25 Introspective SEL Activities for Middle School

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While middle schoolers may not have a designated class for “Social-Emotional Learning,” the lessons are undeniably present in their daily experiences. Every moment of laughter in the hallways, each wave of insecurity, and the formation of new friendships present valuable opportunities to develop and enhance their social-emotional learning (SEL) skills. In fact, these might be the crucial lessons that will stick with them throughout the year.

Encourage their emotional awareness and self-regulation through creative SEL activities tailored for middle schoolers. From classroom strategies aimed at emotional understanding to comprehensive lesson plans centered around friendship and bullying, we have you covered with everything necessary to support middle schoolers on their SEL journey.

What Are the Main SEL Competencies?

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework identifies five core competencies essential for adolescents. Most social-emotional learning skills can be classified into these categories:

• Relationship Skills: Developing a healthy understanding of friendship that aligns with personal values, alongside enhancing communication skills to fortify these connections.
• Self-Awareness: Recognizing one’s emotions and thoughts in real-time and understanding their influence throughout the day.
• Self-Management: Learning to regulate emotions effectively in various contexts and amidst different stressors.
• Social Awareness: Grasping the subtle social cues of others and the ability to empathize with different perspectives.
• Responsible Decision-Making: Making choices that yield positive short-term and long-term outcomes.

Additional skills, such as critical thinking, study skills, and goal-setting, are often included in SEL literature and curricula. These executive functioning skills are crucial for middle schoolers to refine before transitioning to high school, facilitating easier access to their social-emotional understanding.

Activities for Building Relationships and Social Skills

Middle schoolers experience a unique stage of social development. They are too mature for elementary games yet not quite ready for the complex relationships characteristic of high school. Enhance their learning with SEL activities designed for this age group, providing them with guidance on navigating friendships and social situations.

• Write from Another Perspective: Using journal prompts, have students narrate a personal or fictional conflict, then rewrite it from the other person’s viewpoint.
• Practice Clear Communication: Challenge students to convey a message across the classroom by whispering in each other’s ears, starting with 20 words and progressively reducing the word count.
• Spider Web Connections Game: One student holds a ball of yarn and shares a personal fact, tossing the yarn to someone who relates. This continues until a web of connections is formed among the class.
• Discuss Traits of Friendship: Facilitate discussions on the differences between healthy and unhealthy friendships, exploring questions like whether it’s possible to be friends with someone who negatively influences you.

Master Conflict Resolution and Friendship Traits

Social Situations Game | Social Skills | Bullying | Conflict Resolution
By Carol Miller – Counseling Essentials
Grades: 4th-9th

Explore what distinguishes a good friend from a bully through an engaging SEL game that prompts students to consider fairness, cooperation, conflict, and citizenship within everyday social situations involving bullying.

Self-Awareness Activities for Middle Schoolers

Many SEL activities for middle school incorporate aspects of self-awareness, encompassing emotional insight and a growth mindset. Self-awareness activities can also delve into students’ interests, hobbies, and personal values as they navigate this transitional phase of childhood.

• Make a Character Map: Have students outline their character traits as if they were characters in a narrative, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, and identifying traits that help them navigate conflicts.
• Create a Hobby Timeline: Students can illustrate their journey with a favorite hobby, detailing significant milestones and projecting future aspirations.
• Transition with Body Check-Ins: Encourage students to pause between activities and reflect on their physical sensations. Ask where they feel tension and if they are breathing deeply enough.
• Thoughts-Feelings-Action Comic Strip: Students can create comic strips depicting how a thought leads to a feeling, which subsequently influences an action, either individually or in teams.

Practice SEL Exercises to Become Aware of Your Emotions

When asked about their feelings, many middle schoolers may simply shrug. This often stems from a lack of understanding about their emotions. Help students identify and articulate their feelings through SEL activities that encourage them to notice where emotions manifest in their bodies and how these feelings affect their daily lives.

SEL Home Learning Packet Supports Social Emotional Learning
By The Counseling Teacher Brandy
Grades: 2nd-8th

This resource is packed with effective SEL activities, including calming scavenger hunts, positive self-talk prompts, and gratitude pages, serving as an excellent tool to teach and reinforce essential SEL skills for this age group.

Stress Awareness and Self-Management Activities

While self-awareness focuses on recognizing emotions and reactions, self-management involves regulating those emotions and managing stress effectively. Support middle schoolers in developing these vital skills with activities that can be seamlessly integrated into any class period, taking only a few minutes to complete.

• Pause for Self-Reflection: After assessments or projects, encourage students to reflect on their experiences and set goals for improvement, creating action plans to achieve these goals.
• Create Positive Self-Talk Scripts: In pairs or groups, students can draft short skits that showcase positive self-talk, emphasizing how it can shift negative perceptions and lead to better outcomes.
• Make Positive Affirmation Posters: Have students select their favorite positive affirmations and provide art supplies for them to create inspiring posters to decorate the classroom.
• Craft Stress-Busting Playlists: As a group, students can compile a playlist of songs that help alleviate stress, writing reflections on why each song is significant and how it calms them during tense moments.

Determine What’s In and Out of Students’ Control

Given that stress significantly impacts middle schoolers’ lives, it’s essential to help them understand what they can control versus what lies beyond their influence. This includes aspects like political issues, familial conflicts, friendship disputes, and academic pressures.

Circle of Control Social Emotional Learning Digital Activity School Counseling
By Teaching on Lemon Lane
Grades: 4th-12th

This resource helps students visualize their circle of control, accompanied by journal reflections, stress management activities, and posters that remind them to focus on what they can influence.

Exercises to Work on Better Social Awareness

While some students may intuitively grasp social dynamics, others find them challenging to navigate. Utilize SEL activities to enhance students’ social inferences, listening skills, and appreciation for diversity.

• Dig Deeper into Fictional Social Situations: Use literature or films to analyze social interactions. Discuss character reactions and explore alternative responses that could yield more positive outcomes.
• Consider Support Systems: Have students reflect on and discuss the key support systems in their lives, including family members, friends, and mentors who provide encouragement.
• Create a Belonging Chart: Ask students to identify places where they feel a sense of belonging and analyze the interactions that contribute to that feeling.
• Plan a Community Service Project: From a selection of ideas, students can choose a community service project to engage in as a class or in smaller groups, fostering a connection to their community.

Work on Social Inferences and Reading Social Behavior

Social Inferences Skills TEENS Older Students Scenario Activities Worksheets SEL
By Miss Dee’s Homeroom
Grades: 7th-10th

Some teens may find it difficult to read social cues, while others grasp them intuitively. Utilize resources that clarify hidden social expectations, focusing on key social skills such as perspective-taking and situational awareness through various practice scenarios.

Emphasize Empathy with Random Acts of Kindness

Shared values create strong connections among groups. Encourage students to share their experiences regarding random acts of kindness, whether given or received, and reflect on how these experiences impacted them.

Random Act of Kindness Activities | Social Emotional Learning
By Sarah Anne
Grades: 5th-9th

Fostering a positive classroom community begins with kindness. This resource encourages middle schoolers to engage in a 10-day kindness challenge, complete with worksheets, lessons, and classroom decorations.

Classroom Activities to Encourage Responsible Choices

As students gain independence in middle school, they encounter opportunities to make more responsible choices. These decisions, whether regarding health or future aspirations, are informed by their self-perception and ethical considerations.

• Connect Healthy Choices to Values: Facilitate discussions that help students understand how their daily decisions reflect their values rather than labeling choices as simply “good” or “bad.” For instance, prioritizing a healthy diet signifies self-care, while committing to schoolwork over screen time indicates a value placed on education.
• Create a Decision-Making Board Game: In pairs or groups, students can design a “This or That?” board game where players progress by making responsible choices, utilizing creativity with posters or digital formats.
• Line Up Choices and Consequences: Prepare two sets of cards, one for choices and another for consequences. Students with choice cards must find their match in the consequence cards, fostering discussions on natural outcomes.
• Set Goals and Monitor Decisions: Have students establish achievable goals at the beginning of the year or grading period and brainstorm how their decision-making can support those goals, such as strategies for achieving desired grades.

Use SEL Skills to Equip Middle Schoolers for High School

Integrating SEL activities into your curriculum benefits everyone involved. Teachers gain deeper insights into their students, while students cultivate a stronger understanding of themselves and their needs. Ultimately, a classroom environment that fosters security and connection translates to increased efficiency and collaboration. Leverage these suggestions alongside other middle school social-emotional resources and more advanced SEL activities for high school to achieve these goals for both educators and students alike.