Social Awareness Teaching Resources
Help your students build social awareness skills with activities and printables, social skills worksheets and more SEL teaching resources created by teachers specifically for elementary and middle school students.
This collection is full of digital and printable activities created by the expert teachers of the Teach Starter team to help teachers as they work with students on being more socially aware, recognize social cues, understand social dynamics and treat the people around them with kindness and courtesy.
Each teaching resource in this social awareness teaching resource collection has undergone rigorous review by the Teach Starter team to ensure it's ready for the classroom ... and your students!
Curious about teaching social awareness and wondering how to build students' social skills? Read on for some tips from our expert teachers!
What Is Social Awareness? A Kid-Friendly Definition
Being socially aware is not something that comes naturally to every child, and explaining what social awareness means can be tough. Our teacher team has created this kid-friendly definition to help!
Social awareness is understanding how other people feel and what they need. When we are socially aware, we notice how others are doing, and we make an effort to be kind and helpful to them.
Social awareness also means paying attention to the rules and ways people behave in different situations.
Being socially aware means we are more sensitive to the feelings of people around us, and we can then use our social skills — such as the ability to be kind, to listen and to cooperate – to work with others. It means we can empathize with others, understand diverse perspectives and navigate social interactions effectively.
Social Awareness Examples for Kids
Now that you've explained the social awareness meaning, it helps to explore what it actually looks like when you put it into practice. Many of your students may have at least some skills already at hand — depending on the individual student and grade level.
A kindergartner, for example, may show empathy by giving a crying friend a hug or sharing a toy, but they're typically not yet able to understand that people have different perspectives.
So how can your students show they're socially aware? Let's look at some kid-friendly social awareness examples!
- Taking turns on the playground or at the water fountain.
- Sharing crayons or gluesticks with classmates.
- Making eye contact with friends when they're speaking.
- Paying attention when a teacher is speaking and not interrupting.
- Collaborating with classmates to complete a group assignment.
- Using conflict resolution skills to address issues with a friend.
- Offering to help the gym teacher put away the basketballs or helping the school librarian shelve the books that have been left out by other students.
What Is the Difference Between Self Awareness and Social Awareness?
We teach students both self awareness and social awareness in elementary and middle school, and the two relate to one another as important aspects of emotional intelligence.
But where social awareness is focused outward on the emotions, perspectives and needs of others, self awareness focuses inward on recognizing those concepts in oneself.
Social Awareness and Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is an umbrella term that involves a number of the core components of a social emotional learning curriculum — including self awareness, self management and relationship management, as well as social awareness.
So how does social awareness specifically tie back to emotional intelligence? Being emotionally intelligent involves not just recognizing emotions in one's self but in others — the basic component of social awareness for our students.
Take social dynamics, for example. Understanding the social dynamics at play in a particular situation is a big part of being socially aware. Recognizing group norms, cultural differences and power dynamics all help our students to avoid causing offense or discomfort in others. It's a great example of having the emotional intelligence required to navigate a situation!
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Responding With Empathy Matching Activity
Guide your students to identify emotions in others and select appropriate ways to respond with empathy with this matching activity.
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Empathy, Sympathy and Compassion Poster for the Classroom
Highlight the differences between empathy, sympathy and compassion with this printable poster.
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Recognizing Feelings - Flashcards
Improve your students' emotional literacy with this set of feelings flashcards.
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Rules for School Mini-Book
Remind students about appropriate behaviors at school with this printable mini-book.
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Cooperation Social Stories - Interactive Activity
Help your students differentiate between uncooperative and cooperative behavior in social situations with an interactive activity.
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Kindness Word Search
Download a printable word search about kindness for elementary school to explore this important aspect of social awareness with your students.
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Personal Space Flipbook
Explore the concept of personal space and how it keeps us safe with this activity flipbook.
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Am I A Space Invader? Poster and Worksheet Set
Learn about personal space with this space invader poster and worksheet set.
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Social Stories - Personal Space
Learn about the importance of leaving personal space when interacting with others with this personal space social story.
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Personal Space Posters
Learn about personal space with these space-themed classroom posters.
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Showing Compassion Google Slides Interactive Activity
Help students understand the importance of caring for others and how to appropriately respond with this interactive activity.
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Understanding and Communicating Consent — Teaching Slides
Introduce your middle school students to the concept of consent, the steps of seeking, giving, or denying consent, and how to communicate in familiar scenarios.
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'Ways To Show Empathy' Poster and Worksheet
Use this printable empathy for kids poster and worksheet to teach your students how to share the feelings of others.
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Social Cues Poster & Worksheet
Teach your students about different social cues with this printable poster and worksheet.
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Saying Sorry Mini-Book
Learn how to develop strategies and skills for saying sorry to others 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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Be Somebody's Sunshine Template
Reflect on what kindness looks like with this student template.
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Sprinkle Kindness Activity Book Template
Encourage students to write about ways to be kind to people and the planet with a printable sprinkle kindness activity book.
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Sharing with My Friends – Mini-Book
Develop skills and strategies for sharing with others with this printable mini-book.
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Being a Good Listener – Mini-Book
Develop and reinforce appropriate listening skills with this printable social skills mini-book.
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Being a Good Friend – Mini-Book
Learn how to be a good friend and maintain relationships with this printable social skills book.
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Gratitude Task Cards
Invite students to practice gratitude with this set of 12 task cards that get students to brainstorm what they are thankful for.
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Twelve Days of Kindness – Christmas Challenge Worksheet
Challenge your students to commit 12 random acts of Christmas kindness with a printable kindness activity for elementary school students.
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What Does It Mean To Be Grateful? Teaching Slide Deck
Use this editable teaching slide deck when teaching your students about gratitude.
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Characteristics of Emotions - Poster Set
Learn the facial expressions and body cues that accompany the most common emotional states with this poster set.
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Kindness is Sweet Template
Think about sweet things you can say to others that are kind and display the finished cupcakes in your classroom as a kindness display.
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Kindness Tracker Jar
Track kindness in the classroom with this kindness jar ready to be colored in with random acts of kindness.
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Kindness Word Scramble
Use this Kindness Word Scramble worksheet to talk about the different words associated with being kind
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Kindness Quilt Bulletin Board Set
Create classroom community and promote kindness with a World Kindness Day kindness quilt bulletin board printable.
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World Kindness Day Craft Activity - Bee Kind Template
Build a beautiful World Kindness Day Bee with a writing and craft template.
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Kindness Hat Template
Use this printable kindness hat to celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Day or World Kindness Day in the classroom!
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Diversity Reading Challenge
Celebrate diversity and inclusivity through our student reading challenge adapted to different ability levels.
- Social Awareness Templates
- Social Awareness Posters
- Social Awareness Worksheets
- Social Awareness for Pre-K
- Social Awareness for Kindergarten
- Social Awareness for 1st Grade
- Social Awareness for 2nd Grade
- Social Awareness for 3rd Grade
- Social Awareness for 4th Grade
- Social Awareness for 5th Grade
- Social Awareness for 6th Grade