Coping strategies are important skills for kids and young adults to learn. These are the activities and strategies we use to help us calm down when we’re emotionally overwhelmed. We can probably all think of a few kids and young adults who need extra practice managing their emotions effectively! That’s where coping strategies come into […]
101 Positive Affirmations for Kids
Positive thinking is a powerful tool that can improve your health, help you manage stress, overcome challenges, and make better choices. Everyone can benefit from improving their positive thinking and self-talk skills! The idea is that by changing your thinking, you can better manage your emotions and your actions. Positive thinking skills often start with […]
10 Ways to Build Relationships with Kids
Relationship building is the single most important way you can impact a child’s life. So often, kids actually can’t learn from someone they can’t connect with. I’m also convinced that building a strong relationship with a kid or young adult diminishes a huge number of behavior challenges. Many times I worked with students who were […]
100+ Free Social Emotional Learning Resources
Social and emotional learning, often known as SEL, is the process that helps kids learn critical skills, attitudes, and mindsets for social and emotional success. These skills cover five major areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationships, and responsible decision-making. It’s actually difficult to describe in just one sentence because SEL covers everything from building confidence […]
Teaching Social Emotional Skills With a Journal
Social and emotional skills are foundational for kids to be successful in and out of the classroom. They involve everything: having a firm grasp of our values, recognizing our strengths and challenges, understanding social situations, developing strong relationships with others, managing our emotions, making responsible decisions, and so much more. Sometimes, as educator we might […]
13 Ways to Avoid Power Struggles
As an educator or parent, getting into a power struggle can be an awful thing. We waste so much of our energy trying to get we we want that we sometimes forget what our goal was in the first place. Power struggles can be especially difficult with kids with ADHD, autism, oppositional-defiant disorder, and other […]
How to Make a Coping Strategies Wheel
One of my favorite ways to sneak social emotional learning into the classroom is by doing crafts. These activities can be hands-on, engaging, fun, and creative. Meanwhile, kids are still learning the critical skills they need. In particular, a coping strategies wheel is a great tool to help teach coping strategies to help manage stress. […]
25 Ways to Integrate Social Emotional Learning
Kids and young adults need social-emotional skills to be successful at school, home, and for the rest of their lives. These are the skills that help kids build confidence, understand their own strengths and weaknesses, collaborate with others, navigate social situations, develop strong relationships, and make better decisions. Without a doubt, these are critical skills […]
Teaching Kids Self-Love in the Classroom
Today’s kids and young adults have too much negative energy all around them. Whether it is negative comments on social media, means texts going back and forth, or just overhearing the daily news, kids are drowning in negativity. With all of that considered, it can’t be said enough how much kids NEED positivity in their […]
Teaching Social Problem-Solving with a Free Activity
Kids and young adults need to be able to problem-solve on their own. Every day, kids are faced with a huge number of social situations and challenges. Whether they are just having a conversation with a peer, working with a group on a project, or dealing with an ethical dilemma, kids must use their social […]
