Relationship Skills Teaching Resources
Help students build their relationship skills this school year with activities, games and more for your SEL lesson plans.
This collection of primary school teaching resources was created by the expert teachers of Teach Starter for teachers like you to help students build the skills they need to manage relationships with classmates and school staff, as well as those important friendships, family bonds and more out in the real world.
Set your students up for success with team-building activities that promote collaboration and provide opportunities for your students to work together, communicate effectively and solve problems as a team. Explore friendship activities that explore how to be a good friend. Browse printable games that teach students how to resolve conflicts with friends and teammates and a whole lot more.
Are you new to teaching relationship skills, or maybe you're just looking for fresh ideas to help your students manage relationships in your classroom and their lives? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Are Relationship Skills?
We're going to start simple here, but bear with us! When it comes to teaching anything, it helps to step back and look at what's at the heart of the topic.
Relationship skills are the abilities and behaviours that enable our students (and ourselves!) to interact effectively with others, build and maintain positive relationships and navigate social situations successfully.
Simple enough, right? Like much of the SEL curriculum, there are a variety of 'skills' that are intertwined here, but these are the core concepts our teacher team considers part of relationship skills:
- Communication
- Friendship
- Empathy
- Cooperation
- Conflict resolution
- Problem-solving
Of course, these will tie back to other topics within SEL. For example, it takes social awareness to show empathy, and it takes decision-making skills to resolve conflict.
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Cooperation Puzzles - Teamwork Activity
Explore the benefits of cooperation with a tangram-style team-building activity.
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Recess Rules: True Friends – Worksheet
Learn about being a good friend while also brushing up on those reading comprehension skills with this comic strip activity.
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Listening to Others – Discussion Task Cards and Poster
Give students the opportunity to work on their listening skills and learn what it means to be a good listener with this set of 42 discussion cards and classroom poster.
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Team Building Games for Upper Grades
Encourage communication and cooperation with a set of 10 team building games.
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How To Be a Good Friend – Teaching Slides
Learn how to form healthy and long-lasting friendships with this set of teaching slides.
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Whole Body Listening – Poster and Worksheet
Use this poster and accompanying worksheet to teach your students about whole body listening.
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Being a Good Friend – Mini-Book
A social story to develop social skills for being a good friend.
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How to Be a Good Friend – Mini-Book
Encourage students to build relationships by learning how to be a good friend with this printable mini-book.
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Conflict Resolution Template
Manage classroom and playground conflicts positively and proactively with this conflict resolution template.
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Cooperation Cause and Effect Worksheet
Discover the effects of uncooperative behaviour with a cause-and-effect worksheet.
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Grow a Friendship Garden – Friendship Activities
Encourage students to make a friendship garden grow with this activity bundle that includes friendship worksheets, writing templates, craft templates and scenario cards.
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What Good Friends Do – Differentiated Friendship Worksheets
Sort verbs according to if they are friendly or unfriendly interactions with this friendship worksheet.
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Good Choice or Bad Choice? Worksheet
Help your students differentiate between good and bad behaviour choices with a cut-and-paste worksheet.
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Forgiving Friends – Social Emotional Learning Activities
Use these social emotional learning activities to encourage students to maintain and repair friendships by forgiving others.
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I Can Use My Words Mini-Book
Develop strategies and skills for communicating with others when you don’t like something with this printable mini-book.
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Bullying Role Play Cards
Equip students with anti-bullying strategies with printable role play cards that will help them recognise and respond to different types of bullying.
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How to Be a Good Friend Poster
Use this poster to teach your students how to be a good friend to others.
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Cooperation Social Stories - Interactive Activity
Help your students differentiate between uncooperative and cooperative behaviour in social situations with an interactive activity.
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Race to 50: Cooperation Challenges
Explore the benefits of cooperation with a set of team-building number race activities.
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We Can Cooperate Mini Book
Read to learn about cooperative behaviour with a printable one-page foldable mini book.
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Friendship Fun! – Board Game
Discuss characteristics of healthy friendships as well as how to repair relationships with a fun and engaging board game.
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Cooperation Word Search
Review vocabulary and boost your students’ cooperative interaction skills with a word search worksheet.
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Five Finger Forgiveness – Poster and Writing Activity
Teach your students how to forgive others in order to keep and maintain relationships with this poster and writing prompt.
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Friendship Writing Prompts
Encourage positive relationships by using our friendship writing prompts in your classroom.
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G.R.O.U.P.S - Group Work Expectations Poster
Encourage cooperative behaviour during group work activities with a printable group work mnemonic poster.
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I Can't Always Win Mini-Book
Teach your students to cope when they are not the winner with this social story mini-book.
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Social Skills Lessons - Cooperation Worksheets
Teach social skills lessons on cooperation with a set of printable SEL worksheets.
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Looks Like, Sounds Like, Feels Like - Cooperation Anchor Charts
Teach your students what cooperation looks, feels, and sounds like with a set of printable posters.
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Picture Puzzles - Team Building Activity
Build classroom community with a set of team-building puzzles for primary students.
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Cooperation Task Cards - Social Skills Activity
Build problem-solving skills and boost cooperative behaviour in the classroom with printable discussion cards and writing prompts.
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Cooperation Word Splash and Acrostic Poem
Discuss cooperation with your students and write an acrostic poem wih a printable word splash worksheet and poem template.
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What is Cooperation? Cut and Paste Worksheet
Explore the difference between cooperative and non-cooperative behaviour with this cut-and-paste worksheet.