Today’s classroom isn’t just about academics—it’s a space where students grow into thoughtful, resilient and emotionally aware individuals. That’s the heart of social-emotional learning (SEL).
Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process in which students acquire and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve meaningful goals, feel and show empathy, build strong relationships and make responsible decisions. Incorporating SEL topics into learning helps students develop emotional intelligence and essential life skills that benefit them inside and outside the classroom.
Rooted in the five core competencies defined by CASEL—self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making—SEL strategies have been shown to enhance academic outcomes, improve classroom behavior and strengthen emotional well-being. This supports development in areas like resilience, stress management and self-control, helping students thrive socially, emotionally and academically.
Rather than viewing social-emotional learning topics as an add-on, educators are recognizing them as foundational to a thriving, supportive learning environment. Below, we’ll explore key social-emotional learning topics, practical strategies for integrating SEL in daily lessons and engaging classroom ideas that make teaching SEL in elementary classrooms simple, sustainable and impactful. Click here to learn more about the benefits of SEL!
Key Social-Emotional Learning Topics to Integrate
SEL may sound like a big concept, but it’s made up of small, teachable moments that can fit naturally into your daily classroom routine. These topics give students tools for confidently navigating their emotions, relationships and challenges—and they can be taught through small activities, quick check-ins, writing prompts and class discussions.
Self-Knowledge and Emotions
Building emotional intelligence starts with self-knowledge. Students should be encouraged to explore their feelings, strengths and needs. Tools like emotion wheels, mood meters and journal prompts help students identify and name their emotions—an important step toward emotional regulation and effective communication. Integrating SEL in daily lessons can be easy!
Writing Prompt Ideas:
- “Today I feel ___ because ___.”
- “One thing that made me smile today was…”
- “When I feel frustrated, I can try to…”
- “I feel brave when I…”
Daily check-ins and visual aids support emotional awareness while allowing teachers to monitor patterns and provide additional support when needed. A little self-awareness goes a long way!
Growth Mindset and Resilience
Mistakes are not failures—they’re learning opportunities. Help your students develop a growth mindset by teaching them to reframe their thoughts from, “I can’t do this” to “I can’t do this…YET!” Incorporate books, videos or quotes that celebrate perseverance. You can also incorporate social-emotional learning topics through reflection activities like daily goal-setting, end-of-day proud moments or writing activities to build resilience over time.
Writing Prompt Ideas:
- “One thing I did today that made me proud…”
- “A time I kept trying, even when it was hard…”
- “Something that challenged me this week was…”
- “A goal I’m working on and how I’ll reach it…”
Self-Management and Goal Setting
Students thrive when they learn to set and achieve their own goals. Introduce SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) and allow students to track and celebrate their progress through visuals, journals or class shout-outs.
Support self-management by teaching techniques such as:
- Breathing exercises
- “Mindfulness minutes”
- Calming corners or sensory tools
You can also integrate SEL in daily lessons with journaling or writing assignments.
Writing Prompt Ideas:
- “Ways I calm myself when I feel overwhelmed.”
- “When I’m feeling upset, I can…”
- “Something I want to get better at is…”
- “How I felt after reaching a goal…”
Have some extra time? Check out these SEL journal prompts or explore goal-setting activities for young students.
Empathy and Respect
Empathy is a key to healthy relationships and you can build on empathy through stories. When reading, ask students to consider how a character feels or why someone might act a certain way. Kindness activities or empathy role-playing games can make these SEL topics stick.
Writing Prompt Ideas:
- “Write about a time someone was kind to you.”
- “Write about how you feel when someone listens to you.”
- “Write about how you can show empathy to a friend.”
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Cooperation and Conflict Resolution
Teamwork doesn’t always come naturally, but it can be taught and practiced! Whether through partner work, cooperative games or class meetings, there are plenty of ways to practice teamwork and solve conflicts as a class.
Create tools like a “peace corner” where students can reflect or use conflict-resolution scripts to discuss disagreements. Help them understand how listening to others’ perspectives and working together leads to better solutions.
Writing Prompt Ideas:
- “How I worked with ___ to solve a problem…”
- “What makes a good teammate is…”
- “How I can help solve a disagreement…”
- “When I disagree with someone, I can…”
Cultural Competence and Social Contributions
Incorporate social-emotional learning topics into the classroom by celebrating differences! Celebrate diversity by exploring holidays, traditions and languages from around the world—or right in your classroom! This opens the door to respect, curiosity and inclusivity. Encourage students to explore what it means to contribute to their families, classrooms and communities in meaningful ways. You can incorporate SEL topics through group projects or fun writing activities.
Group Project Ideas:
- Cultural Celebration: Research and present a cultural celebration from your own or another culture.
- “Kindness Around the World” Poster Series: Groups research how different cultures express kindness and respect, then design posters to display around the school.
- Language Exploration Booklet: Have groups choose a different language spoken by students in the class or around the world. Create a mini booklet with common phrases, greetings or numbers.
- Publish a Classbook: Write about different cultures in a classbook! Turn your class’ research, reflections and creativity into a published book with our free publishing kit.
Writing Prompt Ideas:
- “One thing I love about my culture is…”
- “A tradition I want to learn more about is…”
- “It’s important to celebrate different backgrounds because…”
Need ideas? Start with these classroom diversity games.
Practical Strategies for Embedding SEL Daily
Integrating social-emotional learning topics into your classroom doesn’t require a complete curriculum overhaul or lengthy prep work. Some of the most powerful SEL moments happen in just a few minutes a day—through how you greet your students, how you respond to their emotions and the activities you choose to reinforce positive behaviors and relationship-building.
A great strategy is to weave SEL topics into your existing classroom routines and subjects in a natural and consistent way. With a little intentionality, you can create an environment where students feel safe, heard and valued—all while building essential life skills like empathy, resilience and collaboration.
These practical, low-lift strategies will help you turn everyday moments into meaningful opportunities for growth—and make SEL a seamless part of your classroom culture.
Morning Meetings and Daily Check-Ins
Begin the day with a short (5–10 minute) SEL-focused meeting. Include a greeting, emotional check-in and a sharing prompt. Think of it as a warm-up for emotional intelligence!
Activity Ideas:
- “Rose and Thorn” (share one good and one not-so-good moment)
- Mood journals
- “One word for today”
Integrating SEL with Core Subjects
You can sneak SEL into almost any subject area. Check out these examples:
- ELA: Discuss character emotions and choices or assign SEL-themed writing prompts attached to reading assignments.
- Math: Promote perseverance with problem-solving and team-based challenges.
- Science: Use collaborative, team-based experiments to build cooperation and shared discovery.
- Social Studies: Explore cultural competence, fairness and empathy through historical and current events.
Classroom Jobs and Leadership Roles
Classroom roles and rotating jobs do more than keep things organized—they empower students to take ownership of their environment, build a sense of community and develop leadership skills they’ll carry with them.
When students are trusted with responsibilities, they feel valued and capable, which builds confidence and self-efficacy. Leadership roles also teach accountability, as students learn to follow through on their commitments and understand how their actions affect others. Rotating jobs ensure that every student gets a chance to lead, contribute and grow. A bonus is that student leadership roles and activities can help boost classroom participation.
SEL-Focused Classroom Job Ideas:
- Kindness Captain: Notices and acknowledges acts of kindness throughout the day. Can also lead daily kindness shout-outs.
- Peer Helper: Assists classmates who need extra support with directions, supplies or navigating social situations.
- Mindfulness Monitor: Leads a short breathing or stretching exercise during transitions or after recess.
- Culture Curator: Highlights cultural holidays, phrases or traditions during morning meetings or bulletin board displays.
- Goal Getter: Encourages classmates to set and review daily or weekly goals; helps track progress on class-wide goals.
These roles are easy to rotate weekly or bi-weekly, allowing every student to develop their leadership skills in different ways. Over time, this simple structure creates a classroom culture rooted in respect, empathy and shared responsibility.
Bringing SEL to Life Through a Classbook
What better way to bring social-emotional learning topics full circle than through a classbook? Students can reflect on their growth, express their feelings and showcase the incredible skills they’ve developed, such as writing and literacy skills.
Classbook Topic Ideas:
- All About Me
- How I Show Kindness
- Our Classroom of Leaders
- We All Have Feelings
Each student creates their own page with writing and illustrations centered around a meaningful SEL topic. The result? A professionally published keepsake that celebrates your classroom’s journey and each student’s personal development in literacy and creativity.
We make creating a classbook easy! Sign up for your FREE classbook publishing kit and turn SEL into something students will remember and treasure forever. Whether they’re sharing stories of kindness, celebrating their culture or expressing their emotions through writing and art, each student gets to see their voice in print.
Tips for Sustaining SEL Integration Throughout the Year
Teachers have full plates—from lesson planning and grading to managing classroom behavior and meeting academic benchmarks. It can feel overwhelming to add one more thing, even when you know it’s valuable. The good news? Sustaining SEL throughout the year doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. In fact, it’s the small, consistent moments that make the biggest impact.
Here are a few simple, low-prep ways to keep social-emotional learning topics alive and thriving in your classroom all year long:
- Weekly Reflection Writing Prompts: Give students a chance to reflect on emotions, friendships, goals and personal wins each week. Rotate between SEL topics like kindness, resilience or teamwork.
- Daily Feelings Check-Ins: Use a mood meter, emotion cards or thumbs-up/thumbs-down system to help students identify and express how they’re feeling each morning or after lunch.
- Weekly “Shout-Outs” or Gratitude Circles: Create space for students to recognize their peers for kind actions, helpful behaviors or personal growth. A classroom full of compliments is a classroom full of connection.
- Interactive SEL Bulletin Boards: Create spaces in your classroom where students can post affirmations, compliment each other, set personal goals or respond to weekly prompts.
- Celebrate SEL Growth: Highlight student progress and SEL wins—big or small—with certificates, wall displays or a class celebration day. Let them see how much they’ve grown socially and emotionally.
- Stay Consistent: Stick with small, consistent practices rather than sporadic, large lessons.
Create a Lasting Impact by Incorporating SEL Topics
Incorporating social-emotional learning topics into your daily lessons doesn’t require a major overhaul. It’s all about consistency, modeling and mindful moments that shape how students think, feel and relate to one another.
Start small—pick a topic, try a check-in, assign a reflective prompt—and build from there. The impact? More engaged learners, stronger classroom connections and confident students ready to take on the world with empathy, resilience and heart!
For FREE teaching resources including lesson plans, classbook topic ideas and more, visit our Teacher’s Lounge and order your FREE publishing kit!