Teaching Social Skills in Kindergarten

At the beginning of the year routines and procedures are the focus in my classroom.  It is important to establish routines and procedures when building a classroom community.  In kindergarten we revisit these daily during the first few weeks until the students understand. With routines and procedures also comes the teaching of social skills.

Being that most of my students have never been to school we also spend a lot of time on social skills.  To do this we read a lot of books.  I have acquired a large collection of social skills books to help me teach these lessons.  You can find my entire collection on Amazon . Through literature, puppets and dramatization I can teach my students various social skills to help them be better school citizens and friends.

Tattling

Tattling is something that kindergarteners do continuously.  I like to read the book Tattle Tongue before talking about the difference between tattling and telling.  It it often so hard for kids to understand the difference. and they need to be frequently reminded that if it doesn't haven to do with them, then it isn't their job to tell me.  Unless someone is being hurt or the other student is causing harm to another student or school property, they don't need to tell me.  I will often ask if they are being a Tattle Tongue This seems to help remind them of the story and their role as a student in the classroom.  How do you deal with tattling?

Voice Levels

When introducing the different voice levels we use in our classroom, I like to read Decibella and then introduce my Voice Level Chart as well.  We practice using all of our voice levels. This helps the kids to understand what is an appropriate noise level inside the classroom and what is not.  

 

Friendship

The friendship triangle starts in kindergarten and with it comes tears.  Pink Tiara Cookies for Three . is one of my go to books for this.  It is so hard for little ones to understand that they can have more than one friend. Even as adults, we all know that one person who still has that problem.  For this situation, I like to do a lot of role play that involves playground situations.  It is important for the students to have the language to express their feelings with their friends.  Often they have not had the opportunity to play with others until they get to school. Therefor they do not know how to play. Now it has become our job to teach them.  

Scenario: Student 1 & 2 are playing student 3 asks if they can play.  

Student 3: Can I play

Student 1: No we are already playing.

Student 3 Looks sad

Student 2: Let's all play together, we can all be friends.

Students 1 and 3:  OK!

For more Social Skills Books you might like some of these below which are some of my favorites. All of which can be found on Amazon. 

(These are affiliate links-meaning if you purchase an item after clicking one of the links from this website, I may make a small profit which I use to provide materials for my own students)

 

I know there are so many great books out fore for social emotional learning these are just some of my favorites.  Two of my favorite authors are Julia Cook and Maria Dismondy.  Their books really work well for hitting the hard topics with kids and can be read several times throughout the year.  For more great book you can find them in my Time 4 Kindergarten Amazon Store

I hope you find some these ideas helpful- if so, be sure to subscribe to my mailing list you can also find me on FB, Instagram and TpT.   What are some of your favorite Social skills books and lessons?