Social Emotional Learning Activities

social emotional learning activities
physical education

activity 1: emotional chains
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I started by tying each team of students up in handcuffs. I made these handcuffs out of elastic and string. I then gave instructions to the students on how to tangle themselves up. Once tangled, I told the students they were in an Escape Room. Then I told the students a story about George The Giant. I explained to the students that they were captured, placed in chains, and locked up by George the Giant. I also mentioned that George use to be a Gentle Giant. He was very sweet and kind but then one day something happened. George let his emotions get built up and he just erupted! He became so angry and out of control! George became the Grizzly Giant. The emotions bothering George became his chains. He kidnapped all the students in Sayville, locked them up in these chains and wouldn’t let them return home. I then instructed each group to work as a team to help untangle the emotional chains that George had placed them in.
The objective of this game was to teach my students how our emotions can feel like chains and the only way we can break free of these chains is by sorting out our feelings and learning coping skills to help us handle our emotions. When they broke out of the chains, they were given a clue to the next code and instructions to the next activity.

activity 2: domino effect
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The students were then instructed to create a “domino effect” showing George how his display of emotions have affected all of us. The students had to perform different locomotor skills as they raced around the gym collecting domino pieces. They had to follow the clues and eventually create a “domino effect” starting at their team base and ending at the finish cone, where a key to the next lock was hidden. This activity teaches the students that we have the exceptional power to feel and that our emotions run the gamut from sad to happy and everything that lies in between. These emotions are waves of energy, but they don’t just affect us; they impact others around us, and still others that those initial people encounter. What you feel and give off radiates all around you. It touches those closest to you and then makes its way to those beyond that initial circle. In other words, we have the capacity to not only feel but to impact others with our display of emotions. These “dominos” represent those people we can affect with our displays of emotion.

activity 3: labeling emotions
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The next clue gave each team a handout of pictures of children displaying different emotions. The teams will try to label these emotions. Posters representing each of the 6 core emotions (Anger, Fear, Surprise, Happy, Disgust, Sad) were hung around the gym. Underneath each of these 6 core emotions posters, I created a color chart of the different shades of those emotions. The shades of emotions chart help narrow down each of the core emotions. As the colors get darker, the emotions become more specific. For example, the core emotion of anger was the color red. The shades of emotions chart underneath anger started pink with the word hurt and as each emotion on the chart became more specific, the color intensity increased. The end emotion was “Hostile” and the color was deep red.
The students will try to correctly identify the emotion in the picture. If the students label the emotions correctly, they will find the code to open the next lockbox. The objective of this activity is to teach the students that to deal effectively with emotions we must first name them. Labeling emotions helps us develop control over them. Being able to accurately identify them is essential to creating a plan to resolve those feelings. We can’t create a plan or decide on coping strategies if we haven’t labeled our feelings accurately.

activity 4: learning to focus
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In the next activity, the students were told that George “lost his noodles”. The students had to help George “find his noodles” and help George “gather his thoughts”. I placed swimming pool noodles on the opposite side of the gym. The students were given different teamwork tasks to help move the noodles back to the opposite side of the gym. Once all the noodles were back, the students were given a puzzle to solve. The puzzle had instructions written on it. The instructions said for the students to help teach George the difference between things he can control and things he can’t control. On half of the noodles I wrote examples of things we can control such as how many times we smile today, our effort, time spent worrying, how we act on our feelings, etc. On the other half of the noodles, I wrote examples of things we can’t control such as the weather, what others say, what others feel, your past, your brother/sister, etc. The students had to sort the noodles into two piles: things we can control and things we can’t control. The code was written on the noodles with the things we can control.

activity 5: coping skills
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Next, the students went on a scavenger hunt to help George find some effective coping skills. The students raced around the gym looking for pictures I made of different ways we can cope with our emotions. Some of these ways included exercise, listening to music, talking to a friend or adult, doing mindful breathing techniques, naming three things you are grateful for, etc. When the students found all the coping strategies, it led them to their final activity.

activity 6: positive self-talk
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For the final task, I drew a giant brain on the poster board and cut out holes a little smaller than the size of ping pong balls. On some balls, I wrote examples of positive self-talk and on some balls I wrote examples of negative self-talk. The students had to first sort through the balls and separate them into a pile of positive self-talk and a pile of negative self-talk. The students had to “fill the brain” with positive self-talk. The team would work together to try to tip the board to get the ball to land into a hole in the brain. Once successful, they would move on to a new ball. When the brain was “full of positive self-talk” they would find the clue to the final box. Inside the final box, was a thank you letter from George for restoring him to his gentle ways and a thank you gift for the class. The thank-you gift was a class “Coping Toolkit” the students could use to prevent them from ever turning into George the Grizzly Giant. Inside the toolkit was crayons, a drawing pad, fidgets, stress balls, aromatherapy bags, bubbles, breathing beads, mindful snow globes, putty, and puzzles.