Weave SEL into Playing Games and Summer Reading
Summer is almost here – cue panic and excitement. For many kids, summer represents playing outside, staying up late, camps, vacations, and an overall less-structured day. For parents, caregivers, and camp or program staff, building in social emotional learning (SEL) lessons is easy to do in the unscripted summer moments.
Build-up self-awareness, responsible decision making, and relationship skills by following activities or games with questions like:
Self-Awareness
Activity
- What is a strength of yours that made this activity/game easy for you?
- What is a weakness of yours that made this activity difficult for you?
READING
- What emotion did you feel when (event in story) happened? Have you ever felt that emotion before? When?
- What is something (character) does when he/she is feeling excited? Silly? Joyful? Surprised? Proud?
Responsible Decision Making
ACTIVITY
- Can you share an example of a step you needed to think about before you acted?
- Now that you’ve completed this activity, what choice would you change if you could?
READING
- Did any character struggle to make a decision in the book? What do you think he/she should have done?
- What different ending could the story have had if a different choice was made?
Relationship Skills
ACTIVITY
- Who was someone who supported you? Please share and give them positive feedback (if applicable).
- How did your group listen to one another and make sure everyone was heard?
READING
- What were some ways the characters worked together?
- What was one way the group compromised in the story?