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Toddlers are a bundle of emotions! Their social skills and emotional development are changing rapidly as they learn to enjoy the company of other children and see themselves as separate individuals.
It’s especially important, as a caregiver, to understand the typical developmental milestones of children in your classroom, and to plan appropriate activities based on these milestones.
6 Fun Activities to Promote a Child's Social and Emotional Development
Healthy social and emotional development for children can help lead them toward becoming well-rounded and happy adults.
Toddlers are a bundle of emotions! Their social skills and emotional development are changing rapidly as they learn to enjoy the company of other children and see themselves as separate individuals.
Preschool-age children are beginning to find ways to calm themselves and control the emotions that ruled their world as toddlers.
It’s especially important, as a caregiver, to understand the typical developmental milestones of children in your classroom, and to plan appropriate activities based on these milestones.
Your goal with younger children is ultimately to make them feel emotionally and physically secure, which will naturally foster social and emotional development. As children grow, they will start to understand how to recognize and talk about their emotions. This leads to improved social skills and the emotional awareness that serve as the basis for good communication skills later in life.
To promote this vital development in your classroom, here are six fun and engaging activities:
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Let's play ball: To teach your students the value of sharing, go outside on a day with great weather and have them take turns kicking a soft ball to each other. Have them call out each other’s names or point first to stress the importance of their intention. This can help them get to know their peers even more and will foster social development.
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Collaborative art projects: While having your students create their own artwork is beneficial to their creative growth, it is also helpful for their social skills to join in on collaborative art projects with fellow students. Team up two, three or more students and tell them to draw or paint a picture that depicts a certain subject, such as their favorite snack or what they like to do for fun.
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Name that emotion: Understanding complex emotions as a young child can be overwhelming, particularly for toddler-age children. Create emotion cards, such as a smiley face, to represent happiness, or a frowny face, to demonstrate being upset. Encourage your students to choose a card and hold it up when they are particularly emotional, so that they can begin to understand what they are feeling.
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Read aloud children’s books on the topic: Popular children's books that teach ideas about emotion include Everybody Has Feelings by Charles E. Avery and the Dealing With Feelings series by Elizabeth Crary. These books will introduce ideas of different feelings, changing feelings, how to handle feelings, and differences between action and emotion.
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Make your own feelings books: For older children, “feelings books” can help them express their emotions in a creative way. Take a sheet of construction paper and have the children create a personalized cover with crayons or other art supplies. Then give each child a few sheets of construction paper and have them label each at the top with the name of a specific emotion, like "anger" or "sadness." They can use the rest of the page to draw out what those feelings are like to them.
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Role-playing games: Do simple role-plays by asking children, "Show me how your body and face would look if:”
- You got a present.
- A friend put a worm in your hand.
- You found a snake on the playground.
- You fell down and tore your new pants.
- A big dog barked at you.
- A friend knocked down your blocks.
- When they make the face, talk about the word that describes the expression.
At ProSolutions Training, we offer a variety of relevant, helpful online courses for early childhood education professionals. Each of our courses on social and emotional development provide learners with major milestones and appropriate activities for each age group - click the links below to learn more.
