5 Free Social-Emotional Learning Activities for the Classroom

In a world that increasingly needs connection and empathy, engaging in social-emotional learning (SEL lessons) is no longer just a choice; it's a resonating responsibility for us teachers. By taking a growth mindset approach and teaching students to understand and manage their emotions, communicate effectively, and build relationships, we are sculpting a generation to thrive in and out of the learning environment.

When it comes to climate change topics and experiences like the extreme weather events in the past year, our students can have big feelings that run deep. Creating a safe space in our classrooms for these feelings is a needed first step. We all have our go-to check-in activities to gauge the feelings of our students, from thumbs up or thumbs down emotional temperature checks, calm-down corners, and class meetings to red-green-yellow colors, emoji boards, and a word wall of feelings. For more specific or guided social-emotional learning activities, check out the following free resources to encourage your student to develop their social-emotional skills.

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Neema’s Story →

Everyday Stories →

Marshall Islands Stories →

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Tipping Points →

Climate Emotions →

Public Opinion →

Coloring Pages →

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In this 360° video, acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton takes us on a journey to the Hoh Rain Forest in Washington State to experience silence, escape the noise pollution of modern life, and connect with the land. While we have all heard about the importance of mindfulness activities, it can be challenging to find a way to get your students to truly pause, relax their bodies, and focus on taking deep breaths. This free SEL activity will instantly transform your classroom from a busy learning environment into a peaceful refuge. 

You can play the 360° video of the Ho Rain Forest and have students sit on the floor in a meditation position to relax, or you can delve into the 7-minute video in which Hempton explains his personal journey of learning about noise pollution and silence extinction. A 60-minute lesson plan is also available for 9th-12th grade students. It includes conversation cards organized around four themes: connection to place, effects of modernization, human connection to the environment, and listening. Teachers can download the lesson in English or Spanish. 

This unique SEL resource provides students with space to process their relationship with noise and quiet. Students might be surprised to realize that creating space for silence in their lives may help them with self-awareness and even self-control. Next time your class needs a brain break, consider providing them with the time to reflect on the power of silence and the importance of preserving wild and natural spaces.

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This ready-to-go downloadable lesson plan uses a straightforward activity for elementary school students to delve into the interconnectedness of the natural community through an engaging interactive story. As students listen to the read-aloud story, the class passes around yarn to create a web of a forest community. 

Guided discussion questions encourage students to apply this web to other ecosystems and identify other community members in different ecosystems. Teachers can easily extend this activity to cover interdisciplinary ELA and social studies skills by guiding students to apply this web to communities of people - their classroom, grade, school, city, family, and so on. Students can compare and contrast different webs of ecosystems or make parallels between a forest ecosystem and their classroom ecosystem. Additionally, teachers can adapt this lesson and activities to their current grade level and use the follow-up activities listed for further study or extensions.

This simple cooperative learning activity and illustration can be used to model not only the interconnectedness of the natural world but also how students in the class are interconnected. This connection to the environment and to each other can be emphasized and used as a starting point to build classroom culture, practice relationship skills, discuss similar values, listen to differences, and engage in teamwork. Teachers can use this activity as a visual tool for social-emotional learning and practice, returning to it throughout the year as a reminder or to further connect content with building community.

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Sometimes we just don’t have the words. Or, the words we have aren’t enough to express what we feel. Art, from self-portraits to large-scale public murals, can serve as a visual platform and medium for expressing feelings and capturing stories. This resource highlights the ideas of ocean stewardship and preservation through murals, with a stated mission of “(re)connecting communities to our ocean through ARTivism.”

With a map of the world, students can click on any global location. By engaging in a kind of virtual travel, students can learn how climate artists use their medium to tell a story or bring attention to an issue. Students can be inspired to express their feelings about climate topics in various artistic ways as a form of self-expression, self-awareness, and empathy.

Teachers can encourage students to explore the murals in one region and identify a key theme among them. Students could then create their own art pieces reflecting the same theme and incorporating their feelings in their creations. Collaborating with other classmates in small groups promotes social awareness as students acknowledge similar feelings in a shared art piece. Additionally, the “Why Oceans?” section can be used as a class lesson or student-guided lesson on the six challenges oceans face in light of climate change. Students can learn about all six, or choose to research and present on one challenge. The CASEL freebie resource also lists five specific ways to take action that can inspire students to get involved.

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In this SubjectToClimate lesson, students read the poem “Dear Matafele Peinem” by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, analyze how art and poetry can be used to talk about climate justice, and write their own climate change poem with a message of hope. The lesson helps students to notice their feelings surrounding climate change and enhance their coping skills by thinking about how they can channel feelings of stress, anxiety, anger, and sadness into climate action.

In her epistolary poem, Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner addresses her infant daughter, laying out the complex climate change-related problems impacting the Marshall Islands and the well-being of the Marshallese people. Students will connect with Jetñil-Kijiner’s deep love for her homeland as well as her grave concerns for its future. Teachers will appreciate the way that the lesson promotes self-confidence and helps students see themselves as members of their local community and as global citizens.

This lesson includes a well-designed Teacher Slideshow that makes the lesson easy to deliver, as well as a student worksheet to keep students engaged and thinking throughout the lesson. While this social emotional learning lesson encourages SEL skills, it also covers a number of important ELA reading and writing standards, making it easy to use in middle school ELA classrooms. You can incorporate the lesson into a unit on poetry analysis, writing poetry, or creative writing. 

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This SubjectToClimate lesson guides students to reconnect with nature and think deeply about the concept of love. Students learn how trees are invaluable allies in our fight against climate change, get to know a local tree, and utilize the power of music to honor a tree in the form of a love song. Allowing students to reflect on what love means and the importance of small acts of kindness, like writing a song to celebrate nature, is an important component of social-emotional health. 

This high school lesson plan comes ready to use with all resources vetted, a teacher slideshow, a printable student document, and activities aligned to standards. If you’re an ELA teacher wanting to introduce climate education into your classroom, this lesson is perfect. Providing a gentle introduction to the important role that trees play in sequestering carbon, filtering the air, preventing erosion, and cooling cities, naturally supports students’ social-emotional skills and will help them understand the importance of responsible decision-making when it comes to protecting trees.

Teachers can use this lesson as a stand-alone lesson or in connection with an existing poetry or creative writing unit. Depending on the class or content level, teachers can easily add specific writing techniques or literary devices to the lesson. Lessons can be used as a review of writing strategies or literary devices your class just learned, or as practice for students to apply learned writing or analysis skills.

While our obligations to teaching standards and academic skills occupy the core of education, providing social-emotional learning activities adds vibrancy and opportunity to develop essential life skills. These SEL activities allow students to channel their climate emotions into action and provide opportunities for active listening, self-regulation, problem-solving, and community connection. As you start the new school year, try to incorporate social-emotional activities into your school day, and let us know how it goes!

About the Author

Yen-Yen Chiu is the Director of Content Creation at SubjectToClimate. She has been in various roles within education since 2001: teaching all levels of grades 6-12 in English, math, and music; training teachers; and consulting on curriculum development, diversity, and classroom strategies. She, her family, and her dog love adventuring in cities and the countryside alike.