All Practices
To find what you need quickly, sort the practices by age level and duration.
Build positive relationships with students in 2 minutes a day.
Develop students’ intellectual humility through concept mapping
Students write a letter or poem to express their gratitude to something in the natural world.
Students draw and write about ways they have acted with kindness towards others.
Students practice a mindful body scan and express gratitude for what their bodies allow them to do.
Experience awe through visual design.
Students feel the earth under their feet in this mindful movement practice.
Students go outside and experience mindfulness linked to elements of nature.
Students express gratitude through singing.
Foster positive relationships by speaking kindly about someone “behind their back.”
Introduce students to “Focus Power,” or the ability to sustain attention and ignore distractions when needed.
Introduce students to “Remember Power,” or the ability to keep track of, update, and use information over short periods of time.
Introduce students to “Stop and Think Power,” or the ability to control impulses and to “think before you act.”
Students practice and build executive function skills in whole-class games.
Use drama as a way to motivate students to stick with boring or difficult tasks.
Students consider the intentions of characters in a story who are kind to others.
Use the Circle process to build a sense of connection among students and staff by sharing moods, feelings, and moments of joy and pain.
A routine for celebrating each student in your class
A routine for celebrating each student in your class
A routine for celebrating each student in your class
A game involving balance and teamwork that helps build trust.
Help students (or staff) understand that mistakes are important for learning and growing our intelligence.
A discussion that uses scenarios to explore character and citizenship.
A discussion that uses scenarios to explore character and citizenship.
A discussion that uses scenarios to explore character and citizenship.
Students provide input on changes that could be made to the classroom to subtly cue kind behavior.
Teachers and students converse with each other through letter writing.
Students experience drawing as a strategy that can help shift unpleasant emotions to calmer, more pleasant ones.
Broaden students’ thinking about a topic or skill, sparking curiosity, creativity, humility, and open-mindedness
Teachers will foster students’ moral identity through selective use of language in the classroom.
Teachers and students create a safe space to develop strong relationships.
In a group meeting, students share their feelings while also building their feelings vocabulary and emotion knowledge.
In a group meeting, students share their feelings while also building their feelings vocabulary and emotion knowledge.
In a group meeting, students share their feelings while also building their feelings vocabulary and emotion knowledge.
Students track their breathing as they trace up and down the fingers of one hand.
In this circle activity, students practice mindful speaking and mindful listening.
A list of discussion questions to help cultivate students’ empathy.
An interactive learning strategy that helps students clarify their own ideas and hear other perspectives—while getting them out of their seats.
A game to develop students' self-control by stopping themselves from moving or dancing when the music stops
Students practice their social skills with each other while learning a new dance move
Students define gratitude and name things they’re grateful for.
A norm-setting activity to help create an environment for productive, positive, and equitable group work in math class
Students write five things they’re grateful for once a day for two weeks.
Students write a letter of thanks and deliver it in person.
Students brainstorm ways to self-correct after saying or doing the wrong thing.
A game to cultivate students’ focus and attention by listening carefully and remembering the right motion
Strategies to encourage and help students practice honesty
A game to develop students' memory and attention by remembering what you're supposed to do while doing a different motion.
A game to build students’ focus and attention by practicing careful looking to find the object that another person is thinking of
Use language that sparks helpfulness in students.
Making art about kindness inspires students to be caring and generous.
Students get a secret kindness buddy to do a kind act for during the week.
Use stories to encourage students’ courageous behavior in school and at home
Students walk silently around school, noticing people they are grateful for and telling them so.
Students extend kindness to themselves and others.
A magical game of tag that promotes inclusion and teamwork.
Simple ways for teachers, principals, and staff members to help families of all backgrounds feel welcome in the school community
Students learn to notice sounds, their beginnings and endings, and the silent spaces between each sound.
A daily mindfulness and music appreciation practice for the whole school or a single classroom
Students pay close attention to the experience of seeing while observing an object.
A short practice for mindfully exploring your emotional experience when you help a student
Make music together to encourage generosity and helping behavior in young children.
A game to build students' focus and attention by remembering when to use motions instead of words.
Grades K-3 students learn about the three parts of the brain that are involved with emotion regulation, attention, and learning.
A game to develop student's memory and attention by remembering what each person has said and repeating it in the correct order
Students take time to reflect on positive experiences, attributes, and/or aspirations.
Students take time to reflect on positive experiences, attributes, and/or aspirations.
Students take time to reflect on positive experiences, attributes, and/or aspirations.
Students identify ways that they have acted with kindness towards others.
Tap into students’ questions and and encourage them to wonder about the world around them.
Review and expand your classroom or school library with books that represent diverse backgrounds.
Students practice kindness to increase their happiness
Students discuss the SEL skills touched upon during the activity in which they have just participated.
Students practice noticing body sensations and relaxing body parts.
Students learn to relax their bodies and quiet their minds.
Use language to help orient students toward cooperation.
Students observe their breath while relaxing and tensing their bodies, and then practice shaking and freezing their bodies.
Students share stories about a time they felt grateful.
A game to develop students' memory and attention by remembering what motions accompany each phrase, and doing them correctly quickly
A game to develop students' self-control by doing the correct (silly) motion instead of the automatic one
A game to develop students' self-control by listening for a key phrase before doing an action
A game to develop students' self-control by managing how they sing a familiar song
Ideas for promoting family involvement through the joy of dance
A list of strategies for making explicit connections to SEL skills throughout the day in order to reinforce students’ practice of skills
Students build trust and inclusion through a quick and fun game that reveals their commonalities.
Strategies for parents and caregivers to show their children they love them by helping them to process their emotions
Strategies for parents and caregivers that teach their children how to practice to help them achieve their goals
Discussion questions for families to deepen their child’s experience of gratitude
Strategies for parents and caregivers to help their children consider offering reparations as part of their apologies
A list of strategies for parents and caregivers that encourage their children to explore the world around them
Students use mindful breathing to regulate their emotions.
A tool for fostering a supportive and equitable classroom and school environment and for promoting SEL.
Students use dance to learn about the world and celebrate diversity.
Students record three good things that happened to them each day for a week.
Students identify others' assumptions about them and then describe who they really are on the inside.
A game to develop students' self-control by waiting before doing a series of motions.
Students learn how kindness and gratitude strengthen friendships through Splat the Cat.
A game to develop students' memory and attention by keeping track of objects in order to tell which one is missing
Through stories, discussion, and creative presentations about true heroes, students foster their compassion for others and see brave community involvement as an admirable, heroic way of life.
A game to build students’ focus and attention by listening carefully to hear who stole the honey pot
A game to develop students' memory and attention by remembering a series of motions and doing them in the correct order
Students send kindness and good wishes to others.
A game to cultivate students’ focus and attention by knowing when it is their turn and the right thing to say
