Relationship Skills Teaching Resources
Help students build their relationship skills this school year with activities, games and more for your SEL lesson plans.
This collection of primary school teaching resources was created by the expert teachers of Teach Starter for teachers like you to help students build the skills they need to manage relationships with classmates and school staff, as well as those important friendships, family bonds and more out in the real world.
Set your students up for success with team-building activities that promote collaboration and provide opportunities for your students to work together, communicate effectively and solve problems as a team. Explore friendship activities that explore how to be a good friend. Browse printable games that teach students how to resolve conflicts with friends and teammates and a whole lot more.
Are you new to teaching relationship skills, or maybe you're just looking for fresh ideas to help your students manage relationships in your classroom and their lives? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Are Relationship Skills?
We're going to start simple here, but bear with us! When it comes to teaching anything, it helps to step back and look at what's at the heart of the topic.
Relationship skills are the abilities and behaviours that enable our students (and ourselves!) to interact effectively with others, build and maintain positive relationships and navigate social situations successfully.
Simple enough, right? Like much of the SEL curriculum, there are a variety of 'skills' that are intertwined here, but these are the core concepts our teacher team considers part of relationship skills:
- Communication
- Friendship
- Empathy
- Cooperation
- Conflict resolution
- Problem-solving
Of course, these will tie back to other topics within SEL. For example, it takes social awareness to show empathy, and it takes decision-making skills to resolve conflict.
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Team Building Games for Upper Grades
Encourage communication and cooperation with a set of 10 team building games.
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Our Class is a Family Activity Flipbook
Start building a classroom community from day one with a printable ‘Our Class is a Family’ flipbook.
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Find a Friend Who…Worksheet
Encourage students to engage with different classmates and learn about others with this whole-class activity.
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Cooperation Puzzles - Teamwork Activity
Explore the benefits of cooperation with a tangram-style team-building activity.
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Big Problem or Little Problem? – Sorting Activity
Use our Big Problem vs. Little Problem activity cards and worksheets to help your students learn to manage peer relationships in the classroom.
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Recess Rules: True Friends – Worksheet
Learn about being a good friend while also brushing up on those reading comprehension skills with this comic strip activity.
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Picture Puzzles - Team Building Activity
Build classroom community with a set of team-building puzzles for primary students.
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Whole Body Listening – Poster and Worksheet
Use this poster and accompanying worksheet to teach your students about whole body listening.
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Conflict Resolution Tips Poster
Display some top tips for solving playground conflicts with this colourful and informative classroom poster.
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How To Be a Good Friend – Teaching Slides
Learn how to form healthy and long-lasting friendships with this set of teaching slides.
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Listening to Others – Discussion Task Cards and Poster
Give students the opportunity to work on their listening skills and learn what it means to be a good listener with this set of 42 discussion cards and classroom poster.
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Best Friend Wanted Poster Template
Use our Best Friend Wanted Poster Template to spark new friendships at the beginning of the year.
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Good Choice or Bad Choice? Worksheet
Help your students differentiate between good and bad behaviour choices with a cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Looks Like, Sounds Like, Feels Like - Cooperation Anchor Charts
Teach your students what cooperation looks, feels, and sounds like with a set of printable posters.
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I Can Use My Words Mini-Book
Develop strategies and skills for communicating with others when you don’t like something with this printable mini-book.
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Printable Harmony Day Bracelets
Celebrate diversity and inclusion by having your students create their own Harmony Day bracelets with mindful colouring and meaningful words that reflect the spirit of the holiday.
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How to Be a Good Friend – Mini-Book
Encourage students to build relationships by learning how to be a good friend with this printable mini-book.
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What Good Friends Do – Differentiated Friendship Worksheets
Sort verbs according to if they are friendly or unfriendly interactions with this friendship worksheet.
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Race to 50: Cooperation Challenges
Explore the benefits of cooperation with a set of team-building number race activities.
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Grow a Friendship Garden – Friendship Activities
Encourage students to make a friendship garden grow with this activity bundle that includes friendship worksheets, writing templates, craft templates and scenario cards.
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Conflict Resolution Template
Manage classroom and playground conflicts positively and proactively with this conflict resolution template.
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How to Make Friends Social Story
Learn the different ways you can make friends with this how to make friends social story.
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How to Be a Good Friend Poster
Use this poster to teach your students how to be a good friend to others.
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We Can Cooperate Mini Book
Read to learn about cooperative behaviour with a printable one-page foldable mini book.
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Cooperation Word Search
Review vocabulary and boost your students’ cooperative interaction skills with a word search worksheet.
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Asking My Friends to Play Mini-Book
Learn about appropriate social skills when asking friends to play with this printable mini-book.
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Being a Good Friend – Mini-Book
A social story to develop social skills for being a good friend.
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Cooperation Task Cards - Social Skills Activity
Build problem-solving skills and boost cooperative behaviour in the classroom with printable discussion cards and writing prompts.
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Friendship Writing Prompts
Encourage positive relationships by using our friendship writing prompts in your classroom.
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Saying Sorry Mini-Book
Learn strategies and skills for saying sorry and apologising to others with this printable mini-book.
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I Can't Always Win Mini-Book
Teach your students to cope when they are not the winner with this social story mini-book.
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Oral Language Activities
Share these oral language activities with your students to help them practise listening to others, expressing opinions, receiving instructions, and more!