Relationship Skills Teaching Resources
Help students build their relationship skills this school year with activities, games and more resources designed to support the CASEL framework and your lesson plans.
This collection of elementary and middle 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 behaviors 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 Social Stories - Interactive Activity
Help your students differentiate between uncooperative and cooperative behavior 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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I Can Be Cooperative Sort
Practice personal and social skills to cooperate and interact respectfully with others with an engaging sorting activity.
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My Cooperation Sticker Chart - Printable
Promote and reward cooperative behavior with a pack of printable cooperation sticker charts.
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Is It Cooperative? Social Skills Activity
Explore the difference between cooperative and non-cooperative behavior with a sorting activity.
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SEL Activities - Cooperation Mini Workbook
Help your students understand ways to show cooperation with a printable mini workbook.
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Social Skills Lessons - Cooperation Worksheets
Teach your students how to show cooperation with a set of printable SEL worksheets.
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Cooperation Cartoons - Social Skills Activity
Encourage cooperation and collaboration in your classroom with a collaborative drawing activity.
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Cooperation Quilt Template
Promote cooperative behavior amongst your students by engaging them in creating a collaborative Cooperation Quilt project.
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Showing Compassion Google Slides Interactive Activity
Help students understand the importance of caring for others and how to appropriately respond with this interactive activity.
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What is Cooperation? SEL Accordion Book
Engage your students in identifying cooperative and non-cooperative behaviors with a printable social-emotional learning booklet.
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Friendship Fun! Board Game
Disucss characteristics of healthy friendships as well as how to repair relationships with a fun and engaging board game.
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What is Cooperation? Anchor Charts
Teach your students what cooperation looks, feels, and sounds like with a set of printable posters.
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Ways to Show Cooperation Poster and Worksheet
Learn ways to show cooperation with a printable poster and accompanying worksheet pack.
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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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Cooperation Cause and Effect Worksheet
Discover the effects of uncooperative behavior with a cause-and-effect worksheet.
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Cooperation Word Splash and Acrostic Poem
Discuss cooperation with your students and write an acrostic poem with a printable word splash worksheet and poem template.
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What is Cooperation? - Social Emotional Writing Prompts
Teach your students about cooperative and non-cooperative behaviors with a set of ten writing prompts.
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What is Cooperation? Cut and Paste Worksheet
Explore the difference between cooperative and non-cooperative behavior with this cut and paste worksheet.
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Cooperation Certificate - Good Character Award
Celebrate your students’ cooperative behavior by awarding them with a personalized Cooperation Award.
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Making Mistakes – Sorting Activity
Help your students recognize different types of mistakes and discuss ways to learn from them with this SEL activity.
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Forgiving Friends – Character Education Activities
Use these character education activities to encourage students to maintain and repair friendships by forgiving others.
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My Forgiveness Journal – SEL Worksheets
Teach students about the importance of forgiving others with this printable forgiveness journal.
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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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Friendship Writing Prompts
Encourage positive relationships by using our friendship writing prompts in your classroom.
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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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Find a Friend Who…Worksheet
Encourage students to engage with different classmates and learn about others with this whole-class activity.
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Saying Sorry Mini-Book
Learn how to develop strategies and skills for saying sorry to others with this printable mini-book.
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Asking My Friends to Play Mini-Book
Learn about appropriate social skills when asking friends to play with this printable mini-book.
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Friendship Coloring Pages
Bring your students together for Friendship Day with a fun pair of friendship coloring pages.
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Happy Friendship Day! - Printable Paper Hat Templates
Bring your students together and say Happy Friendship Day with a fun crown template!
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Playdough Tasks - Teambuilding Activities for Kids
Use this set of Playdough challenge cards to foster team building in your classroom.