SEL Lessons and Activities for the Virtual Classroom

Social emotional learning is playing a huge role this school year. Of course, SEL is important all of the time, but right now kids and young adults are in special need of support. In order for kids and teens to succeed academically, they also need skills for understanding emotions, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and persevering through challenges. These are just a few small examples of social emotional skills that we use every day.

If you’re unsure about what SEL is, it might be helpful to read about social emotional learning and what the five core domains are!

With all of that said, it’s important for educators to have access to digital social emotional learning lessons and activities. I’ve put together this list with resources to help educators get started.

Besides some of my favorite and most popular paid digital SEL resources, I’ve listed free materials as well. As someone who taught 10 years in the classroom myself, I understand that resources are limited. Free materials are also a great way to test out an activity before making the purchase.

One more note that all materials include digital and print activities to allow you to meet the needs of your students and whatever the year brings you.

DIGITAL SEL RESOURCES

Social Emotional Learning Journal

This social emotional learning journal is a yearlong journal to target SEL skills from self-awareness to decision-making. The idea is simple: just assign one section per day to cover social emotional learning throughout the entire school year. It covers critical topics like friendships, empathy, values, self-control, and a lot more.

Social Emotional Learning Digital Workbook

This SEL digital workbook is a fun online tool to teach social emotional learning skills from A-Z. It includes 40 mini-lessons on various SEL topics, giving kids and teens practice with those skills in a digital way. The activities even use moveable pieces in Google Slides, making the lessons interactive and fun!

I get asked about this one a lot, so here’s a video!

Mindful Breathing Cards

Help kid and young adults learn skills for mindfulness with mindful breathing cards. Practicing mindfulness with deep breathing can be a simple, fun, and effective way to work on self-regulation skills. These breathing activities are also memorable and fun, which means students will be able to use them when they really need them most.

SEL Complete Curriculum

This complete social emotional learning curriculum has everything an educator needs to teach SEL for the entire year. It includes five units targeting the core domains of SEL: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationships, and decision-making. Updates were recently added to allow kids and teens access to a completely digital student workbook.

SEL Daily Prompts

One simple way to integrate social emotional learning is with SEL daily prompts. These questions give one meaningful prompt each day to help teach and practice social emotional skills. A student journal is included, allowing kids and teens a space to share their thoughts before moving on.

SEL Choice Boards

Make learning SEL a little bit more fun with social emotional learning choice boards. These boards cover important SEL topics in a fun and unique way. Each board includes 9 activities to target each SEL skill. You can choose to assign all 9 activities or let kids choose their favorite for the week. This can be a homework assignment or extra for early finishers.

Coping Strategies Menu

Help kids and young adults determine which coping skills are best for them with an interactive coping strategies menu. In order to effectively manage emotions, kids and young adults need to practice coping strategies before they are overwhelmed. This activity can help open the door to working on skills to help kids develop stronger self-regulation skills.

Mindfulness Journal

Help integrate mindfulness with a daily mindfulness journal. Another yearlong journal, this activity provides practice using senses, visualizations, gratitude, mindful puzzles, and more.

Social Emotional Learning Digital Workbook

This social emotional digital workbook is a helpful tool to teach SEL skills in a fun and interactive way. It includes step-by-step and guided practice on 25 unique social emotional learning topics from empathy to problem-solving. Digital moveable pieces are included to help make this activity more fun and engaging for younger learners.

FREE DIGITAL SEL RESOURCES

Mindfulness Morning Check-In

This mindfulness morning check-in is a free daily quick activity to encourage learners to start the day in a more mindful way. It includes 5 activities: taking deep breaths, using senses, practicing gratitude, using positive self-talk, and identifying something to look forward to.

Perspective-Taking Lessons

Use perspective-taking lessons to introduce the idea that we all think differently, and that’s perfectly okay.

SEL Journal

Grab a free week of this social emotional learning journal to help kids learn about their individual strengths and challenges. This is a helpful introduction to self-awareness while testing out this yearlong SEL Journal.

SEL Choice Board Activities

These SEL choice board activities teach about managing emotions, strengths and challenges, responsibility, and more. This free set includes a total of 36 activities targeting social emotional skills.

Positive Thinking Affirmation Activity

Start the day with positive thinking affirmations to boost confidence and morale. Students can make their own positive self-talk list using the statements to read when they are stressed, upset, or just to start the day in a positive way.

Social Problem-Solving Task Cards

This social problem-solving task cards set has been turned digital to help kids and young adults learn strategies for problem-solving in all elements of life.

Coping Strategies Challenge

Use a 30-day coping strategies challenge to help kid and teens learn a variety of coping skills they can use in their life. Let students choose activities or select them and complete together!

Read Aloud List for Social Emotional Learning

Use this SEL read aloud list to select books that teach critical SEL skills. It includes a list of various read alouds that target skills like confidence, empathy, growth mindset, goals, self-control, study habits, and more.

Coping Strategies Notebook

Use this free coping strategies notebook to help kids and teens create their own individualized list of coping skills that work for them.

I hope this list has been helpful to you. It truly is filled with lessons and activities I wish I had years ago.

I’m always in the process of adding new digital resources to support social emotional learning. If there is a lesson you’d like to see, let me know!