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 define gratitude and give an example of a time they felt grateful.
Expand students’ thinking through awe
Students learn to say “thank you” in American Sign Language and brainstorm non-verbal ways to express gratitude.
Experience awe through visual design.
Students feel the earth under their feet in this mindful movement practice.
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.
A cooperative learning technique that engages all students’ participation through movement, discussion, and communication of ideas.
Use the Circle process to build a sense of connection among students and staff by sharing moods, feelings, and moments of joy and pain.
Students develop courage by evaluating an idea or proposition and taking a stance on it.
Students explore their thoughts, emotions, or ideas by freewriting on a topic of their choosing, an academic-related question, or an ethical dilemma.
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
Experience music together to inspire awe, cultivate an awareness of emotions, and craft connection in the classroom.
Students brainstorm ideas for coping with anger as a first step to forgiveness.
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.
A short but powerful number sense activity that shows students the visual nature of math, creativity in math, and that there are many different ways people see math.
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.
Students reflect on why another person acted kindly towards them, and practice gratitude both verbally & in writing.
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 identify emotions related to gratitude.
Engage, motivate, and calm students by cultivating awe through sensory experiences.
Spark creativity and curiosity in students through inspiring works of art.
Students track their breathing as they trace up and down the fingers of one hand.
Students “finish” math problems by making connections between solutions to problems and everyday life.
In this circle activity, students practice mindful speaking and mindful listening.
A list of discussion questions to help cultivate students’ empathy.
An opening math activity that provides students the opportunity to appreciate different ways of achieving the same answer.
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 reflect on acts of kindness and how they often require intention and effort on the part of the person who does them.
A norm-setting activity to help create an environment for productive, positive, and equitable group work in math class
Students cultivate greater humility by practicing good listening skills.
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 deepen their understanding of gratitude by “embodying” it.
Students take a mindful walk in nature, noting what they are grateful for, and create a collaborative art piece of their experience.
Students express gratitude towards the many people whose efforts have brought them food.
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
Play sound in a circle to synchronize and create a harmonious vibe among students
Broaden students’ thinking and connection to something larger than themselves.
Students reflect on examples of the goodness of humanity.
Students explore what forgiveness is and what it is not.
Foster pride and respect in and between students by dismantling assumptions.
Making art about kindness inspires students to be caring and generous.
Students learn about forgiveness from book characters.
Students connect with each other through awe-eliciting music experiences.
Students listen to a song or piece of music and observe their responses.
Students extend kindness to themselves and others.
Students mentally send good wishes to someone who is important to them.
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
A daily mindfulness and poetry 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
Students experience awe and create meaning when mindfully focusing their attention on nature.
Boost students’ growth mindset in math through a short video and discussion.
A game to build students' focus and attention by remembering when to use motions instead of words.
A game to develop student's memory and attention by remembering what each person has said and repeating it in the correct order
Students collaborate on the development of classroom norms.
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.
A brief learning activity that demonstrates the many different ways people see math and builds students’ flexibility with numbers.
Help students plan enjoyable activities as a form of self-care
Review and expand your classroom or school library with books that represent diverse backgrounds.
Create class community by brainstorming ways to stop put-downs.
Students practice kindness to increase their happiness
Help students calm themselves through a short coloring exercise.
Students cultivate practical wisdom by working through a moral dilemma and deciding on a course of action.
Students discuss the SEL skills touched upon during the activity in which they have just participated.
Foster students’ moral identity through story writing.
Students share their opinions and disagreements in healthy ways.
Students practice appreciating the body’s processes in a deeply mindful way.
Foster well-being and connection by contemplating the magnitude of the universe.
Students observe their breath while relaxing and tensing their bodies, and then practice shaking and freezing their bodies.
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
Using awe to encourage wonder about all topics and openness to each other’s thoughts and ideas.
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
Students spend a day or two doing a variety of meaningful activities.
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
A practice for parents and caregivers to help their child or teen plan enjoyable activities as a form of self-care
Help kids rethink prejudice and connect across differences.
Increase cooperation and teamwork by “moving in unison.”
Students learn to manage their emotions in a healthy way by identifying the people and places that influence changes in 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 explore how every person has dignity and worth—even those who hurt us.
Students identify others' assumptions about them and then describe who they really are on the inside.
Grade 4-7 students learn about the three parts of the brain that are involved with emotion regulation, attention, and learning.
A game to develop students' self-control by waiting before doing a series of motions.
Experience awe and social connection through simple movements or dance
Students imagine what life would be like without certain things in our classrooms or schools.
Students identify what gets in the way of expressing gratitude.
A game to develop students' memory and attention by keeping track of objects in order to tell which one is missing
Students learn how our different backgrounds give us different perspectives.
Students examine how they face everyday moral dilemmas and consider who and what influences their reactions when conflicts arise.
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 respectfully discuss their stance on a current event.
A game to cultivate students’ focus and attention by knowing when it is their turn and the right thing to say
