Three Key Social-Emotional Learning Skills to Teach Kindergarteners

Social emotional learning, often referred to as SEL, includes all the non-academic skills young students need to develop and master in order to succeed at school, at home, in their friend groups, and in their communities. For Kindergarteners, much of the school year is focused on introducing, refining, and improving their social emotional skills. 

Great Kindergarten teachers know how to model appropriate social-emotional skills – like making smart decisions, being self-aware, coping with disappointment or hard feelings, and communicating with others – in stand-alone lessons and incorporated into daily learning and classroom experiences. 

Today we’re going to dive into why SEL matters so much for our youngest learners and then look at how you can teach and incorporate 3 key social-emotional skills in your classroom.

Why does SEL matter for Kindergarteners?

What students learn in Kindergarten sets the foundation for all of their future learning. A strong start, especially when it comes to social-emotional skills, sets a student up for long-term success for years to come. 

As you probably know quite well, Kindergarteners also have a lot of big feelings. As children’s brains grow and develop, they have access to a wide range of emotions – many of which are completely foreign or new to them. Directly teaching SEL gives young learners important words they need to understand and explain their own feelings. When they can identify their emotions, children are more likely to be able to manage them. 

Social-emotional learning skills directly impact a student’s academic performance, too. When a child struggles to participate in a classroom setting, they will struggle to take in and retain important academic information. A student who is consumed by their feelings and unable to manage them is not prepared to do any meaningful learning.

We prioritize SEL in Kindergarten because it gives students a strong foundation for the academic performance and behavior they need to succeed in school and in their future. Without a deep understanding of how to communicate, listen, manage conflict, and work with others – our Kindergarten students will struggle. 

SEL Skill #1: Relationship Skills

One of the big changes many children face for the first time happens in Kindergarten: having to get along with others. 

For students who haven’t been in a formal school setting, they’ve likely only had to relate to their siblings or a few friends. But now, students find themselves in a classroom full of their peers. It can be a lot to handle!

Some of the key relationship skills we want to teach our Kindergarteners include:

• Building friendships
• Resolving conflict
• Respecting others 
• Working together
• Empathy

Relationship skills like these give our students the tools they need to be good friends, students, and members of society. You’ll also find that the more you address relationship skills in your classroom, the fewer behavioral problems you will see. Most conflict at this age results from student-to-student conflict and issues. 

Books are one of the best ways to start building your students’ relationship skills. Choose stories that have conflict between friends and talk about it. Have students identify what each friend is feeling. Ask them to brainstorm ways the characters could work out their issues. Once the story is resolved, have students make connections with something they’ve experienced in their own lives. 

Roleplaying is also a great way to build relationship skills! Many Kindergartners don’t understand what’s wrong with taking a toy out of a friend’s hand until they’ve experienced it themselves. Give students a chance to play out both sides of common conflict or problems within the classroom. This will also help them build empathy! 

SEL Skill #2: Self-awareness

Self-awareness means understanding your own feelings. You can identify what you are feeling, and oftentimes you can also understand why you are feeling something specific. This is one of the hardest things for our young students to master. And to be honest, there are plenty of adults who could benefit from practicing their own self-awareness! 

The best place to start with self-awareness is developing your students’ emotional vocabulary. Using emotional flashcards can help them learn words like frustrated, angry, nervous, and excited as they see the matching facial expressions with each word.  You can also talk about what each feeling feels like in your body – the butterflies in your stomach that mean you’re nervous or excited or the way your face sometimes gets red and hot when you’re angry. 

Mirror play is another good self-awareness activity. Have your students stand in front of a mirror one at a time and make different faces. Let them explore the expressions they can make first, and then have students yell out different feelings for them to try. You can also have students pair up and mirror each other’s emotions. Once students are facing each other, tell one student to make an excited face. Have the other student copy the excited expression they see their friend making. 

You want to give your students the language and awareness of a range of emotions. Don’t be afraid of “negative” feelings – they’re just feelings! The more you discuss things like feeling embarrassed or afraid with your students, the more it will normalize these sometimes tricky emotions. 

SEL Skill #3: Coping Skills

Coping skills teach Kindergarteners how to manage the wide range of emotions they feel each day. Practicing these skills when students are calm and happy makes it easier for them to use these skills when they’re in the middle of a stressful or difficult situation. 

Breathing exercises are one of the best ways to help young learners calm down and manage their response. You can teach all kinds of mindful breathing:

• Deep breaths in and out
• Balloon breathing – the students breathe into their bellies and blow them up like balloons
• Square breathing – a student breathes in and counts to 4, holds their breath and counts to 4, breathes out and counts to 4, and repeats

You can also help your students build their coping skills by giving them plenty of sensory output opportunities. Things like playing with slime, using a fidget spinner, or building with Play-Doh helps students feel more calm and centered.

Prioritizing SEL in your Kindergarten classroom 

These 3 key social-emotional learning skills will set your students up for success. You may find your students are more engaged in academic lessons and follow classroom procedures better the more you focus on SEL. 

Remember that this is a growth practice. Students don’t check social-emotional learning off an objective list and move on. They will make progress, regress, face new obstacles, and continue growing throughout the year. This is totally normal!

The best thing you can do for your Kindergarteners is to consistently incorporate intentional SEL curriculum in everything you do! 

Need help with your SEL curriculum?

I’ve shared some great ideas in this post, but it can be tough to pull it all together. That’s why I created a comprehensive SEL curriculum called “Our Caring Community.” It’s perfect for Kindergarten classrooms and includes engaging activities, printables, and lessons your students will love! 

Click here to download your FREE SAMPLE PACK to the Our Caring Community Curriculum today >>>

Click here to check out the SEL Curriculum!