Six Craft Activities for Social-Emotional Learning & Growth

Craftivities are the perfect activities for improving emotional literacy and promoting social-emotional growth. They are the best way to incorporate social-emotional learning and social skills into your elementary school lessons.

Craftivities help children to clear their minds and focus on specific SEL skills they may be lacking.

If you’re looking for resources to improve emotional literacy and promote social-emotional growth, utilize these six fun and crafty activities!

Six Craft Activities for Social-Emotional Learning

Here are six of my favorite SEL craftivities.

You can find these activities for social-emotional learning in The Crafty Counselor Store and on TeachersPayTeachers. Or, you can use the included suggestions to make your own free versions at home!

Activity #1: One Stratacheese Pizza, Please!

Students make their own pizza topped with stratacheese! This super fun and interactive activity teaches calming strategies and coping skills as it expands students’ emotional literacy skills.

Captivate students with this pizza-themed SEL craftivity!

You can find the pizza template in The Crafty Counselor Store or as part of my coping skills activities on TpT.

If you don’t have the template or want to do a quick version of this activity, have students draw a pizza on a piece of paper.

Students can design a stratacheese pizza, allowing them to flex their imagination. Have children get creative and top their pizza with drawings of calming strategies!

Activity #2: Anger Monsters & Worry Monsters

What better way for children to express big emotions than by creating anger monsters or worry monsters?!

These super cute monsters help students learn to process and regulate their emotions. Children express their anger-related emotions through writing and drawing activities.

This activity can vary based on ability level, as various templates are included for differentiated instruction and maximum student participation. They will instantly feel calmer as they create, color, and learn new calming strategies to manage those angry feelings.

When given a chance to stop and reflect on current behavioral patterns, children can identify and change behaviors that no longer serve them. This monster craftivity allows for that self-reflection in a low-pressure way.

Improve emotional literacy and teach anger management skills to children with this marvelous monster craftivity.

You can also recreate this at home by having children draw their anger in the form of a monster on paper.

If their emotions had a shape, what would they look like? What would help calm that monster?

Empower children to express their big or scary emotions through art.

Activity #3: Anger Management Secret Compartment Foldable

This is one of my favorite activities for social-emotional learning and teaching anger management techniques. I love how interactive and informative it is.

This low-prep, highly effective foldable activity blows students’ minds with its hidden compartment feature. Students’ eyes light up, and their jaws drop as they see this anger management resource transition from one foldable to the next.

Once they realize there is a secret compartment, they are hooked.

On the outside, this foldable looks like any other foldable. It has all the typical activities that help students identify, describe, and better understand their emotions, anger triggers, and behavioral responses.

The foldable walks the user through examples of calming strategies for kids that may help them to calm down. 

When the foldable is opened up, it reveals the secret middle compartment. Watch students’ eyes light up when they manipulate and open a completely hidden component of the flipbook that they never expected.

Inside the flipbook, students will find questions and activities that require self-reflection on their behaviors and actions.

The closest way to DIY this activity is to create cootie catchers/fortune tellers with calming strategies written inside. It is hard to replicate the exact foldable effect without having the printable template.

Activity #4: Self-Regulation Building Blocks

Turn Jenga into an anger regulation game for kids with this fun printable. Most children love playing Jenga, it’s an easy way to hook them into learning emotional regulation skills.

Students love learning about emotions over a friendly game of Jenga.

You can get crafty and adhere the calming cards directly to the blocks using Mod Podge, or you can place the cards in a pile and have children pick a card as they take a turn.

As they pull a block and take their turn, they answer the question or act out the calming strategies on the block.

Give your old Jenga blocks an educational upgrade with these calming strips.

Improve emotional literacy, teach social-emotional skills, and allow children to practice their social skills with this fun game.

For a DIY free option, you can make your own calming cards on slips of paper. Before each turn, you pick a card and act out each strategy.

Extend this activity and have your children make their own calming cards featuring their favorite calming strategies.

Activity #5: 3D Pop-Up Anger Thermometer

This craftivity has a 3D pop-up effect that gives this craftivity a unique twist. Therefore, it captivates and cultivates children’s attention for a very long time. This pop-up activity teaches students emotional regulation skills using anger thermometers and coping skills.

“Pop” your student’s anger with this creative and cute calming strategies activity!

These cut-and-fold activities are quick to prep, easy to assemble, and highly effective at teaching calming strategies and emotional regulation skills. 

Encourage students to use their self-assessment skills to look for signs of anger and use anger thermometers to gauge their anger levels.

Children learn to take control of their big emotions by experimenting with various strategies for self-control and emotional regulation until they find the ones that work best for them. 

Empower students to be calm, regulated, and in control. 

Students will love this interactive activity that quite literally “pops” up at them. Anger will fade away when the 3D inside component of the foldable pops out at students as they open their foldable.

This activity teaches emotional regulation strategies and valuable social-emotional learning skills with a crafty, pop-up twist. 

Activity #6: Feelings and Emotions Cards

Children are able to give their feelings a name and face with these feelings and emotions cards.

Help students identify feelings and emotions with these cute facial emotion cards. Help students describe various feelings and their corresponding emotions with these colorable cards.

Let children design their own feelings and emotions cards that visually express how their emotions feel.

Some students need explicit instructions on how to identify emotions and feelings. Help them learn with facial expression cards.

Check Out More!

I wholeheartedly believe the best way to get a child to engage with a subject they find difficult, such as talking about their behavior or ability to control emotions, is through the use of craftivities. Above are six craftivities that are sure to do the trick!

Check out the Crafty Counselor Store for more ideas and resources!

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