Year of Social Emotional Learning Curriculum for Elementary

Inside: Use this year of social emotional learning curriculum to intentionally teach 12 concepts: kindness, empathy, antibullying, gratitude, sportsmanship, etc.

If we want kind students and kind classrooms, we have to create positive classroom environments and intentionally teach social emotional learning.

And while we are required to teach reading, writing, math, science, social studies, ELL, art, PE…we need to also teach social emotional learning.

We can piecemeal our social-emotional learning curriculum, or we can use done-for-you, ready-to-go, SEL curriculum designed by an elementary school educator.

You will love this monthly SEL Curriculum because it’s hands-on, meaningful, and effective for teaching concepts like kindness, antibullying, gratitude, sportsmanship, and being a good friend.

Why Should We Teach Social Emotional Learning

Social Emotional Learning is an essential component to our academic curriculum because in addition to teaching concepts like kindness and empathy, it also prevents bullying AND teaches:

problem-solving skills
conflict resolution skills
teamwork and collaboration skills
responsibility
decision-making skills
perseverance and resilience
confidence and advocacy skills
self-regulation skills
social skills, manners, and positive peer relationship skills
emotional intelligence skills

And when we teach these crucial skills to our students, this saves us time and headaches because we get to play referee less; there will be less playground drama to decipher and deal with, less friendship issues that seep into our classroom, and for older students, less breaking up of physical fights.

If you’re ready to incorporate SEL curriculum into your day without extra work, you’ll love our Year of Social Emotional Learning Curriculum.

What’s Included in the YEAR of Social Emotional Learning Curriculum:

The year-long social emotional learning curriculum includes these 12 SEL topics that can be taught any time of year, but comes with a yearly scope with suggestions:

Kindness (August)
Being an Includer (September)
Bullying and Anti-Bullying (October)
Gratitude (November)
Celebrate Our Differences (December)
Being a Good Friend/Friendship (January)
Manners/Being Polite (February)
Being Helpful (March)
Being Thoughtful/Considerate (April)
Empathy/Compassion (May)
Volunteering (June)
Sportsmanship (July)

These month-long sel lessons include social emotional learning activities and social emotional learning worksheets and social emotional learning coloring activities that you can fit into the “cracks” of your lesson plans.

For each of the SEL Curriculum themes, you’ll get:

Monthly Scope/Weekly Plans
Powerpoint presentation explaining the concept
Discussion Starters
Role Playing
Journal Writing Prompts
Vocabulary and activities
Emergent Reader and Early Reader to connect to the topic
Book Lists
Kindness Games/SEL and Kindness Activity
Social Emotional Learning Worksheet
Social Emotional Learning Coloring Sheet

How to Use the Year of Social Emotional Learning Curriculum

1. Purchase and download the year of social emotional learning curriculum bundle.

2. Choose the monthly concept you want to work on and print the curriculum and resources.

3. Using the suggested monthly lesson plans, plan out when you can fit the sel activities into your lesson plans.

We can “double dip” and use our language arts minutes to also focus on character education…reading and writing about kindness, anti-bullying, being a good friend, and being helpful counts as both ELA and SEL.

Try “sneaking in” SEL activities during:

Morning Meeting (discussion starters, journal prompts book reading, game/activity)
ELA (expository and narrative writing, journal prompts, emergent/early readers, vocabulary, PowerPoint presentation)
Centers (worksheet, journal prompts, game, emergent/early readers)
Early finishers (coloring pages)
A few minutes after lunch (reading book, activities/games)
Recess/Lunch (kindness challenge)
Transitions/Walking in Hallways/Walking to and from Specialists (kindness challenge)
Indoor recess/Second recess/PE (for gross motor activities/games, coloring pages)
“Bell Ringers” (discussion starters, kindness challenge, kindness acknowledgements/praise)

Two birds, one stone, no extra minutes in your lesson plans are required.

4. Continue to talk about and reinforce the SEL monthly concept throughout your day and then prepare for your next month with the next SEL concept.

5. Praise your students’ kindness throughout each month as positive reinforcement.