Social games for preschoolers

20 Evidence-Based Social Skills Activities and Games for Kids

Oct 14 2020

Positive Action Staff

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SEL Articles

Activities and games for socialization are a great way for your child to learn how to behave around their peers, no matter if he is a toddler, preschooler or if he just started kindergarten. Games can teach skills like taking turns, managing emotions, and reading body language.

Use these evidence-based social skills activities to help your child build their social behaviors and learn how their actions affect others. With these games, they can become more independent and maintain healthy relationships throughout their lives.

1. Staring Contest

Many children have trouble maintaining eye contact in conversation. A staring contest can help kids make and keep eye contact in a way that allows them to focus on that task, rather than trying to communicate simultaneously.

If your child still feels uncomfortable, you can start smaller. Place a sticker on your forehead for them to look at and then build toward having a conversation.

2. Roll the Ball

It’s never too early to start building social skills, and a game of roll the ball suits children as young as toddlers. Kids take turns rolling a ball back and forth between them, laying the foundation for other social skills.

Kids learn to carry this skill into taking turns in conversation or when doing joint activities. They also learn self-control by aiming the ball toward their friend and rolling it hard enough to reach them yet with limited force.

3. Virtual Playtime

Sometimes, your child can’t have play dates in person, but they can still spend time together over video chat and other online spaces. Video chats help kids make eye contact by looking at their friend on the screen.

Learning to adapt to new situations becomes a valuable trait, whether with social distancing or in their future workplace. Coming up with new ways to spend time together increases problem-solving abilities, which adds to a set of vital social skills.

4. Emotion Charades

Emotion charades involves writing different emotions on strips of paper. Your child picks one out of a hat or bucket. Then, they must try to act out that emotion.

Emotion charades can help children learn to recognize emotions using facial and body cues. You can even adapt social skills activities like this to create a game similar to Pictionary, where children draw the emotion.

By depicting and acting out emotional expressions and reactions in social skills activities, children learn emotion management, which plays an important role in creating positive relationships and communicating feelings.

5. Expression Mimicking Games

When you play this game with your child, you're teaching social skills with expressions. Mimicking your expressions allows your child to understand what certain expressions mean and recognize them when others make them in real conversations.

When kids with social challenges learn to read facial expressions, they become more comfortable in situations involving them.

6. Topic Game

You can play several variations of the topic game, but the most common one involves choosing a topic and naming things that fit into that category using each letter of the alphabet. For example, if you choose animals as the topic, you might come up with:

A: Aardvark
B: Baboon
C: Chicken

The topic game teaches kids to stick to one subject and follow directions until they complete the activity. It also helps them make connections and get creative with letters that have fewer options.

7. Step Into Conversation

Step Into Conversation is a card game made for children with autism. The game presents structured social skills activities, like starting a conversation and talking about specific subjects based on cards.

The game helps kids learn how to talk to others appropriately and carry a conversation with perspective and empathy. It teaches good manners and self-control by showing them how to politely enter a conversation, when to talk, and when to listen.

By using socialization games like this one, you give structure to conversations to develop the social skills necessary to handle different situations in their daily life.

8. Improvisational Stories

Many children tell stories even outside of intentional social skills activities. With improvisational stories, you add another challenge that requires them to collaborate and create a narrative without thinking about it beforehand.

For this activity, place cards with pictures or words face down. The child picks three of these cards, and they must include these objects or topics in the story they tell. The game ends when all the cards are gone, or the kids reach the end of their story.

You can use this activity as a multiplayer game where children take turns adding to the story and building on each other’s ideas, or one child can tell you their own story.

9. Name Game

With this simple game, kids roll or toss a ball to someone after they call out their name. Social skills activities like this one work well for helping even toddlers learn their peers’ names. It shows that they are attentive to others, and it’s a step toward getting to know other people.

10. Simon Says

Simon Says builds social skills for kids' self-control, listening, and impulse control as they copy their peers' movements and follow instructions. It also helps keep the attention on the game and rewards good behavior for those who follow the rules throughout the game.

11. Rhythm Games

You can incorporate rhythm games as a social skills activity both at home and in the classroom. These music-making games let your child be creative while following directions and recognizing patterns.

A 2010 study by Kirschner and Tomasello shows that joint music-making helps social behavior. In a game where children must “wake the frogs” with music, the researchers found that kids who followed the rules by making music were more likely to help others who tried waking the frogs with non-musical means.

12. Playing with Characters

These social skills activities involve tapping into your child’s natural tendency to play. Using stuffed animals or dolls, you can interact with your child through the toys.

Having conversations through toys teaches kids to recognize behaviors and communicate their feelings. They practice their social skills through the toys in an imaginary, low-risk environment, without worrying about the toys’ hurt feelings.

13. Play Pretend

Kids will typically create a scenario in which they pretend to be someone or something else. For example, they might play house and take on the roles of parents, become a doctor, veterinarian, teacher, or cashier. Each of these situations allows them to explore different social skills activities.

As they pretend to parent another child, for instance, they must learn to recognize and respond to emotions, deescalate situations, and adapt to new situations.

14. Token Stack

You can adapt token stack from board games like checkers to create social skills activities that teach children how to have a considerate conversation. Every time the child speaks and responds appropriately, they add another token to their stack.

They face the challenge of trying to stack their tokens as high as possible while taking turns speaking. This activity makes them focus on having a calm conversation and giving thoughtful responses to questions and statements.

15. Decision-Making Games

Social skills activities like decision-making games come in many forms. By using strategy games or activities as simple as sorting and matching, your child learns persistence, thoughtfulness, and cooperation with others.

These games help kids with indecision, as they ask the child to make a choice, even if it’s not right the first time. It demonstrates low-risk consequences and encourages them to try again if they make a mistake.

16. Building Game

When children work together to build something, like a tower using blocks, they must communicate, take turns, and understand each other to bring their creation to life.

Kids will work together to come up with a method to build their item. When they apply it, they learn to try again if the creation falls and celebrate each other’s unique abilities when they finish the project successfully.

17. Community Gardening

Community gardening works differently than other social skills activities in that it teaches children to nurture a living thing.

Gardening with others increases social competence by having your child take care of something and learn responsibility, as they cannot neglect their plants. This activity also gets kids outdoor and can help calm them.

18. Team Sports

Children can participate in team sports through their school, on a recreational team, or even play with friends in their backyard. Team sports show kids how to work together toward a common goal and keep their focus on the game.

They also learn to recognize emotions, like when someone gets hurt or scores a goal, and react appropriately when they win or lose.

19. Productive Debate

A productive debate works well for older kids to learn how to manage emotions and work on positive expression, even in challenging situations. They learn how to have difficult conversations calmly, without turning them into an argument or trying to insult the other person.

People who can debate and listen to their opponent develop more of the skills needed to become leaders in the classroom and workplace.

20. Scavenger Hunts

During scavenger hunts, children work together to find objects or get a prize at the end of the activity. By working toward their goal, they learn teamwork, organization, and positive decision-making. They can choose to split up, move as a group, and collaborate to reach the end of the game.

They also get rewarded for cooperating. These activities help them with creative problem-solving abilities by making up clues for other players to solve.

What’s Next?

Using evidence-based social skills activities and games helps your child build social skills while doing something they enjoy. You can adapt any of these activities to something that engages your child and allows them to get creative with their socialization.

However, activities and games can only go so far. The Positive Action social skills curriculum is designed to work in tandem with activities like these and more to help your child identify their self-concept and shift this introspection to their social interactions. We feel social skills start within.

Explore our sample lessons for even more ways to encourage your child’s social-emotional learning, or contact us to find out how our program can improve your child’s social skills and have fun doing it today!

100+ Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers

Inside: 100 + social skills activities for preschoolers that teach them about manners, making and keeping friends, understanding their emotions, and more!

Social skills activities for preschoolers helps teach young children valuable social skills. There are many benefits to children developing pro-social skills. For instance, research indicates that academic success in the first few years of school is significantly based on the development of children’s social and emotional skills. When kids lack crucial social skills, it makes it difficult for them to learn. For example, if a child struggles with listening and controlling their negative behaviors, focusing during class and retaining the information they are taught can be challenging.

Essential Social Skills For Preschoolers

Many kindergarten teachers report that in order for preschoolers to make a smooth transition to school, they need to have certain social and emotional skills. They need to be able to:

have positive relationships with peers

listen and follow directions

solve social problems

effectively communicate emotions

work well with others

use good manners

I’ve compiled a list of social skills activities for preschoolers to help teach young children how to get along with others, how to make and keep friends, and how to effectively communicate their emotions. I hope you find this list of activities useful!

Feelings and Emotions Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers

Feelings Identification Activities by Kiddie Matters

Activities To Teach Kids About Feelings by Gift of Curiosity

Emoji Feeling Faces: Feelings Recognition

Identifying Feelings With Self Portraits by Still Playing School

Free Printable Inside Out Bingo Game by Carrie Elle

Lego Emotion Themed ‘I-Spy’ Game w/Free Printable by And Next Comes L

5 Circle Time Lessons About Emotions by No Time For Flash Cards

Feelings Activities & Fun Ideas For Kids by Childfun

Playful Activities to Help Kids Learn About Feelings by Play Dr.Mom

Books About Emotions For Preschool by Pre-K Pages

Tools For Teaching Emotions In Kids by Laughing Kids Learn

Musical Feelings Games by Fumbling Through Parenthood

Inside Out Feelings Tic Tac Toe by The Creative Social Worker

Best Empathy Games, Apps, and Websites For Kids by Common Sense Media

Printable Emotion Cards for Preschoolers by From ABCs To ACTs

Paper Plate Emotion Masks by No Time For Flash Cards

Preschool Feelings Theme by Lanie’s Little Learners

Teaching Emotions With Songs, Activities, and Games by Testy Yet Trying

Happy Sad Sorting by The Princess And The Tot

Emotion Story Stones For Kids by Where Imagination Grows

Helping Kids Identify Mood by Kori At Home

Emotion Matching Game by B-Inspired Mama

Free Printable Emotions Board Game by Life Over C’s

Color My Feelings by Teach Beside Me

Discussing Emotions With Pasta Faces by Having Fun At Chelle’s House

Related Article: The Ultimate Guide To Social Skills Activities For Kids

Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers To Build Listening Skills

Free Conversation Game by Speech Paths

Listening Activities w/ Blocks by Hands On As We Grow

Make Popsicle Puppets and Practice Communication by Education.

com

Play Musical Statues by Education.com

Ways To Support Children’s Listening Skills by Sing Dance Play Learn

Do Three Things Listening Game-by Exploration Laboratories

Following Directions And Listening Game: Teacher Says! by Coffee Cups and Crayons

20 Listening Games And Activities For Preschoolers by Virtual Speech Center

Back To Back; Ear To Ear: A Language and Listening Game by Mosswood Connections

Do As I Say, Not As I Do by Mosswood Connections

Teach Kids To Follow Directions With Relay Races by Coffee Cups and Crayons

Following Directions Grid Game by Kids Activities Blog

Five Playful Ways To Work On Listening Skills by Playing With Words 365

Following Directions Lessons by Elementary School Counseling

Can You Draw Something You Can’t See by Nurture Store

Following Directions Game by One Stop Counseling Shop

Free Following Directions Activities by Learning Specialist Materials

Put On Your Listening Ears by Stories by Storie

Free Printable Simon Says Game by 730 Sage Street

Listening And Learning Activities With Pete The Cat by Kathy Griffin’s Teaching Strategies

Friendship Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers

How To Be A Friend by Gifts of Curiosity

How To Play With Friends w/free printable by Powerful Mothering

Leonardo The Terrible Monster (How To Be a Good Friend Activity and Game by The OT Toolbox

Friendship Crafts, Activities, and Printables by Kids Soup

Pass The Ice Cream: Sharing Activity for Preschoolers by Sunny Day Family

Friendship Art by Munchkins And Mom

Kindness Postcards by Growing Book By Book

Friendship: Exploring Being A Friend by The Kinder Corner

10 Books About Making Friends by Growing Book by Book

The Rainbow Fish Book: Activities, Staff, and Snacks by Mom On Time Out

Free Taking Turns And Sharing Songs And Rhymes by Bits of Positivity

Good Behavior Games For Preschool by Parents.

com

Pony Bead Friendship Reminder Bracelet Craft by The PreSchool Toolbox

Our Friendship Flower by Dream A World

Hands Are Not For Hitting by Rhinestones & Pinecones

Free Friendship Resources by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Teaching Kids The Keys To Friendship by Simple At Home

Friendship Tree by Primary Displays

Teaching Social Emotional Skills With A Solutions Chart by Littlest Scholars

Free Social Story: Being A Good Friend by Miss Allison’s Class

Games For Teaching Boundaries by eHow

Kindness Scavenger Hunt by Kiddie Matters

Teamwork/Cooperation Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers

Five Activities That Promote Teamwork by Teach Preschool

Group Art Activity: Tennis Ball Painting by Anna Reyner

Roll The Ball by PreK and K Sharing

Team Puzzle Play by Simple Home Blessing

The Peanut Game by Education.

com

Team Building Activities For Kids by Kid’s Activities Blog

Bean Sort Easy Activity by Busy Toddler

Matching Paths by Busy Toddler

9 Cooperative Games For Preschoolers

Best Cooperative Games For Noncompetitive Kids by My Little Poppies

Social Time by Mrs. Winter’s Bliss

Preschool Engineering by Handmade Kid’s Art

Team Building Games by Tickled Pink In Primary

Parachute Play In Preschool by Teach Preschool

Race To Fill The Cup by Frugal Fun For Boys And Girls

Good Manners Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers

Manners Matter Freebie by The Helpful Counselor

Minding Our Manners by Sherbees

Fun Activities That Teach Manners by How Does She

Free Manners Printable Pack by Kori At Home

Good Manners Themes and Activities by Child Care Lounge

The Manners Song by DLTK Growing Together

Teaching Kids Manners by The Relaxed Homeschool

Little Mandy Manners (video) by Tiny Grads

Free Manners matching Cards by Deb@Living Montessori Now

Let’s Learn Manners Printable Pack by To The Moon And back Blog

Monster Manners Game by File Folder Fun

Manners Social Stories And Activities by Special Needs For Special Kids

Games That Teach Kids Good Manners by How To Adult

Can You Teach My Alligator Manners (Online Game) by Disney Junior

Free Behavior Sort Cards by Mrs.

Ricca’s Kindergarten

Decision Making Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers

Tattling Vs. Reporting File Folder Sorting Game by Kiddie Matters

I Am A Bucket Filler by Kiddie Matters

Making Good Choices by Pocket Of Preschool

Making Good Choices At School by Peace, Love, and Learning

Life’s Good Choices And Bad Sorting Activity by Miss Pentagirl Kinderpuzzle

Teaching Kids About Respect by Kiddie Matters

Choosing Good Friends by Your Life Uncommon

Lego People Challenge by You Clever Monkey

What Pet Should I Get Decision Making and Graphing Preschool Activity by Playground Parkbench

Should I Share My Ice Cream by Views From A Step Stool

Didactic games on the social and communicative development of children of senior preschool age | Card index (senior group):

Didactic games on the social and communicative development of children of senior preschool age

"Listen to the claps. "

Purpose. Development of attention, arbitrariness of behavior.

Children move freely around the room, but at the leader’s clap they must stop and turn into a stork (raise one leg, arms to the sides), they must react to two claps by turning into a frog (squat down, heels together, toes apart, between the toes of the hand ). three claps allow you to move freely again.

Comment: the game helps in the development of voluntary attention, the ability to quickly switch from one type of action to another.

"Magical Transformations".

Purpose. The development of imagination, the ability to reincarnate.

Children are offered to “turn into” berries, fruits, a steamer, a toy, etc. An adult (or one of the children) starts the game with the words: “We go into ... (pause - for the children to concentrate) garden ... (pause - each child must decide what kind of fruit it will be). One two Three!" After this command, the children take the form of the intended fruit.

Comment: an adult (or a leader - a child) should be creative in the further continuation of the game. He needs to come up with some kind of story involving children. But first he must, of course, guess who turned into whom.

"What is heard."

Purpose. Development of the ability to concentrate, correlate sounds and actions.

An adult invites the child to listen and remember what is happening outside the door. Then the child should tell what he heard. After that, they also pay attention to the window, then back to the door. Subsequently, the child must tell exactly what happened behind the window and behind the door.

Comment: the adult himself must focus on the sounds in order to help the children in case of difficulty or to correct in case of errors.

You can make the task more difficult by asking the children to take turns telling the story.

“Four elements”.

Purpose. The development of attention.

Children sit in a circle. The facilitator invites them to put their hands down at the word "earth", at the word "water" - stretch them forward, at the word "air" - raise them up, at the word "fire" - rotate with brushes. Whoever makes a mistake is out of the game.

Comments: An adult takes an active part in the game. After the children have mastered the movements, an adult can deliberately knock down the children, making mistakes. For example, say: "Air!" - but to show the movement of the "earth".

Hotball.

Target. Development of attention, speed of reaction, motor dexterity.

Children stand in a circle, very close to each other. They pass the ball to each other quickly, trying not to drop it. The one who misses the ball is out of the game. The last two remaining children win.

Comments: Other game options are based on changing the position of the children.

You can build children into a column, and pass the ball either over the head up or, bending over, through the legs. You can also build children in a zigzag.

“Shapes”.

Purpose. Development of attention, fine motor skills, imagination.

An adult lays out counting sticks in the form of a certain figure. The child must fold exactly the same figure. The complexity of the task is increasing all the time: first they show simple figures, then more complex ones; first, the child makes figures, looking at the sample, then the sample is removed, giving the child the opportunity to remember the figure.

Comments: Counting sticks can be replaced with matches with cut heads.

This game can be used most effectively with children who have difficulty concentrating and are characterized by disinhibition.

“Butterfly flight”.

Purpose. Development of attention, expressiveness of movements.

Children are asked to memorize several movements and repeat them exactly. To facilitate memorization, you can first learn the blocks of movements by giving them original names, such as: “butterfly flight”, “cat step”, etc.

Comments: it is necessary to discuss movements with children using the question “How does our bear walk (for example)?” When all children understand the principle of movements, then you can proceed directly to the game.

The game can also carry a cognitive load if it is included in classes on the study of types of professions, animals, transport, etc.; those. offer, for example, to imitate only the movements of a car, an airplane, a steam locomotive, etc.

Change of movement must be either at the command of an adult or at the sound signal. The most attentive child wins.

“Mirror”.

Target. Development of attention, speed of reaction, motor skills.

Children choose a leader, he becomes in the center, and the rest of the children form a semicircle around the leader, who shows various poses, demonstrates different facial expressions. Children must repeat them.

Comments: Change of postures and facial expressions should be fast. An adult should follow the pace and correctness.

“My extraordinary camera”.

Target. Development of attention, active vocabulary.

The children sit around. The teacher gives them pictures every 10 seconds. The pictures should get to each child 2-3 times, after which they are asked the question: which picture was shown first? What was painted on it? Children should not close their eyes when answering.

Comments: for children 5 years old, the time period can be increased to 30 seconds, and then gradually reduced. You can ask the children about who remembered the sequence of the proposed pictures. With the help of this game, it is easy to identify children with a low level of visual memory.

“Who will be who”.

Purpose. Development of attention, imagination, thinking, speech.

Children sit in a circle. The adult asks questions. Turning to each child in turn: “Who (what) will be ... (student, egg, duckling, acorn, boy, goat, lamb, puppy, kitten, larva, seed, egg, calf, piglet, chicken, chick, wolf cub, basin walrus, hare, tadpole, caterpillar, dough, onion, etc. )»

Comments: There can be several answers for each word. For example, a boy will be: a man, a locksmith, an adult, a student, a good person, a father, a brother, etc. The bulb will be lettuce, feathers, pipe, seeds, fertilizer, window sill decoration, etc.

Children can also be offered items related to the same theme (plants, animals, etc.)

“Who was”.

Purpose. Development of thinking, speech, imagination.

Children sit in a circle. An adult asks questions, turning to each child in turn: “Who (what) was ... (apple tree, buffalo, horse, chicken, frog, dog, master, bird, sheep, goat, butterfly, fish, duck, hare, etc. .)?”

Comments: the game is held immediately after the game "Who will be who" or the next day. This will help children look at everyday objects from different time points, build logical chains.

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Games for the social development of the child

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5 socialization games for preschoolers

Draw the picture game
Role play
Mirror Game
Guess the emotion game
Improvisation game

The social development of a child is one of the most important tasks not only for teachers from the early development center, but also for parents. After all, it is in the family that the baby receives the first communication lessons, learns to interact with adults and peers, and receives behavior patterns that he will use in the future. We offer great games and ideas for a home toy library that will develop communication skills in a preschooler.

Draw the picture game

This simple game comes from children's art therapy. The first participant draws some kind of squiggle or figure on the sheet, the second one completes the drawing with one detail, the third one also draws something and so on in a circle. You can play together, it will also be interesting. This game helps the child learn to work in a team and shows how something new is created as a result of joint activity.

Role play

From the age of two, kids can play role-playing games, and by the age of 3-4, this becomes the main activity of children. Games help the child explore the world, try on role models seen in the family or kindergarten. That is why early childhood development centers and toddler development centers often use such games to develop social skills. But in a home toy library for children, it is also useful to play with a child. Play with dolls, cars or plush animals situations that cause difficulties for the child, and teach him to interact with others correctly.

Mirror Game

Two participants stand opposite each other. One - the leader - begins to make movements. The other - "reflection" - repeats them synchronously. This exercise comes from children's choreography and acting, but it is used in leadership schools for children. It teaches you to feel a partner, work effectively in pairs and develop communication skills.

Guess the emotion game

Choose a book and start reading it with your child. It is important to choose books by age, their list will probably be given by a teacher from the child development center. Ask the child to guess the character's emotion. Try not to say the name of the emotion out loud. For example, if it says "he got angry," change it to "he frowned and stamped his foot." Ask your child why the character is experiencing this particular emotion? What does he feel now? Is he good or bad? How could you help him cope with feelings and is it necessary?

This game very well develops emotional intelligence - a necessary component of the complex development of the child. Such children feel the interlocutor better, make contact easier and communicate more effectively.

Improvisation game

If your child attends a children's theater studio, he is probably familiar with this exercise. If not, it's time to get to know each other. Write topics on pieces of paper and put everything in an opaque bag. Invite the child to pull out one piece of paper. Read the topic. Invite the child to talk about it for 1-2 minutes. Such a game teaches the child not to be afraid of new topics and not to avoid communication in the company.

Here are some examples of topics for discussion:

My favourite toy;
My friends;
The children's center that I go to;
What will I be when I grow up;
My favorite creative activity;
Why you need to go to school;
Where did I go in the summer.

Topics should be selected in accordance with the age and development of the child. However, it is also useful to offer reasoning topics, for example, “Why it snows in winter” - this develops creativity and speed of thinking.

The Imena Production Children's Development Center invites your children to study. The Child Development Center is a great place to improve your child's communication skills, no matter how shy or humble they are. There is an acting school for children in our center, where pupils are taught not only acting techniques, but also the ability to hold their own in public, the ability to improvise and not get lost in any situation. And in the business school for children, the child learns the life hacks of business communication, the correct behavior in disputes and conflicts, and the ability to negotiate. This is also important in the framework of comprehensive development and will be beneficial in everyday life.

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