Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is crucial for children's development, helping them build resilience, manage emotions, foster empathy, and develop lifelong skills. With SEL becoming a priority in education, this tool can help you:
❤️ Save time: Generate a complete, ready-to-use lesson plan in minutes.
🎯 Personalize learning: Tailor lessons to your students’ needs and goals.
🌈 Engage students: Use dynamic activities and visuals to keep them involved.
🤝 Integrate seamlessly: Combine SEL with academics or focus on SEL alone.
Step 1: Choose Your Path
Start by deciding how you want to approach SEL in your teaching. You have two tracks to choose from:
Teach a standalone SEL lesson: Helpful for lessons where the focus is purely on developing SEL skills like:
Mindfulness and self-awareness 🧠
Building empathy and compassion 💕
Responsible decision-making 🌱
Embed SEL into an academic lesson: Helpful for integrating SEL skills into core subjects and lessons, like math, science, or literature. For example:
Relate emotions to science experiments (e.g., how plants "feel" when they lack water). 🧬
Explore social awareness through literature (e.g., analyzing characters' decisions). 📖
Combine teamwork skills with solving math problems. 🧮
Step 2: Customize Your Lesson Plan
The settings to personalize your lesson will depend on the path you chose in Step 1. Let’s break them down:
🎯 If you chose standalone SEL lesson, here’s what you can customize:
SEL standard: Pick from state-specific standards (e.g., California, Maine).
Session length: Adjust the duration (e.g., 10, 30, or 60 minutes).
Grade level: Choose the age group you’re teaching, from Pre-K to Grade 3.
Child featured: Optionally include a child to represent in the lesson and visuals.
🎯 If you chose to embed SEL into an academic lesson, you’ll see settings to align SEL with the academic goals, like:
SEL standard: Align with state-specific standards (e.g., California, Maine).
SEL goal: Focus on skills like self-awareness, social awareness, or relationship skills (based on CASEL Framework).
Session length: Select the duration (e.g., 10, 30, or 60 minutes).
Grade level: Choose the age group you’re teaching, Pre-K to Grade 3.
Reading level: Suit the reading level needed, Pre-reader to advanced readers.
Child featured: Optionally include a child to represent in the lesson and visuals.
💡 Pro Tip: Be specific in the “Other Details” section for more tailored results. For example: “Focus on teamwork while solving a fractions word problem.”
Once you’ve set everything, click “Generate” to start building your lesson! 🚀
Step 3: View Your Lesson Plan
Your customized lesson plan is now ready! Here's what it includes:
Learning Objectives 🎯
Clear goals that explain what your students will learn (e.g., “Students will understand the concept of responsible decision-making by identifying choices and consequences”).
Introduction 🧑🏫
A warm-up activity to introduce the topic, like a quick discussion or lesson brief.Activities 🛠️
You’ll get three detailed activity suggestions, each with:
A description. 📄
Estimated time. ⏰
Tips on integrating the target SEL skill into the activity. 💬
Activities Examples:
Social story activity: Read a story where students help a character make a decision.
Emotion cards activity: Use cards to identify feelings and how they affect choices.
Interactive activity: Group planting project where students share resources.
Closing Points 🌟
Wrap up the session with a group discussion or reflection to reinforce what students learned.
Optional Homework 🏡
Extend learning with a fun, take-home suggested activity tied to the lesson’s topic.
Step 4: Generate Your Visual Supports
You can then create your suggested visual supports through one-click-builds. Depending on your lesson, this can include:
Emotion Cards: Teach students to recognize and express feelings.
First-Then Boards: Help younger learners with task and reward organization.
Picture Cards: Address specific lessons using pictures and words.
Social Stories: Observe and discuss character actions and events.
Visual Schedules: Manage expectations and create scheduled tasks.
When you generate your visual support, you'll be able to refine it further and tailor it to specific learners. You'll also be able to access it in your Reading Nook and share it with other peers.
Step 5: Ready, Set, Teach! 🎉
With your lesson plan and visuals in hand, you’ll now be ready to teach! You'll have access to your lesson plan and associated visuals in your Reading Nook ready for whenever you want to start your lesson!
Share your SEL Lesson Plan
❤️ Love your creation? Share it with peers!
✨ Click the Share button at the top-right corner to get a shareable link.
✨ Share your creation with friends, family, or peers!
Looking for more help? Watch our SEL Lesson Plan Tutorial for a detailed walkthrough and pro tips! 👇