported what the children were participating in when onsite. We see a focus and calming of the group when we include what they do know (breathing and repetition of “We have the power to make wise choices.”) couple with a wish to our community (“May you be safe” etc). The children feel safe with the familiar and are now leading the work too.
Learn what students enjoy outside of school. Being able to engage in conversation that is about what they like to do outside of the classroom is crucial to making them feel valuable.
Making sure each child is recognized as an individual and for the best work that they can do without comparing to other students.
creating a safe and nurturing environment, all people are valued
I am helping my great-grandson who is in full remote as a first-grader. When I help him with schoolwork, I always remain positive, reinforce all good attempts, and show that I love and care for him.
Filling every child’s bucket by spending quality time with them each day, whether it is playing with them, doing a finger play, or just giving them an intentional and meaningful praise.
I incorporate SEL by teaching preschool children coping skills and using visuals for them to chose what may help them handle big emotions….for example- get a drink, draw a picture listen to music, take 5 deep breaths, talk to an adult, take a break…..
Make it part of your class routine every day. From checking in to morning meeting questions to replacement behaviors to KWL charts to journals. There are so many ways that we can address these skills. Center an activity around a book or video that showcases SEL words.
We try and provide a safe space for students to talk to us when they are angry or frustrated.
incorporate welcoming and inclusion activities as well as an optimistic closure into each lesson.
Greeting each child individually by name- asking how they are doing each morning is a daily goal of mine. It’s so important that the students feel seen and heard. It’s also so important and wonderful that more resources are being made for incorporating these concepts in the classroom and normalizing the discussion of feelings.
daily check-ins with students to foster SEL 🙂
We do a lot of our SEL curriculum in the library with the counselor collaborating with the Library Teacher and often use puppets to act out roleplays with a conflict in it and then read a book about an SEL topic (eg. emotions/calming down strategies “Allie All Along” by Sarah Lynne Reul). Then ask students a prompt (eg. How can you calm down when you’re angry?) which they share with their partner (Turn and Talk, Think, Pair, Share).
I have a student who is on the spectrum and going through an issue with a parent in the hospital. A book like this would be extremely helpful to them and his classmates who are going through this with him.
Our class community uses anchor words to transition between activities and we say the words: I am calm, I am peaceful, I am mindful. Then we take 3 mindful breaths. This helps my second graders center their attention and be in the moment.
Temperature check by asking students to use their thumb. Doing great= thumb up, not doing well= thumb down or somewhere in between. 🙂
Teaching social-emotional skills throughout the day. Teaching replacement skills for children to use instead of inappropriate ways of expressing themselves. Use lots of positive reinforcement when you see them using the replacement skill.
I train on the impact of trauma and the use of SEL skills to not only mitigate the impact but prevent it is essential. This is an “all hands on deck” effort!
It is an important factor in helping our future generations develop crucial life skills.
We made a check-in with teacher faces. Instead of a scale of 1-10 with emojis, each one of us made a different expression on zoom and then one of us took a screen shot. So the kids can say, “I feel like Ms….. today” depending on their mood and helping them connect a facial expression/body position to an emotion.
Send smiley face emails to your students just because! It really boosts their social emotional status!
Start the day with a good book! There are so many life lessons in books that can be read in under 5 minutes.
Take a breath, ask kids how they are doing, and share your own feelings (when appropriate) about sadness, upset feelings, etc.
Children, need to be acknowledge one by one, ask how they’re day is coming along, show and tell feelings, also, for those non english children speaking in their own language making them feel welcome and present in class.
Got you on that twitter! I would love these for my students!
Social-Emotional conversations & materials are so important right now. Many children are suffering in silence. Unfortunately they don’t have the language to express how they are feeling. Adding this to a lesson plan, and in daily activities can help. Children would be able to talk about what they are feeling.
I engage students in discussion of what a powerful compliment is and provide scaffolded opportunities to write compliments to their peers.
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I would love to win! Liked on Facebook!
SEL can be integrated with an exit ticket (reflect about the lesson)
Model the behaviors you expect to see – that is a great start!
Next – take the time to listen to the students. Show that you delight in them (some children don’t have any adults that truly delight in them)
Then – being responsive to the students in the moment. I realize not everybody is able to do so. .. but when we are able – be responsive to a child’s needs is SEL.
For students: We start the morning with morning meetings (spend about 15 min) connecting and sharing. For staff/adults in the building: we have “wellness” checks (they fill out a slip of paper telling what they’ve done this week to take care of their health) and we draw two from each hall on Friday for a small community donated prize (normally school classroom supplies) and then draw two at the end of the month (so the more you do the more chances your in there at the end of the month) and award a larger community donated prize (nail salon/barber , chair massage, lunch coverage for off campus…)
We also incorporate “caught caring” act recognition for both staff and students who are going beyond normal assigned duties. We write a small PERSONALIZED note stating what we saw them doing and why it matters.
I have a 5 year old. I just a blank face and I ask him to draw how he feels and then we talk about it. Thank you for the chance to win – they look lovely!
Greet each child as they enter school building! Take smile breaks! Let each child use their voice and listen to their ideas!
For me, books are the best way to incorporate SEL into the classroom and to get a dialogue going. I have a list of books to read aloud for just about everything and I’m constantly adding to it.
My best tip for integrating social-emotional learning in my classroom is to thoughtfully plan to include it throughout our day! We do class-wide activities during morning meeting each morning. We also use the Mind-Up Curriculum from Free Spirit during one of our language arts stations.
Followed on twitter! I use breathing techniques to help with emotional regulation, with my elementary school students, to help with social skills and conflict.
A great way to incorporate social emotional learning in the classroom is to do morning check-ins with the students. You can use a Feelings Thermometer to have the students rate how they are feeling.
Liked on Facebook – We often review with preschoolers to notice how our face and bodies show our feelings and emotions. Are they relaxed and smiling? Are they tense and looing frightened? Are they sitting with arms crossed in front of their bodies and scowling?
Doing “temperature” checks each day to determine how everyone is feeling and identifying who may be having an issue that can be addressed before the day starts.
Coloring books look great. Very colorful!! Children would have fun exploring and coloring
Hello,
I would say these tips have helped our high school sudents this year.
Provide a Daily Check-in. …
Discuss Empathy. …
Create SMART Goals. …
Teach Coping Skills to Manage Stress. …
Highlight Skills Throughout the Day. …
Teach Active Listening Skills. …
Teach Group Ground Rules. …
Practice Respectfully Disagreeing.
Identifying emotions and recognizing coping skills when they occur in read alouds.
These would be great for my Special Education SLL classroom. Students need fun reminders on appropriate discourse and problem solving.
We start the day with a moment of silent reflection.
Stop to check in and give students time to reflect on their emotions throughout the day. Take time to explore why they are feeling the emotion or how they can best acknowledge/address the emotion.
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I ask students to tell the class something they are proud of from the week.
Hello, I have a set of stuffed animals with “feelings” written on their backs (sad, mad, calm, angry) and when my students are having a difficult day they show me which one they are feeling and we talk about how I can help them have a better day! It really helps them to work through their feelings! I also have books that go along with them!
Acknowledge ALL feelings! Just labeling someone’s feelings reduces the reaction response of the amygdala and it gets children comfortable with acknowledging and naming their own and other’s feelings…empathy building!
Hi! Developing a relationship is so important because when you have that you are able to know how your students feel when they walk through your door. Practicing mindfulness and using brain breaks are also very important!
I plan to use these during classroom SEL Guidance lessons
I have liked your page on facebook for many years and love sharing your resources with others. I would love to share these books with my students!
During circle time is a perfect opportunity to check in with each student.
I’d also use them with preservice teachers who are always looking for ways to incorporate SEL.
I’d use them regularly: beginning, middle, end of day and all the times in between.
I follow you on Twitter and love sharing your resources!
You can incorporate SEL into morning meetings!
These look awesome! Can’t wait to use them!
morning meditation
I always start the day with a morning check in and end the day with an optimistic closure.
Just saying “hello” to your class each period is a start! One 8th grader today said, “do you know you’re the only teacher that says hi to us?” I’m not entirely believing him, but it made me wonder if that was true a little bit.
I use bits and pieces during the classroom library visits. Whether it is just a mindful moment of peace or a read aloud book to share with the group.
Just go slowwwwwer….it’s almost never an emergency
check in how are we feeling as we come to class and how are feeling at the end of the day
I like the idea of checking at the end of the day. I have done the arrival yet the end of the day is also so important
I use circle time and any other time that comes up where I can integrate social and emotional learning throughout the day either one an one or in a group.
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These look great. I would use them often!!
Morning meetings to encourage and support community and relationships with each other is important any time but especially now. This can also be calendar time with younger students, and could also be informal or more formalized or planned in terms of what is discussed, especially when working with older students.
I see during the past years building that supportive community is so important. When child feels welcomed and needed in school or classroom I see them reaching to do their best.