12 Social & Emotional Skills For Preadolescents

Explore managing stress by recognizing stress levels, identifying internal and external causes, and applying short-term, long-term, and problem-focused strategies that help you perform well by leveraging strengths.

Perform a quick spot quiz to recall last lesson by identifying internal or external factors. Identify stress signs and briefly place your current stress on a graph.

Identify less healthy coping strategies for stress and learn short term strategies that refocus attention on the present, boosting mood through exercise, creativity, and helping others.

Explore long term stress reducing strategies to build resilience, cope with adversity, and handle bigger challenges by incorporating habits like sleep, nutrition, social interaction, leisure, yoga, gratitude, and positive self-talk.

Discover four problem-based strategies to reduce stress—lower your load, cut out stressors, implement time management, and seek social support—then plan big tasks first to minimize uncertainty.

Conduct a formative assessment that guides students to evaluate stress-management options for a late-night study scenario, weighing strengths, limitations, and implications of sleep, energy drinks, muscle relaxation, and chocolate.

Identify a stressful situation with someone at home and decide whether a short term, long term, or a problem focused strategy fits best, then record reflections in a diary.

Explore how to manage mental health by examining what it is, how changes and transitions affect it, and strategies to strengthen it, including changing your perspective.

Practice self-reflection to improve mental health using the SAO (situation, action, outcome) essay method, examining a recent situation, the action taken, the outcome, and possible strategies for future improvement.

Mental health is psychological and emotional well-being, not a binary healthy or sick. It sits on a spectrum; moving toward the healthier end improves thoughts, feelings, actions, and physical health.

Explore how change and transition trigger stress and affect thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and physical health, and compare signs of reduced mental health with well-being through practical scenarios.

Explore strategies to maintain and improve mental health by adopting concrete daily behaviors for healthy eating, regular exercise, quality sleep, and strong relationships.

Change your story by reframing thoughts and challenging negative self-talk, learn from setbacks, and cultivate a silver lining mindset to improve mood and behavior.

Reflect on mental health by asking someone at home for a time when changing their story or changing perspective eased handling a situation.

Explore finding your purpose as another strategy to support mental health, building on prior lessons about how change affects thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and healthy lifestyle habits.

Explore a stressful event from the last week, reflect on the action taken, and assess the outcome with the SAO activity, applying learned strategies for preadolescents' mental health.

Identify a clear purpose to push through challenges and leave the comfort zone. Use setbacks to learn, level up, and tackle the next level faster.

Identify your strengths and gifts by listing natural talents. Include cross country, creativity, and the opposite of weaker areas for inspiration.

Identify your values by exploring what matters most in life, aligning actions with them to guide decisions, and using admired people and a three wishes exercise to reveal your traits.

Identify activities you love to do and recognize flow, where time disappears as you lose track of what you’re doing, whether in sports, woodworking, music, or art.

Identify the world’s needs and the positive difference you want to make for others. Break it down to one key issue in school, family, or community and plan change.

Identify your personal purpose by uniting your strengths, your values, the things you love to do, and what others need.

Apply a mental health strategy to cope with not being selected for a team, using techniques like challenging negative self-talk, mindfulness, gratitude, and healthy routines to boost well-being.

Explore factors that influence your emotions, define empathy, and demonstrate empathy through active listening, linking empathy to connection, positive relationships, and increased resilience.

Practice the situation action outcome (SAO) method by describing a stressful event, identifying the action you took, and reflecting on the outcomes and emotions to guide improvement.

Define empathy as understanding another person's experience from their perspective to build trust, resilience, and confidence in sharing health concerns, while recognizing internal and external factors that shape emotions.

Explore internal and external factors that affect emotion through a collaborative brainstorm, recording factors on a worksheet, sharing ideas, and organizing them into categories.

You can't force a feeling in the moment, but you can choose how you respond by doing enjoyable activities, strengthening connections, and applying resilience tools to improve mood after loss.

Change your story by altering judgments about events to shift feelings, using breathing and exercises to choose calm, optimism, and confidence.

Learn active listening to deepen empathy and trust by practicing focused listening, body language, and role-swapped conversations about school experiences, then rate focus on a 0–5 scale.

Analyze factors that influence emotions, define empathy, and link empathy to connection, positive relationships, and resilience, while practicing active listening and strategies like reframing thoughts and relaxation.

Develop active listening to demonstrate empathy and respect while learning to evaluate health information sources and confidently express health concerns.

Begin with a quick cyo activity by identifying a recent stressful situation, the action you took, and the outcome, using the strategies shown on screen and on your worksheet.

Develop an understanding of active listening by giving full attention, avoiding interruptions, and observing body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice to gauge how others feel.

Practice level two active listening by paraphrasing, using eye contact and body language to show empathy, and providing feedback in group roles.

Build trust to safely share health concerns, showing empathy and active listening, so others don't judge or withhold secrets, reducing isolation and supporting mental health and wellbeing.

Develop skills to evaluate sources of health information by considering trust, expertise, accessibility, anonymity, and the pros and cons of different help options to avoid dangerous misinformation.

Demonstrate applied learning by selecting a scenario from exercise nine, identifying where you would seek help, and explaining why the source is appropriate and safe for health information.

Build empathy through active listening and evaluate reliable sources of help. For homework, ask your parents about their day’s highlight and observe emotions through body language, tone, and facial expressions.

Identify internal and external factors that affect emotions and recognize signs of stress. Revise strategies to protect mental health, seek help, and evaluate tools and sources of health information.

Students complete an SAO activity by detailing a recent stressful situation, actions, and outcomes, then pair up to practice active listening, noting emotions and nonverbal cues.

Explore mental health, stress coping, and resilience for preadolescents through a real-life story; reflect on empathy, health information sources, and choosing effective strategies for self-care and identity transitions.

Identify internal factors that affect emotions, such as negative self-talk and beliefs of being a burden, and learn how self-perception shapes seeking help and resilience.

Change your story to reframe thoughts of being a burden or liability by writing down other possible perspectives.

Identify signs of stress or worsening mental health through a personal account of loss, burnout, sleep disruption, panic attacks, and heightened anxiety.

Archie uses practical strategies to cope with stress and support mental health, including off-site rehab, rest, grieving, leaning on others, and talking through feelings to cope on bad days.

Identify potential sources of support for mental health, such as teachers, coaches, parents, partners, or siblings, and evaluate one option to find safe, trusted guidance.

Learn practical strategies for promoting peer support among preadolescents by checking in, active listening, empathy, and building trust to encourage sharing health information.

Create a class mental health plan by identifying signs of stress, setting health goals, and outlining practical strategies and ways to seek help.

Collaborate to set two health goals, one physical and one mental, creating a purposeful health and wellbeing plan guided by stress, resilience, and general wellbeing concepts.

Identify practical class strategies to achieve health and wellbeing goals by breaking goals into parts and applying targeted practices, such as promoting sleep, nutrition, and exercise to boost resilience.

Identify signs of stress or reduced mental health in ourselves and others, categorize behavioral, cognitive, and physical indicators, and collaboratively develop a health and well-being plan.

Plan classroom strategies to address signs of distress in self or others and apply stress-relief and positive-emotion strategies within a health and well-being plan.

Identify people and resources available if strategies fail, and learn to seek peers' suggestions or use personal supports as part of the final section of the health and wellbeing plan.

Explore coping strategies for stress by asking someone at home about theirs, evaluate usefulness, and consider risks to mental health, including alcohol or drugs, for yourself and others.

Learn how to use communication skills as a strategy to navigate adolescence, and apply respect, consent, and empathy to build respectful relationships, even during change or emotional moments.

Practice identifying a recent situation, your action, and the outcome (SAO) in exercise one, complete the worksheet, and share with a partner using active listening.

Explore how puberty brings neurological, psychological, and biological changes that reshape how teens think, feel, and behave, and why these shifts can make communication more challenging.

Explore how changing emotions in our teenage years affect communication, causing miscommunication as emotions filter what we see and hear. Practice positive and negative interpretations of statements through scenarios.

Learn to combat miscommunication through active listening, paraphrasing, and aligning tone and body language, while keeping a calm voice and concise messages.

Use empathy, respect, and consent to improve communication when emotions run high. Understand others’ feelings to encourage honesty and open sharing.

Explore how empathy, consent, and active listening build trust, encouraging preadolescents to share openly through body language, eye contact, paraphrase, and respectful dialogue.

Reflect on today’s lesson and complete homework with a family member to examine a miscommunication using active listening, paraphrasing, calm voice, and body language.

Practice active listening to build empathy, respect, and consent in communication, and apply strategies to reduce miscommunication as preadolescents navigate changes and transitions.

Brainstorm and discuss respect, empathy, and consent through paired activities and class sharing, then compare personal definitions with peers to deepen understanding of these social skills.

Practice active listening to show empathy and respect by giving full attention, paraphrasing, and avoiding interruptions. Pair up to share last holiday experiences for 30 seconds and provide listener feedback.

Lead a one-turn debate on topics like school uniforms to practice communication skills for dealing with changing emotions, and observe body language, calm voice, and brevity in exercise ten.