7 Engaging Social-Emotional Learning Activities Which You Can Use In Your SEN Classroom

15th July 2024

There’s an unavoidable connection between how special needs students are feeling emotionally and how well they are performing in their academics. If a student feels discontent or negative emotions might have a hard time in the classroom understanding any concept or retaining taught lessons for a longer period of time.

If you want to support special needs students to thrive in their academics, then should consider to incorporate SEL in your lesson plans and classroom. According to prnewswire.com, 93% of teachers also agree that social-emotional learning is important for academic learning.
 

Source: prnewswire.com

Those teachers who have pursued courses like the Online International Teaching Diploma, know the value of incorporating social-emotional learning within the special need’s classroom.

However, in this blog post as well, we are going to explore 7 engaging social emotional learning activities with which you can support your special needs students to improve their emotional and learning experiences simultaneously.

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Engaging Social Emotional Learning Activities To Incorporate In Your Classroom

Here are some of the 7 most engaging social-emotional learning activities that you can incorporate in your classroom to support your special needs students to thrive in their academics and personal lives:

Mindfulness Activities

To be in touch with emotions, you must encourage your special needs students to start their day with simple mindfulness exercises.

For example- To make students grounded and grateful for life you can suggest students practice deep breathing and write down 4 to 5 things for which they are grateful in their life. You can also encourage students to practice this mindfulness exercise whenever they feel stressed or disconnected.

Sharing Emotions

Encourage your students to share their feelings in the classroom. This will help students to regulate their feelings and deal with them better. You can use creative ways to encourage students to share their emotions. Example- You can encourage students to choose any emoji with which they are resembling with.

Learn helpful tips for teaching social skills to your students, here:
 

Quote of The Day

You can pick any quote from stories, articles, or blogs and make it the “quote of the day” from which students can practice social-emotional learning skills. The quote doesn’t need to be from a famous celebrity or personality, you can pick it from a general storybook or website too.

For example- “How you treat others is a reflection of who you are.” This quote is perfect to teach about social & emotional learning responsibility to your students.

Circle Sharing

Giving your special needs students the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings is an effective method to practice SEL skills in a small or large group of student’s circle.

In circle sharing activity, each student has the opportunity to speak. It may be beneficial to have a microphone or talisman for the student speaking to hold, with other kids aware that they can speak when their turn comes.

Bingo SEL Cards

Bingo is one of the engaging and fun games which everyone loves to play. You can add some twists by creating Bingo SEL cards with personal traits or interests rather than with numbers.

For example- You can have statements like- “I know how to play piano” or “I know more than one language”, this will help students to know each other.

Communicate With Strangers

Students tend to form a group of friend’s circle and not talk with other than their friends. With the help of SEL (Social-Emotional Learning), you can encourage your students to talk to each other with which they do not communicate generally.

You can organize a pair-up game, where each student can ask about their interest, and likes to know each other better to form a relationship.

End Each Day On a Good Note

You can encourage your students to share one thing that they appreciate, learn something, and for something that they should apologize for. This will help them to keep their emotions in check and help them to become a better person in the future.

Social Emotional Learning Activities Is The Key To Your SEN Student's Growth

To help your special needs students improve their academic performance and manage their emotions better, social-emotional learning (SEL) is the best way to achieve it. In the above-mentioned blog, we have shared various ways to incorporate SEL in your lesson plans and classroom with 7 engaging social emotional learning activities.

If you want to learn more effective and latest teaching methods to support your special needs students. Then, consider pursuing courses like Online International Teaching Diploma, where you will get mentorship from top expert trainers.

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Written By : Abhishek