Social skills games kids
Social Skills Games for the Kid-Friendly Classroom – Proud to be Primary
17 kid-friendly social skills games to use with kids in the classroom to teach communication, friendship, listening, emotions, and kindness!
Social skills games are great for teaching kids important social skills. Games that teach listening, friendship, and even making eye contact are effective options. When you use games to teach social skills, you make learning them a more enjoyable experience.
Social Skills Games for the Kid-Friendly Classroom
Looking for social skills games to play with your class? You’ve come to the right place! Here are some kid-friendly social skills games to teach listening, emotions, kindness, and more.
Social Skills Games for Listening Intently
Listening is a vital social skill that everyone needs to learn. It is an important skill not only for the social benefits but also for educational reasons. Good listeners tend to make friends more easily. It’s because they pay attention and their friends know they are valued. Additionally, listening in the classroom helps students learn concepts with less effort.
1. The Telephone Game – You can play this game with small or large groups of kids, making it perfect for the classroom. To play, have kids line up or make a circle. Whisper a sentence to the first person, and have them whisper that exact sentence to the next person in line. This will continue until the sentence gets to the last person. That person will then announce what they heard to the entire group. Kids are always amazed at how the sentence changes! Use this as a lesson to teach kids that listening is important so that the meaning of what they need to know is not lost.
2. Listening Mats – Another great way to practice is to have kids work on listening by following instructions. Listening Mats provide this type of practice in a practical way for the classroom. Kids follow directions as they color and draw on a scene.
Kids will have a blast showing off their creative sides, all while practicing an important social skill! Check out the bundle of Listening Mats that includes activities for each month of the school year! Click here to get a free sample!
3. Don’t Interrupt Card Game – For the social skills card game, kids play in pairs and take turns reading and answering a question. The other person must pay attention, not interrupt, and respond with a related question after. This game gets kids really practicing good conversation skills! Find this game and more for building friendship skills HERE.
Social Skills Games that Teach Emotions
Kids need to be aware of their emotions and what they mean. Teach them how to recognize emotions – Describe them, what they look like, and why they might feel a certain way. These social skills games provide alternative ways to teach emotions.
1. Emotional Bingo – Kids can begin to recognize emotions and what they mean by playing Emotional Bingo.
This social skills game is played exactly like traditional Bingo, with the only difference being that emotions are displayed on the Bingo cards instead of numbers.
2. Emotions Scavenger Hunt – Make a list of emotions that you want kids to spot. Type them as a checklist and print out. Kids then go on an emotions scavenger hunt throughout the school day. They check off the different emotions they see during that time, including the name of the person with that emotion.
3. Emotion Dominoes – This domino game is terrific for teaching emotions. On each domino, you will find an illustration of an emotion. They need to be matched to the real-life photo on a different domino. This social skills game will help kids recognize facial expressions for different emotions.
4. Emoji-tions Card Game – This fun card game teaches kids to identify the emotions represented by different emojis. Kids take turns asking for specific emoji cards in order to make matches.
It’s a modern Go Fish game! Find it as part of the Emotions unit for K-2.
5. Express Yourself Board Game – This board game is also included in the Emotions unit for K-2. Kids travel around the board while answering questions and acting out scenarios about emotions.
Social Skills Games for Practicing Eye Contact
Eye contact is an important social skill that many kids aren’t naturally good at. Kids should learn that during a conversation, whatever they’re looking at is perceived to be important. If they’re talking to a friend, but staring at their phone, that friend will think that they’re not paying attention to them. Because eye contact is so important during social interactions, you can use these games to help kids practice.
1. Eye Pointing Game – You’ll want to start playing this social skills game one-on-one or in small groups. To introduce the game, start by selecting two objects to place on the table. Use your eyes to look at one of the objects and see if someone can guess which object your eyes are “pointing” to.
Discuss with kids how our eyes communicate information. As kids become familiar with this game, expand it by looking at a more detailed space.
2. Look in My Eyes Train Engineer – This social skills game is available to download on an iOS device. With Look in My Eyes Train Engineer, kids practice making eye contact as they play the game. They won’t even know that they’re learning an important social skill as they explore different train sections.
Teach Good Communication with these Social Skills Games
There are two aspects of communication that kids need to learn: verbal and non-verbal. Verbal communication has to do with the words that you say. Whereas non-verbal communication is how you communicate with your body and your facial expressions. These two social skills games will help kids develop both verbal and non-verbal communication. Precisely, by working in teams to achieve a goal.
1. Charades – Communication isn’t just about the words you say.
Your body plays a major role in how you communicate. Help kids develop non-verbal communication skills by playing a few rounds of charades. During this game, one person must act out a phrase, using only their body to communicate. They are not allowed to speak. The others on their team must try to guess what that phrase is.
2. Blindfold Obstacle Course – This game is perfect for small groups of kids. Simply set up an obstacle course. One person will be blindfolded while the rest of the group works together to communicate how to get through the obstacle course.
Social Skills Games for Friendship
Teaching friendship skills through social skills games is helpful. With the help of social skills games, they can develop the skills necessary to look at friendships and decide if each one is a positive friendship to have.
1. Friendship Similarities – To play this game, kids take turns announcing a fact about themselves. When someone announces a similar fact, kids in the room jump up and say “Me, too!” if that fact applies to them.
They should begin to notice how others are similar to them, helping them connect and develop deeper friendships with those around them.
2. Friendship Jeopardy – This is an online game that kids will love to play. To play Friendship Jeopardy, kids from each team select a category to answer, including such topics as relationships, “fakeships,” and manners.
3. Friendship Bingo – Spend some time teaching kids the qualities one looks for in a friend. Define those terms together and then play Friendship Bingo to practice. Descriptions of friendship qualities are read aloud and then those words are found and covered on the Bingo board. It’s Bingo with a social skills twist! Find this as part of the Relationship unit for 3-5.
Social Skills Games that Encourage Kindness
Kindness is a social skill that all people (not just kids) should learn. When you teach kindness to kids and embody this trait yourself, you’re guiding them to achieve their greatest potential.
When teaching kids to be kind, you’ll want to help them understand what being kind actually is. Kindness games can help you achieve this goal!
1. Kindness Cards – This social skills game is easy to get started! Simply brainstorm with your students ways to be kind or use the kindness task cards. Inspire ideas such as smiling at someone, giving a hug, or sitting with someone new at lunch. Kids play this game by selecting a task card or idea from the list and completing the task. Encourage them to complete as many tasks as possible each day. Find the Kindness task cards as part of the Kindness unit for K-2 or make your own set with kids.
2. Acts of Kindness Challenge – Read this post that describes how to encourage children to show kindness to each other by using a challenge as a motivator. Kids love a challenge, and it will be almost like a fun game to play over an extended period of time! You can even use the printable calendar included to you keep track.
Build Social Skills with these Resources
Teach children in K-2 the most important lessons in life when they need it the most with units and activities on emotions, self-regulation, growth mindset, empathy, and social awareness, friendship, kindness, respect, and responsibility. Click here to learn more!
Want to build a peaceful classroom filled with respectful, confident, and kind kids that can build relationships and communicate effectively? Then this SEL curriculum for 3-5 is for YOU! Click here to learn more!
More Activities that Build Social Skills
Free Week of Morning Meeting
Try social-emotional morning meetings in your classroom with this FREE week-long resource! It includes editable PowerPoint and PDF slides, printable cards, and instructions on how to use. Click the image below to grab a copy.
Emotional Skills Books and Videos for Kids
Friendship Activities
Emotions for Kids
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Looking for fun social skills activities to boost your kid’s socio-emotional development?
Social skills are an important part of kids’ socio-emotional development. Every day, we use our social skills to communicate and interact in society.
Children learn about norms and acceptable behaviors through their social interaction with parents, teachers and, later in childhood, peers.
There are also a number of social skills activities for kids that will help us support this learning process.
(Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. You can also read our Disclosure & Disclaimer policy here)
Social Skills Activities for Kids
The following social activities are great for fun family game nights and for classroom activities. They are also great tools to help you work with kids on their social skills.
I’ve organized them into broad categories, following this social skills checklist.
- Communicating
- Listening
- Recognizing and Expressing Emotions
- Participating / Taking Care of Themselves & Others
- Problem-Solving
For each social skill mentioned above, you will find different activities that may help with the development of interpersonal skills.
This is the list of social skills games and activities that we will explore below:
- Conversation Role-Playing
- Self-Introduction for Kids
- Would you Rather Questions
- Giving & Receiving Compliments
- Puppet Show
- Assertive Communication Role-Play / Worksheets
- Personal Space Circle
- Recognizing Emotions / Emotions Flashcards Games & Activities
- Emotions & Facial Expressions (Worksheets)
- Continue my Story
- Guess what I’m Describing
- Whole Body Listening Worksheets
- Drama Workshop
- A Feelings Journal
- Expressing Feelings with Emotion Cards
- Conversation Ball
- The Talking Stick
- What Makes a Good Friend (Group Activity)
- Things We Have In Common
- Showing Interest: Questions about Others
- Guess Fake or Real Apology
- Write an Apology Letter
- How Others Feel / Perspective-Taking
- A Week of Kindness
- Conflict Resolution Worksheet
- Social Skills Board Game
- Social Skills Groups
- Social Clubs
- Playdates
- Social Stories
- Hidden Rules with Friends
Communication Skills Activities
VERBAL COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES
Skill: Starting, maintaining and finishing a conversation
Activity 1: Role-playing conversations
What is role-playing? It is acting out a particular person, character or situation.
It is a technique used often when training new skills and in psychotherapy.
It works really well when you are training kids in social skills, as it allows them to practice a new skill in a safe environment before they expose themselves to real-life situations. Consequently, you will see it mentioned in several suggested social skills activities.
In this activity, you will be role-playing with your kids or students different everyday communication situations like:
- starting a conversation with the kid sitting next to you
- wrapping up a conversation so the kid agrees on meeting / playing again.
Just a few examples that you can use:
- Conversation starters
Give them a few lines that they can use at school:
-
- What did you do this weekend?
- What games do you play at home?
- What is your favorite food / game / place?
- Finishing / Wrapping-up a conversation
- Should we play this again sometime?
If you run out of ideas, or would like to make it a bit more fun, you can use these conversation cubes (foam cubes with 36 engaging questions and activity guide)
You can also download our own printable conversation cubes (it includes 5 different topics and a blank template for you to explore any area of interest)
Activity 2: Role-playing self-introductions
Being able to introduce themselves is an essential skill that helps kids feel confident, and provides opportunities to make friends and meet new people.
There are many situations when children may need to introduce themselves to a group, most likely their classroom or an activity group.
Activity: Create a list of introductory questions and ask them to introduce themselves
Write a list of things for them to answer about themselves (favorite food, sport, names of their friends, how old they are). They can write down or draw depending on their age / writing ability
Related Reading: Self-Introduction Activities and Worksheets for Kids
Activity 3: Would you rather
“Would you rather” is a fun conversation game that offers a choice between two answers.
This games is so fun that even a quiet child can turn into a chatterbox.
Do you need some ideas? -> Check out our 114 Would you Rather questions for kids
Skill: Giving and receiving compliments
Activity 4: Role-playing giving and receiving compliments
In groups of two, each kid takes a turn saying something nice to the other person (e.
g. I like your t-shirt, You did great today at maths), and the child that receives the compliment responds “Thank you very much”.
Activity 5: Puppet show
This is just a variation of a role-playing situation. You may use the puppet show idea for any of the previous social situations that we have mentioned (conversation starters, giving and receiving compliments).
Just as an example. I sometimes use my kid’s favorite soft toys (Puppy Dog Pals) and represent conversations in which Bingo is having problems controlling his emotions and Rolly helps him through some of the calming strategies that we use at home.
Activity 6: Communicating Assertively
Assertiveness is an important communication skill that will improve your child’s social interactions and low self-esteem.
Assertive communication is not just about what we say. Nonverbal communication is just as important: making eye contact, keeping calm while speaking, and using a confident voice tone.
Role-play how to communicate assertively in real-life situations. These assertive communication worksheets include tips and examples of assertive communication.
⇒ More info on assertive communication for kids
⇒ Other assertive communication resources: I-statements examples
➡️ Deal Alert ⬆️ (FREE in Kindle Unlimited when I wrote this post!!):
Social Skills Activities for Kids: 50 Fun Exercises for Making Friends, Talking and Listening, and Understanding Social Rules
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NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Skill: Respecting personal space
Activity 7: The personal space circle
Draw a circle on a big sheet of paper. The inner circle will be the intimate space (1.5 feet radius), surrounded by personal space (4 feet radius) and the area outside is the social space.
Put that paper on the floor. Take turns to role play conversations where kids speak to each other without trespassing in their personal spaces. (You may also use a string to create the circle or a hula hoop)
NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION & EMOTIONS /FEELINGS
Skill: Learning about facial expressions and body language
Activity 8: Identifying facial expression and body language in Emotion Cards
You can use emotion cards to work on emotion recognition.
This is a set emotions flashcards with of 24 emotion labels and definitions. It also comes with useful suggestions on how to use them.
Activity 9: Emotions & Facial Expressions Workbook
This Emotions & Facial Expressions workbook can be a great activity for younger kids, too (we developed this one ❤️)
Listening Skills Activities
Skill: Listening with complete attention
Activity 10: Continue my story
We love storytelling at home.
I make up new stories every single day for my child.
Stories can also be used for a fun activity that involves listening attentively.
One person in the group starts a story, and at some point of time stops and chooses who will continue the plot. The next person will take the story from there and will pass it to another one in due course.
Everybody needs to listen with full attention because they don’t know when their turn will come up.
Activity 11: Guess what I’m describing
Choose something that you will describe, for example, a lion. Then, share clues, one at a time, till somebody guesses what you are describing
“It is an animal / It has four legs / It lives in the wild / etc.”
Activity 12: Whole Body Listening Worksheets
“Whole Body Listening”, developed by Susanne Marie Poulette, is one of the most popular tools to teach younger kids active listening.
You can download this social development tool from this post: Listening Games and Activities for Kids (18 ideas!)
Expressing and Recognizing Emotions / Feelings
Skill: Expressing and recognizing feelings
Activity 13: Drama workshop.
Write down different emotions on slips of paper and put them in a bag. Taking turns each of you will take a slip of paper and role-play the emotion written on it.
The person role-playing practices the skill of expressing feelings
The people guessing are practicing emotion recognition.
Activity 14: Keeping a feelings journal
Some kids may find expressing their feelings a bit difficult. A good way to get comfortable reflecting about feeling could be writing a feelings journal. This one is a great one for girls. And this one could be a nice guided journal for teens, with prompts and fun design.
Skill: Expressing feelings
Activity 15: Emotion cards and real-life situations
With a set of cards portraying different situations, take turns to explain how would do you feel when you are in that specific situation.
These ones here are great.
The set includes 80 cards. Half of them are faces on white background (different ages, genders, and ethnicities) showing five different emotions (happy, sad, angry, disgusted and scared). The other 40 cards are real-life emotion-provoking situations. It also includes an activities booklet that provides instructions and ideas on how to build emotional awareness and social skills.
Tip: This option is a good idea if you want to work on different facial expressions on real people (the ones I mentioned in activity 7 are illustrations)
Participating (Social Skills Activity)
Taking turns
The beauty of this skill is that it can be practiced with any game you have at home. But just to give you another idea:
Activity 16: Answer the question when you get the ball
Conversation balls are great tools to help kids know about each other.
These balls have printed conversations prompts. There are several ways to play with them.
You usually toss the ball and check under your thumb the question you need to answer.
You can also choose one of the questions and toss the ball around so that the kids wait for their turn to answer that question.
Conversation balls encourage the use of interpersonal skills (taking turns, eye contact, listening, responding).
Activity 17: The Talking Stick
The turn-taking stick (or talking stick) is literally just a little stick decorated in a cute way. Only the student holding the stick is able to talk. After they have spoken they can pass the stick to another student
Related Reading: 25 Fun Turn-Taking Activities for Kids
Caring / Speaking Up for Themselves
Skill: Making friends
Group Activity 18: Brainstorming what makes a good friend
Some ideas to mention: kind, helpful, talk nicely to people, don’t exclude others, don’t say ugly things about others.
Activity 19: Things We Have In Common
This friendship activity is a great activity for breaking down barriers.
Kids are organized in small groups, ideally with a mix of kids that they aren’t already all friends. The group has to find a certain number of things that they all have in common.
Kids not only learn a lot about each other but become aware of how many things they may have in common with kids from different social groups.
Skill: Showing interest in others
Activity 20: Ask questions about the other person.
Organize the kids in pairs, and ask them to take turns asking questions about each other.
If the kids run out of ideas you can use conversation cards like these ones (120 questions divided into three kids’ theme topics)
Skill: Learning to Say I’m Sorry
Group Activity 21: Guess Fake or Real Apology
Play a guessing game where they need to figure out if an apology is real or fake.
Present different scenarios where an apology is necessary.
Have the kids come up with various real and fake apologies.
Then, go in a circle and have them read their apologies for lots of laughs. Each time a kid reads an apology, the others need to guess if it was real or not, and what gave them the clues.
Activity 22: Write an Apology Letter
An apology letter allows your kid to put their feelings in writing and reflect on their actions and how they affect others.
Related Reading: Teaching Kids to Apologize (worksheets included)
Skill: Teach Empathy
Activity 23: Help kids take other people’s perspectives.
Perspective-taking activities may be quite enlightening and help them reflect on how others feel about a situation.
Select a set of situations your kids or students may encounter:
- Joe makes a joke about how Tim’s hair looks. What is Tim thinking? How is Tim feeling?
- Anna invites Emma and Lilly for a playdate but leaves out Kathy.
Why do you think Anna left Kathy out. How did Kathy feel?
Activity 24: A Week of Kindness
Create a kindness challenge. Choose a kindness activity to complete each day of the week.
Related Reading: 23 Fun Empathy Activities for Kids
Problem Solving Activities
Skill: Problem Solving in Social / Group Context
Activity 25: Conflict Resolution Worksheet (Conflict-Handling Modes)
This conflict resolution worksheet will enable work on the different conflict-handling modes:
- collaborating
- competing
- compromising
- avoiding
- accommodating.
Identify a conflict scenario, and ask your students to write examples for each conflict resolution strategy.
You can download this worksheet from the following article:
- 20 Fun Conflict Resolution Activities for Kids
Activity 26: Social Skills Board Games
Board games are a fun way to learn important social skills in a safe space with a small group of peers or with family members.
So, let’s add an example of a social skills board game to our list:
- Social Skills Group Activities (6 Board Games)
The games target: morals, good manners, empathy, friendship, and emotional skills (showing emotions and managing emotions)
Related Reading: Social Skills Games for Kids
Social Skills Activities for Kids with Autism
One of the diagnostic criteria in Autism Spectrum Disorder is persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts:
- Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity
- Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction
- Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships
Kids with special needs or autism struggle to understand social cues.
As a social skills deficit really comes with the diagnosis, helping our kids with autism develop social skills is an important part of our work as parents, educators and health professionals.
Apart from the activities that you have already gone through, you may also consider helping your kid with the following activities:
Activity 27: Joining a Social Skills Group run by professional therapists
Check out if this type of activity is available in your community. We were really happy to discover that this was an actual possibility for us.
Activity 28: Joining a Social Club for Kids with Autism
Activity 29: Organize Play Dates at Home (guided play if your kid needs help in social interactions)
Activity 30: Social stories
Social stories, social scripts, or social narratives are short descriptions of a situation or event that also indicate the expected social behavior.
These stories assist kids who struggle with reading social cues (body language, voice tone, facial expression) or with understanding commonly accepted social rules.
Any social situation can be transformed into a social narrative.
An example of a social story (the stories often include visuals to help understand / reinforce the message) :
Paying at the supermarket checkout
- First, I put all the items in my list in my supermarket trolley. Then I go to the check-out.
- I place my items on the counter and the cashier scans them and puts them in my grocery bags.
- The cashier tells my how much I need to pay and I use my credit card to pay for my shopping
Activity 31 : Hidden Rules with Friends
We have used this card game with my son, but we don’t play it following the game’s suggested rules. My son loves us to explore and untangle whatever social problem the card presents:
- What do you do if a friend invites you over for lunch and you don’t like the veggies?
- What happens if you burp in public?
Tip: some people find the designs in these cards too simple. It has many blank cards to fill with other social situations that I don’t use.
For us, they work as flashcards to explore social challenges in everyday situations.
If you are looking for lots of activities ideas, make sure you check this book below:
➡️ Recommended reading (FREE in Kindle Unlimited when I wrote this post!!):
Social Skills Handbook for Autism ( 50 fun and simple games and activities help the child on the spectrum with social skills like making friends, being part of a group, interacting with peers, expressing feelings or dealing with bullies)
➡️➡️Try Kindle Unlimited Free HERE
Social Skills Activities Ideas in Books
These books come with lots of ideas and activities to practice social skills at home, at school or in therapy setting:
- The Shoulds and Should Nots: Photo Cards to Help Children Develop Social & Communication Skills
A picture book with 64 scenarios that build social-emotional learning, critical thinking, mindfulness, self-confidence, empathy, executive function, and critical consciousness.
- 50 Fun Exercises for Making Friends, Talking and Listening, and Understanding Social Rules
➡️Deal Alert ⬆️ (FREE in Kindle Unlimited when I wrote this post!!):
Social Skills Activities for Kids: 50 Fun Exercises for Making Friends, Talking and Listening, and Understanding Social Rules
➡️➡️Try Kindle Unlimited Free HERE
- Over 75 Fun Games & Activities for Building Better Relationships, Problem Solving & Improving Communication
Other Social Skills Resources for Kids
- A comprehensive list of Social Skills for Kids ( FREE poster included in that post).
- Fun Social Skills Games for Kids
- Empathy Activities for Kids
- Conversation Starters
- Roll the Question Dice Activity
- Self-Introduction Worksheets for Kids
- Conflict Resolution Activities for Kids
Other Coping Skills Activities in this Blog
- Anger management activities for kids
- Self-esteem activities for teens & kids
- Anxiety tips and activities
31 Social Skills Activities for Kids (Young Children, Teens & Kids with Autism)
Games for the development of social skills in children
By playing, we can use skills and abilities in everyday life.
One of those skills we can work on is social skills. As social beings, we need to have good skills in order to communicate properly. Our happiness and success in life will depend on this, so it is very important. Let's see what they are games for the development of social skills in children.
Index
- 1 What is social ability?
- 2 Games for developing social skills in children
What is social ability?
Social Skills are our tools for communicating with others both verbally and non-verbally. They determine how we behave with others, how we interact, how we express our thoughts, needs and feelings. They are indispensable for all our social relationships so that we can live in harmony and take care of our emotional health.
Social skills, like all skills, we can learn and work. Just because someone is more shy, withdrawn or quiet doesn't mean they can't work on their social skills to communicate successfully.
Very interesting aspects are related to social skills. Self-respect, assertiveness, self-control, empathy, confidence … Aspects that are related and interact with our communication skills. Working on them will also affect the improvement of other very important parts of our lives.
Poor social skills can create conflict with others and with oneself. That is why we must work on them from a very young age. We already know that kids are like sponges and their social skills work for them. we will give you the tools for your life . This is one of the best gifts we can give our children. Let's understand what games are for developing social skills in children.
Social skills games for children
- Teach him to introduce himself. Something very simple and important to start with. That you know how to introduce yourself to someone new. Depending on the speech development of the child, you can make it simpler “I am Iago” or more complete “Hello, I am Iago”.
What's your name?". Take him to the park with the new kids to practice like a game. It may be difficult at first if he's shy, but over time he will become more relaxed. - Wait your turn . Most kids want everything now and have very few disappointments. You can teach him from a very early age that even if he wants something at that moment, sometimes he will have to wait. If the child has a toy he wants, he will have to wait until the child has finished playing in his turn. You can approach the child and ask him to pass it to him when he has finished. Let him put himself in the place of another child, and if he wants the toy to be taken away while he is playing with it. This improves empathy and respect for others.
- Big turtle . This game uses a mat that will act like a turtle shell. Children should get on all fours, and everyone should go to one point. If they do not agree among themselves, the shell will fall off and they will have to start over.
This game improves social relationships, finding solutions and cooperation. - Musical embrace. While the music is playing, they must dance, and as soon as they stop, they must find someone to hug them. It's like playing chair, but in a hug version. No one can be left without hugs. At the first stop, it will be a hug from 2 children, at the second stop, from 3 children, and so on, until at the end everyone hugs. Group games are for to see their differences, communicate with other children and be helpful to the group.
- Cards . Children sit in a circle and receive cards with the name of another person in the group. They should describe it in as much detail as possible: what is their lifestyle, what do they like, what do they not like... way to get to know each other.
Because remember... your social skills are essential to happiness.
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You may be interested
Card file of special games for the formation of children's social skills | Card file (younger group):
CARD file
special games for the formation of children's social skills
1. If “yes” - clap, if “no” - stomp. (authors - O. Khukhlaev, O. Khukhlaeva)
Purpose: development of children's communication skills, development of auditory attention.
Age: 3-4 years.
Number of players: 2 or more people.
Game description: The adult calls out the sentences and the children have to evaluate them and show their attitude by clapping their hands if they agree or stomping their feet if the statement is incorrect.
"Roma visited his grandmother and was so happy that he was offended by her."
"Sasha took the toy away from Petya and beat him, Petya quarreled with him."
"Lena really liked Seryozha, so she beat him."
2. Let's talk. (author - E.
Lyutova)
Purpose: development of communication skills.
Age: any.
Number of players: 2 or more people.
Description of the game: an adult and a child (or children) play. The adult starts the game with the words: “Let's talk. I would like to become ... (wizard, wolf, small). How do you think why". The child makes a suggestion and a conversation is started. In the end, you can ask what the child would like to become, but you can’t give an assessment of his desire and you can’t insist on an answer if he doesn’t want to confess for some reason.
Comment: this game is useful for withdrawn and shy children, because in a playful way it teaches the child not to be afraid of communication, puts in a situation of the need to make contact. In the early stages, children may be reluctant to ask questions or engage in play. Then an adult should take the lead. Important point! In the game, an adult should be on the same level with the child, and in case of difficulties - below him.
3. Palm to palm (authors - N. Klyueva. Yu. Kasatkina)
Purpose: development of communication skills, gaining experience of interaction in pairs, overcoming the fear of tactile contact.
Age: any.
Number of players: 2 or more people.
Equipment needed: table, chairs, etc. d.
Description of the game: children stand in pairs, pressing their right palm against their left palm and their left palm against their friend's right palm. Connected in this way, they must move around the room, bypassing various obstacles: a table, chairs, a bed, a mountain (in the form of a pile of pillows), a river (in the form of an unfolded towel or a children's railway), etc.
For the development of emotions and feelings in preschool children, the game can be complicated, given the task to move by jumping, running, squatting, etc.
The players need to be reminded that they cannot unclench their palms.
The game will be useful for children who experience difficulties in the process of communication.
4. Hey! (authors - O. Khukhlaev. O. Khukhlaeva)
Purpose: development of interest in peers, auditory perception.
Age: 3-4 years.
Number of players: 5-6 people.
Description of the game: one child is standing with his back to everyone else, he is lost in the forest. One of the children shouts to him: “Ay!” - and the "lost" must guess who called him.
Comment: the game indirectly stimulates children's interest in each other through the game rule. This game is good to use in the process of introducing children to each other. It is easier for a child who has his back to everyone else to overcome the barrier in communication, to overcome anxiety when meeting.
5. “Please, don’t”
Purpose: development of communication skills.
Age: 3-4 years.
Description of the game: an adult offers the child to first ask for what he likes with a gesture, and then refuse what he does not like. In case of difficulty, the educator helps the child find the necessary movements: with the gentle pronunciation of the word “please”, the hand is brought forward with the open palm up, with a firm “no need” - the outstretched hand becomes vertically upwards, the palm is turned “away from you”.
6. “Let's be friends”
Purpose: development of communication skills, gaining experience of interaction in pairs
Age: 3-4 years.
Game description: Adult: a hare and a squirrel met one day, and they wanted to make friends. The little squirrel was bolder, the first to offer to be friends. The hare agreed. An adult invites the child to be a squirrel and try to find a gesture expressing a proposal to be friends: a hand with an open palm turned upwards is extended to a partner. The adult himself - the “hare” - responds to this with a gesture of consent: he puts his hand on top of the partner’s hand, palm to palm. Friends walk through the woods, holding hands, and then say goodbye, waving their hands to each other: “Until
goodbye.”
Comment: the participants of the game change roles and repeat it, trying
to expressively perform gestures and pronounce the words: “Let's be friends” - “Come on”
observe each other's actions, listen to each other, and the adult (visual and physical contact).
Age: 3-4 years.
Description of the game: the teacher invites the children to ride the train. “Ilyusha will be the locomotive, and we are all wagons. Trailers, get up behind the engine "The children stand one after another and move around the group, pronouncing the name of the child-engine:" Ilya, Ilya, Ilya ... Tu-tu ...". Then another child is assigned as the engine.
Comment: younger children can play the game with an adult or one or two children.
8. "Looking for a friend"
Purpose: Teaching children the skills of cooperation, the transition from the game "next to" to the game "together".
Age: 3-4 years.
Description of the game: children are given one toy each (the set consists of 2-3 toys of the same type: hares, bears, dogs, etc.). The teacher tells the children that now they will dance with the animals. But it is boring for one bunny, one bear to dance, therefore, while the music is playing, each child must find friends.
(At the first stage, the teacher draws the attention of the children to the fact that there is not one bunny (bear, dog) in the set, but several). When the music starts to sound, the children walk around the room and look for children with paired toys, that is, they look for a friend for the beast. When a friend is found, the children dance along with the toys.
Comment: instead of toys, you can use pictures of animals or medals that can be hung on the chest.
9. "Hide and Seek with Handkerchiefs"
Purpose: development of children's communication skills; education of friendliness, desire to play with each other; evoke positive emotions.
Age: 3-4 years.
Description of the game: the teacher distributes handkerchiefs to each child. He offers to play hide and seek: “Let's all hide now. I will look for you." Children put headscarves on. Educator: “Where is our Nastya? Nastenka, where are you? The named child removes the handkerchief from his head and says: “Here I am!” Thus, the teacher "finds" all the children.
When the children learn to play, you can offer to look for all of one of the children. Older children can be asked to tell about each other: what is their name, what, what is there (body parts, clothes). You can also
hide under one handkerchief for 2-3 children. You can play hide and seek with toys. An adult hides a toy under a handkerchief, then shows any part of it (cockerel comb, bunny ears, etc.) or makes a sound characteristic of this toy (Ku-ka-re-ku, quack, etc.) and asks to guess who is there hid. If the child guessed correctly, then they give him this toy (toys should be according to the number of children).
After that, the children can hide their toy under their handkerchief and call it: “Cockerel (koo-ka-re-ku) come here!”
10. Rolling the ball
Purpose: to form a sense of community, to cultivate the ability to engage in emotional and practical interaction with each other.
Age: 3-4 years.
Description of the game: an adult and children are sitting on a carpet.
