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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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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Cooperation Puzzles - Teamwork Activity
Explore the benefits of cooperation with a tangram-style team-building activity.
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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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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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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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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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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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Social Skills Lessons - Cooperation Worksheets
Teach social skills lessons on cooperation with a set of printable SEL worksheets.
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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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Oral Language Activities
Share these oral language activities with your students to help them practise listening to others, expressing opinions, receiving instructions, and more!
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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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G.R.O.U.P.S - Group Work Expectations Poster
Encourage cooperative behaviour during group work activities with a printable group work mnemonic poster.
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Five Finger Forgiveness – Poster and Writing Activity
Teach your students how to forgive others in order to keep and maintain relationships with this poster and writing prompt.
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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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Being a Good Friend – Mini-Book
A social story to develop social skills for being a good friend.
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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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Team Building Games for Upper Grades
Encourage communication and cooperation with a set of 10 team building games.
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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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My Cooperation Sticker Chart
Promote and reward cooperative behaviour with a pack of printable cooperation sticker charts.
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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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Cooperation Cartoons - Social Skills Activity
Encourage cooperation and collaboration in your classroom with a collaborative drawing activity.
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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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Friendship Fun! – Board Game
Discuss characteristics of healthy friendships as well as how to repair relationships with a fun and engaging board game.
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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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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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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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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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I Can Be Cooperative - Social Skills Sort
Practise personal and social skills to cooperate and interact respectfully with others with an engaging sorting activity.
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Cooperation Station - SEL & Character Education Craft
Make your classroom a better “space” with cooperative learning and a fun Cooperation Station craft!
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What is Cooperation? - Social Emotional Writing Prompts
Teach your students about cooperative and non-cooperative behaviours with a set of ten writing prompt worksheets.