Empathy SEL Skills Writing Challenge | Showing Kindness

Teaching critical social emotional skills while getting kids to enjoy writing during the early elementary years is key. One way we can do that is to tie in their interests to the writing process.

Practicing empathy takes time, and one of the ways we can set up safe spaces for our learners to think through the consequences of certain actions is by role playing and creating stories. This resource (and the others that complement it in this series!) seeks to provide the scaffolding needed for learners to imagine and begin telling a story in written form. Then they're invited into 5 different STEAM extension activities to keep the conversations going. 

Thinking about the way we think is a foundational skill for growing the executive functions our kiddos will use in the editing process. For this reason, a short checklist has been included at the end of page 4 so that learners can begin to go back and check their work. This key skill in developing healthy executive functioning is intentionally made visible to students to prompt ownership over the quality of their writing.

STANDARDS: Meets CCSS Writing standards for grades 2-5.

Remember, there are over a year's worth of writing activities in this line! Keep the fun stories rolling by checking out holiday, winter, summer, life skills, and adventure writing activities from Melissa Is Teaching!

This printable is optimal for 2nd-5th graders as they take on the cognitively heavy task of writing a narrative, while also supporting them with the scaffolding and inspiration in the provided idea matrix.

BONUS: Take advantage of the 4+ extension activity ideas included in this printable. These activities will take their writing beyond the page and bring it to life in STEAM-supported outlets.

What you'll get: a 4 page PDF including instructions, extension activity ideas, and 3 student pages. One of these pages is simply writing space for you to print off as many copies as you need based on the amount your students are writing. You'll also find the editing checklist to prompt students to edit their own work for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.