Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Teacher Clip Art, Literary Resources, Classroom Ideas

Stories To Teach Social Skills

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Stories are the perfect way to teach social skills and introduce new concepts. This post focuses on a series of books based on silly monsters who explore and illustrate essential social skills topics. They also illustrate principles of distance learning and ideas for how to stop the spread of germs. Perfect for starting important discussions, whether you are teaching remotely or in person!

Monster Social Skills Stories

My students love everything about monsters, whether they are scary or just silly! This set [Read More…]

Social Skills Stories

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Do you use social skills stories in your classroom? One of my favorite things about teaching is sharing books and stories with my students. Even better if students can learn about important topics while they enjoy the stories and characters!

Bunny And Bear Social Skills Stories

This post focuses on our series of books called Bunny and Bear. Bunny and Bear books are social stories which teach essential social skills to young children. My own students immediately fell in love with [Read More…]

Instagram Archive

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Looking for a clickable link for something spotted on my Instagram account? Click on the images below!

MORE FREE DOWNLOADS

You may also be interested the FREE downloads in the posts listed below!

I hope you find some helpful resources!

Free Downloads: First Grade Writing

Free Downloads: Simple Art Templates

Math Centers: Free Downloads

Free Directed Drawing Videos: Students Draw Along

Free Letter Sounds Song [Read More…]

Teaching Social Skills with Social Stories

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WHAT ARE SOCIAL STORIES?
Do you use social stories in your classroom?
Social stories are simple stories that describe common situations that occur frequently in the classroom. They state a situation clearly, possible feelings that may occur, self-talk strategies that can be helpful, and the desired outcomes.
These stories have been especially helpful for my younger students, students with autism, or students with self-regulation problems.
Over the last 20+ years of teaching, I have seen many students struggle to navigate the complex social situations in the [Read More…]

Social Emotional Learning in the Primary Classroom

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SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
Years ago I would get some disapproving looks when I mentioned how much classroom time I dedicate to social emotional learning. “What about the curriculum! You’ll never get through it all if you don’t start right away!”
But I did get through it all, sometimes with time to spare. Why? I found that if we solidified expectations for kindness, inclusion and self-management early, and spent a LOT less time on disruptions through the year. Plus, we were shaping future citizens; it’s not [Read More…]

Christmas Kindness

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Teaching about kindness and acceptance is always time well spent, especially at Christmas.
Here’s a fun and FREE activity to share with your class!
 

 
Santa’s long beard is filled with acts of kindness for children to complete. The tasks are simple, such as “Smile at as many people as you can today” or “Give a compliment”.
Students trim each task off of Santa’s beard as the task is completed! This makes for wonderful discussions as students share their experience and feelings after spreading [Read More…]

Social Skills Poetry

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I’m always looking for new ways to integrate social skills into my teaching.
Poetry is a fun new way to teach social skills!

This year, we decided to integrate social skills in our teaching with our Poem of the Week! Each week we focus on a different social skill and use it to read, write, discuss, sort, and so much more!
Here are some of our poetry topics:
For Carpet Time:
Hands In My Lap, I Can Raise My Hand,  Meet At The Carpet, Ready To [Read More…]

Teaching Social Skills: Daily Group Lessons

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Using Morning Meetings for Teaching Social Skills

Even though social skills are so important, it’s often difficult to fit the lessons in each day. When they do happen, it’s often in reaction to a conflict that has occurred, and there’s usually not much time to really discuss the topic thoroughly.
Last year, I tried a different approach. I thought, if I could begin each day with a ten-minute talk with my students about class routines and expected behavior, I’d be more likely [Read More…]

Tips for Teaching Responsibility

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Welcome to the Social Skills Ideas Bank!
The Social Skills Idea Bank is a series of related posts, each dedicated to sharing strategies for teaching a particular social skill.
As teachers, our strength lies in sharing our ideas, experiences and strategies!
This is a growing list, and you are invited to contribute in the comments section. We hope you will, because there’s nothing like a good idea shared between teachers to make our jobs easier.
In this post you will find lots of simple ways to encourage students [Read More…]

Social Emotional Learning Tips

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Social Emotional Learning, or S.E.L., has always been a critical element of a successful classroom. However, it is being taught more explicitly in recent years. As primary teachers, we have probably already been doing many things to foster and encourage SEL in our classroom. Intuitively, we create a warm, inclusive environment. We help students to learn routines that are essential in a group learning environment. We help students to navigate peer conflict that may arise.

How can we go even even [Read More…]

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