Spring is the season of growth. This makes it an ideal time to integrate social-emotional learning activities for kids and young adults. From reading SEL-focused read alouds outside under the sun to starting a garden, there are ultimately countless ways to add SEL into your classroom this spring season.
Below you’ll find several SEL activities that are perfect for the spring season. Choose the ones that work best for you and your learners!
Read Outside
Grab a SEL-focused read aloud and spend some time reading under a tree. While it’s true that you can read the same books inside, changing up the learning atmosphere to a natural outdoor environment can give an extra spark to your lessons. Some spring-themed read alouds to try include:
- Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring by Kenard Pak
- Don’t Touch That Flower by Alice Hemming
- Busy Spring: Nature Wakes Up by Sean Taylor
Spring Reflection
As students learn about blooming flowers and growing young animals, spring is the perfect time for a personal reflection. Encourage students to write (or draw) about one way they have grown and improved since the beginning of the school year. This supports the mindset that we are all growing and changing every day. It might seem small day-by-day, but when we look back, we have actually grown in big ways.
Outdoor SEL Journaling
SEL journaling is integrating writing and social-emotional topics at the same time. Grab clipboards, journals, and writing utensils and head outside for some SEL-focused journal time. Learn more about different SEL journals you can use with your learners.
Watch Animal Live Cams
Animal live cams are an incredibly powerful tool. They serve as a way for students to observe and learn about different wildlife in real time. This can bring on important conversations about growth, perspective-taking, and perseverance.
Choose a live cam to follow with your learners (a few suggestions below). You can keep checking back to the live cam on a regular basis and have students reflect in a journal. What do you notice has changed since last check in? How are the animals working together? What might the animal be saying if it could talk? How are the animals showing perseverance? These are just a few sample questions you might discuss and journal about.
Some animal live cams to check out include:
Spring Affirmation Coloring
Use positive affirmation coloring worksheets to fuse mindful coloring and positive self-talk together. Students color their affirmation pages as they learn new phrases to boost confidence and feel calm.
Self-Talk Sidewalk Chalk Messages
Strengthen positive self-talk and encourage a culture of kindness by writing sidewalk chalk messages. Use chalk to have students write out positive affirmations and kind words in your local playground area or on the sidewalk by your school. Use this list of positive affirmations for ideas on getting started.
Spring Mindful Coloring
Integrate spring and mindful coloring by having students draw their own calm spring scene. Ideas to draw, doodle, paint, or color might be a favorite park to visit in the spring or a springtime animal scene. If you need a boost getting started, try these free mindful coloring pages to introduce the concept and practice together.
Mindful Breathing
Use mindful breathing to teach coping skills, build self-awareness, and strengthen self-regulation. Ultimately, you can use any mindful breathing techniques and connect with springtime just by being outside! Here are a few spring-themed breathing exercises to try:
Blow the Bubbles: Provide each student with their own set of bubbles (you can find these online or at any dollar store). Have students slowly breathe in and then breathe out to blow the bubbles.
Pinwheel Breathing: Have students imagine there is a pinwheel in front of them (or you can purchase from a craft store or online). Slowly breathe in. Then, breathe out to move the pinwheel.
Start a Garden
Consider starting an outdoor garden to highlight a variety of SEL topics. Students can start by planning and organizing what they want the outdoor garden space to look like. Then, they can work together to build it. Once the garden is up and running, students can also document the change they see over time, which targets skills like growth mindset and perseverance.
It is also calming to take care of plants and watch them grow! If you don’t have an outdoor space, you can have students grow their own individual plant indoors in a pot. Once the plant is sprouted, students can even take these home as a way to connect families.
Practice Coping Skills Outside
When the weather is nice, there is no better place to practice new coping skills than outside! Use this free coping strategies visual to come up with ideas for coping skills to practice with your learners.
Outdoor SEL Chats
Group discussions are an evidence-based strategy to build skills. Spend time outside in a circle discussion some simple and meaningful SEL-focused questions.
One of the best strategies is to have SEL questions on task cards ready to go. That way you can put them on a ring and keep them with you on your outdoor walk. A few questions to start with include:
- If you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 things would you want to have with you? (self-awareness)
- What are some ways you can be a leader? (decision-making)
- What does it mean to show respect to others? (social awareness)
- Imagine a friend wants to work with you, but you want to work alone. What could you do? (relationships)
- What does it mean to persevere through challenges? (self-management)
Read Spring Partner Poems
Encourage positive habits for working well with others using spring partner poems. For this activity, students together read one poem, each alternating between lines.
Scavenger Hunt
Build attention skills with an outdoor scavenger hunt. This activity also encourages self-awareness and mindfulness. The idea is simple: Create a list of items for students to find outside. Learners can take a picture or draw the item they find before moving on.
Use mindful scavenger hunts to give this a try!
Spring SEL Crafts
Crafts are a meaningful way to teach SEL skills. One of my favorite springtime SEL crafts is making a positive affirmation flower. On each petal, students should identify a positive affirmation they can say to themselves. Fold the petals in for a craft that learners can keep with them wherever they go!
Take a Nature Walk
Connecting with nature is a healthy activity anytime! This easy no-prep activity is just what it says it is – a simple nature walk where students can appreciate the natural world around them. During the walk, you can talk about what students notice (attention) and how they feel about different things around them (emotions). After your walk, you can integrate writing skills by having students journal about their experience.
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