Social Emotional Learning: Out of this World Social Skills

Get out of that social skill instruction rut. This lesson series is also great for special education teachers who have social emotional learning or behavioral goals to teach. I've created an 8 lesson group that uses an alien visiting from space to help kids to think about the importance of social skills and to practice using them. As always, I'll share all the lesson ideas here and if you'd like to purchase all of the materials ready-made, you can head on over to TPT.

Each group begins with an inclusion activity that supports the skills introduced, a kid friendly definition of the skill, and a closure activity that wraps the group and checks for understanding.

Skill: Introduction

In the intro lesson to the group, we not only learn about the purpose of the group and read a story introducing students to R1, our friendly space alien, but we also have a chance to practice introduction skills with our new group members.

• Purpose of the group
• Read R1's story
• Use the Alien Name Generator to find out your Alien Name
• Interview a partner and introduce them to the group

Skill: Verbal and Nonverbal Communication

Practice verbal and nonverbal communication with a game of feelings charades. Each student draws a sentence and a feeling. Others have to guess the feeling they are showing with tone of voice, body language, and facial expressions. Once the group chooses the right emotion, take turns thinking about why someone might feel angry, friendly, or another emotion about the sentence read.

Skill: Listening

Students take turns listening and speaking about a generic topic. As the listener, they practice each of the listening skills introduced. Students give feedback to their partners about their strengths using a picture rubric and a supportive conversation.

Skill: Stop and Think of Consequences

In this 2 lesson skill, students first practice the idea of stop and think by playing reverse Simon Says. The game is played just like the childhood game except "Simon Says" means that you *don't* complete the action. 

Poor R1, as an alien he misunderstands social cues all the time. In the second lesson, students listen to a journal entry about the day R1 comes to earth. He makes a lot of mistakes! Students write down the social clues he missed and then help him to correct them.

Skill: Cooperation

It takes communication and perseverance to cooperate. To practice, play "all tangled up." Students stand in a circle and grab someone's hand that is not standing next to them. To win, the group must untangle their hands without letting go. The most important part of this activity is the processing. Ask a lot of questions and encourage communication. Help students to think about what worked and didn't work in their process.

Skill: Compromise

This is a fun one! The group must work together to plan a party for R1's alien friends. Each student chooses a favorite for each of the 4 party planning tasks: food, activity, cake, and location. They must then negotiate and compromise with the others in the group to come to a consensus. This is a challenging lesson but the struggle is part of the learning!

Skill: Summarize Learning

In the last session, the group partners up to create a presentation for R1 about one of the skills that they learned in group. They can choose to present about all of the skills or choose one skill to cover in depth. This is a great way to check for understanding and share some laughs. 

I hope you have fun with your Out of this World Social Skills group! I think it will be a blast (rockets optional)!