Self Awareness Teaching Resources
Help your students develop self awareness with activities, printables and more social and emotional teaching resources designed specifically for primary school students.
Created by teachers, for teachers, this collection is full of digital and printable activities designed to help students recognise their emotions and learn to identify their own strengths and weaknesses. Each teaching resource has undergone rigorous review by the Teach Starter team to ensure it's ready for the classroom ... and your students!
Curious about teaching self awareness and wondering how it applies to kids in your classroom? Read on for some tips from our expert teachers!
What Is Self Awareness? A Kid-Friendly Definition
Most students are not terribly self aware when they enter primary school, and that's completely normal. After all, any adults aren't very adept at self awareness! That's why it's so important to include these lessons in your planning to help students flex those muscles and become more aware of who they are.
So how do you explain the meaning of self awareness to your class, and how do you teach it? Let's start with a kid-friendly definition.
Self awareness means understanding yourself, your feelings and how your actions affect other people.
You might tell your students that being self-aware is a bit like having a mirror inside your mind that can help you see who you are and how you can make good choices.
Explain to students that when you're self-aware, you know what you're good at and what you might need to work on to become your own superhero.
Why Is Self Awareness Important?
Learning to be self-aware is part of gaining control of one's own emotions, thoughts and actions, and the lessons we teach in the classroom contribute to our students' personal growth, social interactions and overall well-being in the immediate future and well into adulthood.
When kids (and adults!) lack self awareness, they tend to struggle with poor decision-making, and they may have trouble understanding how their behaviour affects others. This can lead to misunderstandings and conflicts with peers and others around them or even unintentional harm to relationships, as they may struggle to empathise or consider the perspectives of others.
Self Awareness Examples for Kids
Explaining self-awareness by providing a definition is one thing, but surely you want to dig a little deeper.
Here are some examples from our teacher team that you can use to illustrate what it means to be self-aware — and why it's so important!
- Identifying Emotions — Being able to label our emotions with names like happiness, sadness, anger or excitement is a great example of being self-aware. For example, your students might learn to say, 'I feel happy when I play with my friends at recess.'
- Understanding Your Talents — Another example of self awareness that kids can easily relate to is identifying one's strengths or talents. It can be helpful to consider things we can do well and things we want to work on to improve. For example, a student might say 'I am very good at singing, but I would like to practise my spelling to improve.'
- Seeing Strengths in Our Peers — Acknowledging our own strengths is only part of being self-aware. It's also good for students to identify (and celebrate) the strengths of others. This will help them build better relationships in the long run.
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Ways to Build Self-Esteem Classroom Poster
Nurture your students by providing them with simple ways to build up their self-esteem with this set of classroom posters.
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Mirror Self-Esteem Activity
Explore self-image and self-esteem with this mirror worksheet for students.
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Building Self-Esteem Teaching Slides
Explore how to build up self esteem with this set of teaching slides perfect for social emotional learning lessons.
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Growth Mindset Advice Dice Game
A dice game in which students are given a challenging scenario and give advice using Captain Yet's optimistic solutions.
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Growth Mindset PowerPoint
A 12 Page PowerPoint Presentation on Developing a Growth Mindset for students.
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Road to High Self-Esteem Board Game
Help students understand what self-esteem is and how to boost their own self-esteem with this board game.
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Let's Look at Self Esteem Interactive Activity
Boost your students' self-esteem with this fun and engaging interactive activity.
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Self-Esteem Activity Mini-Book
Build up your student's self-esteem with this activity mini book template.
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Self -Esteem Flipbook
Explore the topic of self-esteem with your students using this engaging flipbook template.
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Personality And Values Activity (Personality Islands Project)
Explore your students’ personalities and values with this fun personality island project.
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Growing GRIT Writing Template
Encourage students to think about what grit is as well as words that describe grit with this craft template.
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My Self-Esteem Review Template
Help students reflect on their own self esteem with this self-esteem rating template.
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Self-Esteem Survey Worksheet
Explore self-esteem with your students with this printable self-esteem survey.
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My Accomplishments Worksheets
Celebrate your students' achievements and accomplishments with these self-esteem boosting worksheets!
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Focusing on Strengths Sorting Cards
Identify individual strengths with this set of strength vocabulary task cards.
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'Why I'm AMAZING' Self-Esteem Templates
Boost students' self-esteem with these Reasons Why I'm AMAZING templates.
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Building Self-Esteem Poster Set
Help your students learn how to boost their own self-esteem with this set of classroom posters.
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Growth Mindset Brag Tags
Celebrate students using a growth mindset with printable growth mindset brag tags!
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Back to School Surveys - All About Me
First Day of School Student Surveys.
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Are We There Yet? – Growth Mindset Progress Tracker
Help your students develop a growth mindset by reflecting on their learning progress with this progress tracking chart.
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My Heart Full of Emotions Activity
Promote mindfulness and self reflection by writing out descriptions of different emotions.
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How Would I Feel? Sorting Activity
Explore students’ emotional intelligence and develop emotional vocabulary through real-life scenarios.
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Self-Perception Worksheet
Identify strengths and areas of growth by asking students to reflect on their self-image, self-esteem, and ideal self.
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Growth Affirmation Display Banner
A beautifully designed growth affirmation display banner for the classroom.
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Worry Jar – Cut and Assemble Kit
Create a worry jar for your students to help them recognise and cope with their worries.
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Growth Mindset Goal Sticker Chart (Captain Yet Version) – Template
Print a growth mindset sticker chart template for students to track the progress of their goals.
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Are We There Yet? — Growth Mindset Posters
Print thse large growth mindset posters to help students learn to work more resourcefully and independently in the classroom.
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Growth Mindset Captain Yet: Nup's Odyssey It's Not Over Yet – Large Posters
Large Captain Yet posters to help students learn more resourcefully and independently in the classroom.
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Growth Mindset Inspired Goals – Template
A reflection template for students to use their strengths and Captain Yet's strategies to achieve their goals.
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Captain Yet: Pirate Nup's Odyssey It's Not Over Yet – Poster
A Captain Yet poster to help students learn more resourcefully and independently in the classroom.
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Personal and Social Capability - Self-awareness Badges
A selection of 7 students badges that celebrate student success in the area of self-awareness.
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Growth Mindset Worksheets
A set of worksheets to use when teaching students about Growth Mindsets.
- Self Awareness Posters
- Self Awareness Worksheets
- Self Awareness Templates
- Self Awareness Labels, Signs & Decorations
- Self Awareness Games
- Self Awareness for Foundation Year
- Self Awareness for Year 1
- Self Awareness for Year 2
- Self Awareness for Year 3
- Self Awareness for Year 4
- Self Awareness for Year 5
- Self Awareness for Year 6