Comprehensive 40 Week Social Emotional Learning Curriculum for Preschool and Kindergarten

In today’s complex world, social and emotional skills are as crucial for success as academic knowledge. Our meticulously crafted 40-week Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum for preschool and kindergarten offers a comprehensive approach to fostering emotional intelligence, social competence, and personal growth in young learners. This program not only enhances classroom dynamics but also equips children with essential life skills. Additionally, those skills will serve them well throughout their educational journey and beyond.

Developed by experts in early childhood education and social-emotional development, this curriculum seamlessly integrates into daily classroom routines.

Through a series of engaging lessons, activities, and materials spread across eight units, children embark on a transformative journey of self-discovery, empathy, and positive relationship-building.

Next, each unit builds upon the last, creating a holistic approach to SEL that prepares children for the social and emotional challenges they’ll face as they grow.

Now, let’s explore each unit in detail, uncovering the transformative potential of this curriculum for your classroom or home learning environment:

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Week 1: Introduction to Emotions

• Identify and express basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, scared)
• Use emotion flashcards and an emotion wheel to recognize feelings

Week 2: Understanding Feelings

• Grasp that all feelings are valid and important
• Start a feelings journal and participate in daily emotion check-ins.

Week 3: Naming Emotions

• Expand their emotional vocabulary (e.g., excited, frustrated, nervous)
• Play emotion matching games to reinforce new vocabulary.

Week 4: Recognizing Emotions in Others

• Read facial expressions and body language
• Engage in role-playing activities to practice identifying emotions in others

Week 5: Self-Reflection

• Reflect on their own emotional experiences
• Draw or write about times they felt strong emotions

Week 6: Calming Strategies

• Practice deep breathing and mindfulness techniques
• Use mindfulness coloring pages and create calm-down jars

Week 7: Managing Anger

• Learn techniques for handling anger
• Create personal anger thermometers and practice “cool down” strategies

Week 8: Setting Goals

• Understand and set simple, achievable goals
• Complete goal-setting worksheets and create vision boards

Week 9: Practicing Patience

• Explore the importance of patience
• Engage in patience games and work through scenario cards

Week 10: Staying Focused

• Learn techniques for maintaining focus and attention
• Participate in focused listening activities and concentration games

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A Calm Down Corner provides preschool and kindergarten students tools to recognize and manage their emotions in a peaceful, structured environment. Similarly, by using designated calm-down spaces with sensory tools, visual cues, and breathing exercises, children learn to self-regulate when they feel overwhelmed or frustrated.

Next, this unit supports emotional awareness and self-soothing strategies, helping young learners build resilience and emotional intelligence.

Includes a guide for setting up a successful area, a list of materials needed, printables, and visual aids.

Lesson 11: Turn-Taking

• Importance of taking turns
• Turn-taking games and activities

Lesson 12: Active Listening

• Skills for being an active listener
• Listening games and exercises

Lesson 13: Following Directions

• Understanding direction following directions

Lesson 14: Giving and Receiving Feedback

•  How to give and receive constructive feedback
•  Feedback role-playing

Lesson15: Respecting Personal Space and Boundaries

• Review of key SEL concepts
• End-of-year celebration and reflection activities

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Week 16: Making Friends

• Teach children essential friendship skills through creative activities like friendship bracelets, recipes, and role-play scenarios.

Week 17: Effective Communication

• Build essential conversation and active listening skills with interactive activities, and understanding body language through fun activities like charades and the Telephone Game.

Week 18: Working Together

• Promote teamwork and cooperation in preschool and kindergarten with interactive activities like the ‘Team Challenge’ game and the ‘Human Knot’ problem-solving exercise.

Week 19: Resolving Conflicts

• Help young learners develop problem-solving and communication skills through interactive lessons on calming down, active listening, and creating solutions together.

Week 20: Respecting Others

• Finally, help young learners understand and practice respect through engaging lessons on kindness, empathy, and following the Golden Rule to build positive classroom relationships.

Week 21: Making Choices

• Students will explore decision-making by reading a story about choices and consequences, playing a game that highlights different potential outcomes, creating a decision tree, role-playing scenarios

Lesson 22: Problem-Solving

• Transform challenges into manageable tasks using playful tools like puzzle boxes, “Solution Finder” and “Problem-Solving Superthinker” caps to make learning strategic thinking fun and accessible.

Week 22: Evaluating Decisions

• Use decision journals to analyze decisions thoughtfully and develop more intentional decision-making skills.
• Explore how past choices shape their present and future, learning to analyze decisions thoughtfully and develop more intentional decision-making skills.

Week 23: Safety and Responsibility

• Engage in role play scenarios and games to learn about making safe and responsible choices, understanding basic safety rules, and recognizing their role in maintaining a safe environment.

Week 24: Peer Pressure

• Focus on recognizing peer pressure through a “Pressure Gage” craft, understand its effects, and practice strategies for resisting negative peer pressure using the “Say No, Go Tell” technique.
  

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Week 26: Understanding Self – Esteem

• The ice cream cone metaphor teaches students that while compliments from others can be like sprinkles on top, the real substance of self-esteem comes from within. Students create their own “self-esteem cones” filled with positive self-beliefs.

Week 27: Positive Self-Talk

• Using the contrasting puppets “Positive Parrot” and “Negative Ned,” students learn to identify and transform negative thoughts. The “Affirmation Station” becomes a go-to spot where students can practice replacing self-doubt with encouraging self-talk.

Week 28: Celebrating Achievements

• Students create personal achievement medals, celebrating not just the big wins but also small daily victories. They learn that progress itself is worth celebrating, making their handcrafted medals meaningful symbols of personal growth.

Week 29: Building Confidence

• The “Confidence Capes” activity transforms abstract confidence into something tangible – students design capes decorated with their strengths and abilities. Also, when wearing their capes, they physically embody their confident selves.

Week 30: Overcoming Challenges

• Students create “Problem-Solving Backpacks” filled with strategies they’ve learned. Like actual hikers preparing to climb “Challenge Mountain,” they pack their bags with tools and approaches for tackling obstacles they might face.

Week 31: Identifying Triggers

• Students will recognize that different situations can trigger various emotions across individuals, building understanding that emotional responses are personal and diverse.

Lesson 32: Coping Strategies

• Learn and practice techniques for coping with difficult emotions with a coping toolbox and skills cards to practice various techniques.

Week 32: Mindfulness Practices

• Students will learn basic mindfulness techniques and how to incorporate them into their daily routine.
• Through mindful exercises from breathing to using intentional activity cards, children will gain a better understanding of how to practice mindfulness.
  

Week 33: Expressing Emotions Appropriately

• Children will learn healthy ways to express their emotions and practice these methods through role-play.
• Through books, activity cards, and creating an action plan, children will focus on how to express their emotions.
  

Week 34: Building Resilience

• Identify personal strengths and support systems they can rely on when facing challenges, building awareness of their existing resilience resources.
• Practice reframing setbacks as opportunities for growth, developing a toolkit of positive self-talk and problem-solving strategies to overcome obstacles.

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Week 36: Understanding Perspectives

• Put on your “different shoes” — imagine being your friend or family member for a day! What would they see? How would they feel? Let’s practice seeing the world through others’ eyes!
• Everyone has their own special way of looking at the world, just like we all have different favorite colors! When we listen to our friends’ ideas, it’s like discovering a brand new crayon in our box!

Week 37: Showing Empathy

• Explore your “feeling detectors” with our fun Emotion Scenario cards! We’ll practice spotting when friends are happy, sad, or scared, and talk about how our magical empathy powers help us understand others!
• Create colorful Helping Hands that remind us how to be empathy superheroes!

Week 38: Appreciating Diversity

• Dive into our “Colorful World” mural where everyone adds their special spark! With multicultural crayons and “Diversity Celebration” badges, we’ll discover how our differences make our classroom garden bloom with amazing colors and ideas!
• Journey through “It’s Okay to Be Different” and create “Diverse Families” pictures that show all the wonderful ways people can be!

Week 39: Helping Others

• Transform into kindness champions with our magical “Kindness Buckets” that you’ll decorate and fill with good deeds!
• Discover the super-cool powers of community helpers through our fun “Community Helper” cards, and earn sparkly “Helping Hands” stickers when you spread joy.

Week 40: Recognizing Strengths in Others

• Become amazing “Strength Spotters” with your very own magnifying glass craft! We’ll zoom in on all the wonderful things our friends can do, and award colorful “Strength Stars” when we catch someone being super at sharing, building, listening, or helping!
• Create our magnificent “Class Superpowers” poster where everyone’s special talents shine bright!