Social Awareness Teaching Resources
Help your students build social awareness skills with activities and printables, social skills worksheets and more SEL teaching resources created by teachers specifically for elementary and middle school students.
This collection is full of digital and printable activities created by the expert teachers of the Teach Starter team to help teachers as they work with students on being more socially aware, recognize social cues, understand social dynamics and treat the people around them with kindness and courtesy.
Each teaching resource in this social awareness teaching resource collection has undergone rigorous review by the Teach Starter team to ensure it's ready for the classroom ... and your students!
Curious about teaching social awareness and wondering how to build students' social skills? Read on for some tips from our expert teachers!
What Is Social Awareness? A Kid-Friendly Definition
Being socially aware is not something that comes naturally to every child, and explaining what social awareness means can be tough. Our teacher team has created this kid-friendly definition to help!
Social awareness is understanding how other people feel and what they need. When we are socially aware, we notice how others are doing, and we make an effort to be kind and helpful to them.
Social awareness also means paying attention to the rules and ways people behave in different situations.
Being socially aware means we are more sensitive to the feelings of people around us, and we can then use our social skills — such as the ability to be kind, to listen and to cooperate – to work with others. It means we can empathize with others, understand diverse perspectives and navigate social interactions effectively.
Social Awareness Examples for Kids
Now that you've explained the social awareness meaning, it helps to explore what it actually looks like when you put it into practice. Many of your students may have at least some skills already at hand — depending on the individual student and grade level.
A kindergartner, for example, may show empathy by giving a crying friend a hug or sharing a toy, but they're typically not yet able to understand that people have different perspectives.
So how can your students show they're socially aware? Let's look at some kid-friendly social awareness examples!
- Taking turns on the playground or at the water fountain.
- Sharing crayons or gluesticks with classmates.
- Making eye contact with friends when they're speaking.
- Paying attention when a teacher is speaking and not interrupting.
- Collaborating with classmates to complete a group assignment.
- Using conflict resolution skills to address issues with a friend.
- Offering to help the gym teacher put away the basketballs or helping the school librarian shelve the books that have been left out by other students.
What Is the Difference Between Self Awareness and Social Awareness?
We teach students both self awareness and social awareness in elementary and middle school, and the two relate to one another as important aspects of emotional intelligence.
But where social awareness is focused outward on the emotions, perspectives and needs of others, self awareness focuses inward on recognizing those concepts in oneself.
Social Awareness and Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is an umbrella term that involves a number of the core components of a social emotional learning curriculum — including self awareness, self management and relationship management, as well as social awareness.
So how does social awareness specifically tie back to emotional intelligence? Being emotionally intelligent involves not just recognizing emotions in one's self but in others — the basic component of social awareness for our students.
Take social dynamics, for example. Understanding the social dynamics at play in a particular situation is a big part of being socially aware. Recognizing group norms, cultural differences and power dynamics all help our students to avoid causing offense or discomfort in others. It's a great example of having the emotional intelligence required to navigate a situation!
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Printable Anti-Bullying Posters
Decorate your classroom and school during National Bullying Prevention Month with printable Anti-Bullying Posters!
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Kindness Teaching Slides—The Magic of Kindness
Guide students through understanding the importance of kindness with this set of teaching slides.
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Circle of Kindness Affirmations for Kids Templates
Promote kindness and boost morale with individual affirmations for kids with our Circle of Kindness affirmation activity.
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Class Compliments - SEL Worksheets
Encourage kindness and boost morale by creating a wall of compliments for each student with a printable self-esteem activity.
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Showing Empathy Teaching Slides
Transform your classroom into a hub of empathy and kindness! Elevate your students’ social awareness with this set of SEL teaching slides.
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Responding With Empathy Matching Activity
Guide your students to identify emotions in others and select appropriate ways to respond with empathy with this matching activity.
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Personal Space Flipbook
Explore the concept of personal space and how it keeps us safe with this activity flipbook.
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Kindness Words - Word Wall
Print a set of kindness word cards to use during your social-emotional learning lessons.
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Twelve Days of Kindness – Christmas Challenge Worksheet
Challenge your students to commit 12 random acts of Christmas kindness with a printable kindness activity for elementary school students.
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Examining Female Gender Stereotypes PowerPoint
A 14 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when examining female gender stereotypes with your students.
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Feelings and Emotions Match-Up Activity
Help students to recognize and identify their feelings and emotions with this interactive match-up activity.
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Gratitude Jar Cut and Assemble Kit
Printable labels, writing slips, and gratitude mini-posters to set up a class gratitude jar.
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Social Strategies Task Cards
A teaching resource to help students strategize solutions to problems around mental health and social well being
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Random Acts of Kindness Calendar
16 random acts of kindness tasks for students to do for others.
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Challenging Female Gender Stereotypes Inquiry Task
An inquiry task to use in the classroom when learning about inspirational contemporary women.
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Social Stories - Activity Cards
Help your students build social skills and practice concepts learned within our social stories with a set of printable task cards.
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Whole Body Listening – Poster and Worksheet
Use this poster and accompanying worksheet to teach your students about whole body listening.
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Paralympic World Records – Inquiry-Based Project
Have your students investigate the world records set by Paralympic athletes with this inquiry-based learning project.
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Assistive Devices in the Paralympic Games – Inquiry-Based Project
Have your students investigate the assistive devices used by Paralympians with this inquiry-based learning project.
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Introduction to the Paralympic Games – Inquiry-Based Project
Introduce your students to the key components of the Paralympic Games with this inquiry-based learning project.
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Design a Paralympic Mascot – Inquiry-Based Project
Have your students design a new mascot for the national Paralympic Team with this inquiry-based learning project.
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Design a Paralympic Logo – Inquiry-Based Project
Have your students design a new logo for their country’s Paralympic Team with this inquiry-based learning project.
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Good Listener Anchor Charts
Use these anchor charts to teach your students how to be good listeners.
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Social Story Cards and Templates
Create individualized social stories for students in your classroom with this versatile set of social story cards and templates.
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50 Gratitude Journal Prompts for Kids - Slide Deck
Project and inspire reflective writing with 50 gratitude journal writing prompts in one handy slide deck.
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Diversity is our Strength Poster
Display this ''diversity is our strength' poster in your classroom as a reminder of unity and inclusion.
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Kindness Vocabulary Word Wall
Learn vocabulary around the topic of kindness with this set of word wall cards.
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Kindness Poster Set
Display this set of kindness posters in your classroom to help your students understand the power of being kind.
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Keeping My Hands and Feet to Myself Mini-Book
Teach your students about the importance of keeping their hands and feet to themselves with this printable mini-book.
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Afternoon Classroom Routine Mini-Book
Review expectations with your students regarding your afternoon routines with this printable mini-book.
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Staying on Task Mini-Book
Review different strategies for on-task behavior with this printable mini-book.
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Why Be Kind Classroom Posters
Display this gorgeous set of kindness posters to teach students why kindness matters.
- Social Awareness Templates
- Social Awareness Posters
- Social Awareness Worksheets
- Social Awareness for Pre-K
- Social Awareness for Kindergarten
- Social Awareness for 1st Grade
- Social Awareness for 2nd Grade
- Social Awareness for 3rd Grade
- Social Awareness for 4th Grade
- Social Awareness for 5th Grade
- Social Awareness for 6th Grade