Center for Social and Emotional Education Spotlights WINGS Strategies
Try these free social skills activities for school connectedness
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The influential Center for Social and Emotional Education in New York focused its latest newsletter and a blog post on the vital issue of school connectedness. Strengthening kids' connection to school is the highly desirable outcome of improving their social and emotional skills, and WINGS CEO Ginny Deerin gave CSEE her list of 8 activities that foster these emotional bonds.
One example - No. 8 on the list was Routine Greetings.
At WINGS we find that it's especially important to greet the kids when they arrive for the after school day. It's a small thing that yields big benefits. As students arrive, their assigned leader greets each and every child with smiles, hugs and pats on the back. Each group of kids has an assigned leader who initiates a handshake that's special for their group. Sometimes the group keeps the same handshake all year - others like to change it up. This is just as important for the school day as well.
Sounds simple, doesn't it?
But routines and activities designed to build social competencies can have tremendous impact. Feeling cared for and connected motivates children to participate. These are effective ways to generate a sense of belonging and reinforce the social and emotional skills that make school a welcoming place where kids feel valued and motivated to succeed!
Visit WINGS and learn more about making kids feel more connected to school by teaching social skills
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Cristy,
I love that activity. It is an oldie but goodie and a great exercise in empathy.
Seasons Greetings!
Just think of how much it makes you smile when you receive a postcard or a greeting card from a friend...it makes you smile. Now imagine if you had that every day? I'm Program Director for WINGS at Memminger, and we did an exercise with our staff that helped them realize how much greetings are important. I placed an index card on the backs of the WINGSLeaders. Then we all walked around and socialized. WINGSLeaders would see each other's names on their backs, and greet them the way they would at WINGS. In the end, WINGSLeaders told us their reactions to the way everyone treated them. In the end, WINGSleaders realized that some people, instead of saying "Hi, how was your day?" would skip that part and quickly tell them to go sit in the nest or put their book bag up. They said it made them feel left out and like they weren't going to have a good day.