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9 After-School Activities for Children That Help Build Social-Emotional Skills

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Guest post by Beth Rush, an education reporter at Body+Mind who writes about the importance of teaching climate consciousness in public and private schools. Follow Beth on X (formerly Twitter) @bodymindmag.  

 Kids with strong social and emotional skills have higher chances of success. They tend to be well-adjusted, agreeable, responsible, empathetic, cooperative, and altruistic.

School administrators and teachers understand there's more to mentally fit children than having good grades. Discerning educators expose learners of all ages to various after-school activities to help them build socio-emotional skills more quickly. Consider these nine ideas to provide your students with productive learning experiences outside the classroom.

1. Emotion Charades

Labeling emotions is necessary to practice mindfulness. Charades is an excellent game to cultivate emotional literacy in kids. Acting out responses to specific stimuli requires more brainpower than describing them with words.

Children can draw from experience to associate facial expressions with emotions. Those less familiar with body language can learn something new and may be able to identify emotions when they see the expressions again.

2. Expression Mimicking

This mindfulness activity builds on learnings from emotional charades. This game challenges children to respond to hypothetical situations by copying how the people they know would react.

Playing helps kids recognize what facial expressions mean and when people make them. Students can find each other relatable, laugh together and bond over the game.

3. Staring Contests

The eyes are the window to the soul. They reveal a person's true feelings and unintentionally express emotions. Eye contact lets children know what someone is going through—even if their words and actions suggest something else.

The problem is this nonverbal communication skill doesn't always come naturally to kids. Many may struggle to develop it due to mental and cultural reasons.

Some neurodiverse children may find it difficult to meet another person's gaze because of sensory sensitivity. Those not on the spectrum may experience distress when others look them in the eye. In some cultures, eye contact is synonymous with rudeness, disrespect, or aggression, so people generally refrain from making it.

Children who feel comfortable making eye contact do a better job of reading facial cues—especially during conversations. These kids also exude confidence—an empowering feeling that motivates them to be ready for life experiences and pursue their goals.

Although a starting contest may seem silly, this wholesome game can show your students that mutual gaze can be joyful, not frightening.

One eventually blinks, but losing doesn't stink. Both participants can feel closer to each other at the end of the game after sensing one another's deep emotions. It's a feeling children may remember and seek when having conversations with anyone.

4. Improvisational Storytelling 

In this game, groups of children should work together to create a narrative without discussing it beforehand. Members should build on each other's ideas and incorporate words or objects written on random cards or strips of paper into the story.

This learning activity tests children's emotional literacy and encourages them to use their imagination. 

5. Fun Runs 

Noncompetitive races allow kids to recognize their strengths and assess the limits of their physical abilities in a low-pressure environment. The experience serves as a literal journey to self-discovery.

The exciting part is that they can socialize with diverse groups of other young runners. Interacting with classmates in this setting takes friendships to the next level. Students can also meet fresh faces and forge new relationships.

Regardless of length, fun runs put children in positions to practice empathy, manage stress, set, and achieve goals and help one another to reach the finish line. This socio-emotional learning activity nurtures personal growth and fosters collective well-being. 

6. Team Sports 

Football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, and volleyball are more than exhilarating pursuits. They're also neat alibis for training kids on the virtues of teamwork, collaboration, camaraderie, emotion regulation and sportsmanship in thrilling ways.

Players from opposing teams and supporters demonstrate unique emotions in every sequence. Participants and spectators can become more emotionally literate after every game or match.

Everyone can enjoy team sporting events, even children who generally prefer minimally stimulating environments can find them fulfilling.

Introverted students can use their solid observation skills to analyze games and offer practical feedback to teammates. Win or lose, their insights can earn them the respect of others and prove to themselves that they can be as instrumental in games' outcomes as those who tend to be social butterflies.

Evidence yields confidence. Introverts can take this opportunity to practice their communication skills—something they're typically less keen on doing with various people. They may build one-on-one connections with individuals they would've never thought of befriending ordinarily.

Regarding extroverts, social sports let them shine. They can exercise their natural tendencies to win games. Extroverted kids love connecting with others, which can be vital for executing plays on the field, court, or rink, strategizing on the fly and boosting everyone's morale.

Team sports help children—introverted or extroverted—focus on the goal, overcome adversities, win with humility, lose gracefully, and admire teammates and adversaries equally. 

7. Skiing 

Encouraging your students to do pulsating activities like skiing can help them face their fears, improve their adversity quotient—capacity and resilience to endure setbacks—and promote a growth mindset.

Skiing humbles everybody. Skiers of all ages and experience levels fall repeatedly 100% of the time. Understanding that failing is part of the process matters. Every fall is a teachable moment, challenging children to think about what they did wrong and learn from mistakes to attain better results the next time. Owning their errors makes them responsible decision-makers.

Children as young as 3 years old can begin taking skiing lessons. However, some older kids may not qualify until they reach 6 and become mature enough to handle the challenges of the activity's basics.

Seeing younger kids be able to start skiing before them can be frustrating to older aspiring skiers. Managing frustration well in this situation is a mental health lesson worth learning. It can teach your students patience to wait for the right time and be happy for others who get to do what they wish to enjoy. 

8. Tutoring 

Teaching younger learners, especially those who can't afford to hire a tutor, with their homework or subjects they may be struggling with enables your students to develop social and emotional skills. Most people remember being clueless about topics and feeling happy after finally understanding how things work.

Playing a role in somebody's academic performance is rewarding. Achieving higher test scores after a tutoring session gives your students secondhand pride and increases their confidence, motivating them to keep going and help more people.

Anyone can be an excellent tutor, including non-straight-A students. Average learners can build their self-esteem by helping kindergarteners practice reading, writing, counting and other basic concepts. Unexceptional students can impart their knowledge of the topics they're passionate about to others to feel helpful and develop leadership skills. 

9. Random Acts of Kindness 

Nudging your students to do something good for random people outside the classroom encourages them to think beyond themselves, raising their social awareness. The more they do it, the more they can hone their empathy.

The best part about random acts of kindness is that they bring positive effects to the doer and beneficiary without much effort. Your students can brighten people's days by being extra nice to the janitor, holding the door for others or speaking with someone who may feel lonely.

Children only need to pay closer attention to what's happening around them to notice who may need some compassion to get through their day. 

School Day is the best K-12 solution for measuring and managing student wellbeing and social emotional skills and the best means for district leaders and teachers to proactively model wellbeing in the classroom, thereby improving learning results. School Day asks students weekly questions that focus on learning, social relationships, and health. The data is analyzed, furnishing real-time insight, and highlighting what's going well; resources are provided for the areas that need more attention. Request a quote for your school today!  

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