Social skill activities for middle school

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!

7 Fun Social Skills Activities For Middle School

February 9, 2022September 30, 2021 by Manpreet Singh

Last Updated on February 9, 2022 by Editorial Team

UNICEF in its 2012 report has called ‘social skills’ a life skill, that is, skills that help individuals to display an adaptive attitude towards the demands and challenges that life often throws at all of us.

Social skills like cooperation, assertion, self-control, empathy, and responsibility are observable indicators of social competence, that help individuals live a better life by impacting important domains of development like mental health and academic achievement as well as overall personality development.

Hence, such social skills are extremely important for children to learn and grasp at an early age If the child is deprived of these skills from early days, it takes a massive toll on their personal and professional lives as adults.

Moreover, when a child is made aware of a particular set of skills right from the very beginning, they tend to soak it up much better. And that is the reason why social skill activities should be encouraged from the middle school level itself.

Before knowing about some extremely crucial activities that influence and develop a child’s social skills, let us know some benefits of these activities and why they are so important, especially from the middle school level.

The ability to read emotions, be friendly, communicate better and much more are a few social skills that a child can acquire over time. These skills can be advantageous and can be the footprint of the child’s future as an adult.

Parents and teachers can indeed be the ideal role models, and kids can learn as they watch the adults around them closely, behaving in certain ways. However, it is rightly said that there is nothing like practice. Therefore, kids should be involved in activities that help them grasp and practice these social skills religiously to benefit them in the future, both on the personal and professional levels.

Social skills activities help middle school students in –

1. Academic achievement
2. Social Interactions
3. Self confidence and attitude about self
4. Attitude and empathy towards others
5. Conduct in home, school and towards the community
6. Promotes positive behaviour
7. Maintaining eye contact

These are some advantages that truly help middle school students perform better at school and reflect in their adult lives, too. The absence of these skills could tremendously hamper a child’s life as an adult if these social skills do not become part of the child’s behavior and habits.

On this note, let us have a look at some of the social skills activities for middle school that helps students in great ways.

There are tons of games and activities which can profoundly contribute to a child’s understanding and comprehension of social skills, especially when inculcated right from the middle school level. These are some activities that work well with groups of students, which also help build another social skill: how to work and cooperate in teams.

As adults, individuals must be friendly, socially accepting, and emphatic towards each other. This is something that is extremely necessary during school days too. Middle school students should be taught to welcome a new person with an open mind and open arms. It is normal to be shy around people, but it is also important to be ready to interact with all the people in the group.

Turn-wise games are one activity that can be religiously followed so that children can engage with other children who are total strangers to them. This way, they will also develop a habit of sharing, waiting patiently for the other person, and much more.

An individual who is able to maintain friendly eye contact while having a lengthy conversation comes across as someone who is brimming with warmth and self-confidence. However, children who are introverts or lack self-esteem often find it very hard to maintain eye contact while talking to their peers. In such scenarios, a little practice session disguised as a contest can be very helpful.

Organizing eye-staring contests in your classroom, where the child who is able to maintain the longest eye contact without blinking wins the prize can help the children gain confidence in maintaining eye contact. It also helps break the ice for introvert students who normally do not interact with all their classmates in middle school.

Understanding emotions and consequent reciprocity is an important foundation of social competence. Emotions charade is an adaption of the well-known game of dumb charade and can be an excellent way to teach the child to both express and understand emotions.

The middle schoolers can be divided into two teams and each individual member can take turns making their team guess the emotion selected by the other team. You can even adapt it into a game of guessing the emotions through drawing on the board or singing a song in a specific tone.

The pandemic has shifted socializing to the digital arena and by the looks of it, the trend is here to stay. In this scenario, it is important that students maintain social contact with their peers, and for this purpose, it is a good idea to set a designated time each day for a virtual playtime session.

In these sessions, children can perform group activities like guessing games or dancing sessions which will help them sustain and develop social skills and have verbal interactions with their same-age counterparts.

This is an activity that must be played in a team by middle school students so that they can derive the maximum possible benefit out of it. The simple rule of the game is that the student or the child would be given a topic or a word, and they need to start a conversation or a dialogue about the topic or the word given.

We cannot emphasize enough what wonders this game could do to the child’s overall social and behavioral development. Firstly, it helps students overcome their fear of speaking, making them more confident as adults.

Moreover, since this game is about speaking on the given topic in front of the whole group, the shyness and the hitch that the child has at first diminishes slowly. Ultimately, the social skill of being friendly, conversational, and confident is achieved. Through this activity, children also learn how to lead a conversation in a dignified and empathetic manner.

Self-control is an essential social skill. Children with a lack of self-control mostly portray the same habits during their adult life. This game helps the student listen and copy the movement of their peers and follow instructions. This activity helps the children in many great ways as they are made to follow the rules throughout the game.

Games that demand children to read and understand the facial expression of others have a great effect on them, as they are made to interpret the expressions of their peers. This way, they learn to be more expressive and also develop a habit of reading expressions of other students, which makes them more empathetic and helpful towards each other in the longer run.

Games can play a significant role in the lives of middle school students by enriching their social skills set without consciously pressurizing them to fit into a stereotypical mold that hampers their individualistic expression and growth.

These social skills set thus act as safety nets on their rendezvous with tough and awkward situations which they are bound to encounter both in their personal and professional lives when they become adults. It helps them bounce back with a zealous spirit and determined demeanor.

Soft skills or social skills for a student: 85% of success in life

Harvard and Stanford believe that a student's academic knowledge is only 15% of success in his further education, in building a career and in life.

Russian schools actively download knowledge into the heads of our children, but do not teach them social skills, the so-called soft skills - leadership, teamwork, organizational skills, etc. Namely, they allow you to apply the acquired knowledge and achieve your goals: a prestigious university, a successful career, a happy family and true friendship.

A study of Fortune 500 CEOs found that long-term and sustained job success was 75% social skills and only 25% academic.

Therefore, European education has long included the training of soft skills, without which it is difficult to succeed in the modern world. Many of these traits are innate and inherent in every child, but they need to be cultivated and developed. Here are some critical social skills that will help any student reach their goals in life.

TEAM WORK

The ability to listen, the ability to see a common goal and find common ground between a common idea and personal ambitions. Willingness to help others and support in a difficult situation, the ability to convince and find a compromise.

Check if your child can:

• do things with other children?
• help someone solve their study question?
• to make sure that not only he, but his entire team achieves the goal?

How it is taught in a foreign school:

• team activities: games, performance, volunteer programs;
• joint academic projects, when the project can be defended only by the whole team;
• competitions between "Houses" for students studying on a full board basis.

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LEADERSHIP

To be a leader means to be a person whom everyone else recognizes as having the right to make responsible decisions for the entire team.

Check if your child can:

• to become a leader for other children: inspire and lead them?
• understand and feel other people?
• to set other children tasks corresponding to their abilities and character and to achieve their fulfillment?

How it is taught in a foreign school:

• Supervision of junior schoolchildren and beginners by high school students;
• Numerous clubs and hobby classes are sure to resonate in the soul of any student, and he will take the initiative in the area that interests him and gather his team of like-minded people.

We are looking for leaders, but not from the category of "president of the chess club", but from those who, faced with a problem, can at the right time take the lead of the team and lead it to the goal

- Laszlo Bock, Vice President of Recruitment, Google

CREATIVITY

A creative person is able to find non-standard, completely new solutions in familiar situations, he is able to invent and implement new ideas.

Check if your child can:

• Suggest an idea for a gala evening, fashion design or pop star poster?
• tell your friends the story he made up?
• come up with an idea for a new computer game or mobile application?

How it is taught in a foreign school:

• When solving a problem, the student will be asked not only to give the correct answer, but also to find 10 different solutions;
• Students focus on both academic knowledge and extracurricular activities - music classes, theater productions and acting skills, development of artistic skills. It is easier for a child with a broad outlook to find a non-standard approach to solving a problem.

COMMUNICATION

The ability to communicate, openness and the ability to establish contact with other people, as well as to make the right impression on them.

Check if your child can:

• Is it clear and interesting to express your ideas and thoughts?
• speak confidently with a group of your peers, with a school principal, with other adults?
• perform in front of an audience of 100 people?

How it is taught in a foreign school:

• Students are encouraged to actively participate in discussions in the classroom. And the final assessment is influenced by the student's involvement in lectures and seminars and his ability to defend his point of view;
• Schoolchildren are constantly surrounded by their peers and implement academic projects together, participate in sports and creative events, attend hobby groups;
• Career days and meetings with universities are regularly held for high school students. Schools set aside time to develop a personal resume, self-presentation skills and interviews.

MANAGEMENT

This is the ability to bring people together to achieve a goal and inspire yourself and others to action. Initiative, demanding of oneself and others, attention to detail, the ability to delegate or do it yourself - all these are important qualities of an organizer.

Check if your child can:

• organize your time so that you can keep up with your studies and take part in extra school activities?
• put together a team to run cross country together or organize a party?
• make quick decisions when things don't go as planned?

How it is taught in a foreign school:

• time management skills are the first thing a student learns. Unlike Russian students, European students do not study from morning to evening. The whole day is scheduled by the clock, there is time for study, sports, hobbies, homework and, of course, time for rest;
• Participation in numerous school events requires a variety of skills from a student, including the ability to organize an exhibition, a holiday, a performance, a debate, a sports match, and much more.

POSITIVE

Faith in yourself and in other people. This is such a view of the world in which a person can look at events from different angles and prefers to find positive in everything that surrounds him.

Check if your child can:

• keep a smile on your face despite the challenges?
• to fight and not give up, even when you fail to achieve the goal?
• try to solve your problems on your own, without immediately resorting to your help?

How it is taught in a foreign school:

• Support and attention of teachers, mentors and high school students. The school is well aware of the difficulties students face and is always ready to help with advice and pay attention to positive events.
• A healthy competitive environment helps students focus on their goals and not on temporary setbacks.

CURIOSITY

Intellectual curiosity, thirst for new knowledge, interest in the world around and desire for new experiences. This is a natural quality of any child and it is important to preserve it.

Check if your child can:

• look up from your phone or tablet and look around when you are driving?
• when you find yourself in a new place, try to find out something about it?
• ask questions about how the world works?

How it is taught in a foreign school:

• The task of every teacher is not only to prepare a student for the final exams, but also to make him fall in love with his subject. The first thing that Russian children and parents notice is that students in European schools love to study.
• Well-equipped classrooms and laboratories - here you can study not only theory, but also try everything in practice. Chemistry, physics, biology become especially exciting.
• School activities also include guest lecturers and thematic excursions. Children can learn first-hand about the subject and specialties: who you can become in the future, how you can apply the acquired knowledge in practice, what kind of employees employers want to see.

Most children are not very self-confident. They worry about entering a new social situation, about learning new skills, about having to complete a new task, even more difficult. They seek help and support from friends, parents, teachers, and this is natural.

Studying in European schools, students develop their social skills, becoming more self-confident. These skills have nothing to do with intelligence, the ability to quote Shakespeare in the original, or mentally multiply three-digit numbers. But the ability of a child to clearly formulate thoughts, offer alternatives and respect someone else's point of view will make him successful in all areas of life. After all, as Henry Ford said, confidence is half the battle.

European schools help students develop their social skills.

They will not appear on your high school diploma or university degree.

But these abilities are important in order to enter a good university, successfully complete it and find a dream job, which means getting a pass to a happy life.

Contact the manager and choose school
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through the request form on the site

See also:

What the school should develop (5 key skills) | British School MCS from MAGIC CASTLE Education

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