3 Activities That Integrate SEL Into Elementary Math
When social and emotional learning is woven into core math curriculum, elementary students can grow in their math skills, social awareness, and emotional literacy—all at the same time.
Building social and emotional learning (SEL) into elementary math lessons not only is possible but can benefit students’ emotional awareness as well as their mathematical thinking and skills. Plus, giving students meaningful opportunities to build empathy and connect their own emotions (and the feelings of those around them) with class content helps them relate to math concepts in new ways.
To learn more about the graphing activity, read elementary educator Danielle Andersen’s article for Edutopia titled “Using an SEL Tool Called the Mood Meter in Elementary Math.” To see more details about the collaborative paper airplanes, check out instructional math coach Sandy Vorensky’s piece “Encouraging Achievement in Math While Supporting SEL.” And for more on math interviews—with older students—and to download a sample math interview worksheet, watch the Edutopia video “A Simple Strategy to Get Students Talking About Math,” filmed in Connell Cloyd’s classroom.
For more resources, check out the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) report “Examples of Social and Emotional Learning in Elementary Mathematics Instruction.”